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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Power Cosmic DVD Set
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Julian McMahon, Doug Jones, Andre Braugher, Beau Garrett
Writers: Don Payne, Mark Frost (Inspired by Stan and Jack’s FF #48-50)
Director: Tim Story

October is a fantastic (pardon the pun) month for DVD releases! Aside from FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer, fans also get Transformers and Spider-Man 3 released on DVD in the coming weeks. To get the party started I’ve decided to review the newest FF movie, which came out this past Tuesday. Also, Stuart Immonen has nothing to do with this review! So let’s get this party started on what I found to be an awesome DVD set featuring Marvel’s first family and their cosmic ally, the Silver Surfer.

The movie is a very rigid adaptation of the classic Surfer/Galactus storyline from FF #48-50. The film starts off with Galactus destroying a world off in space and the Surfer heading towards Earth. When the Surfer arrives, strange phenomenons occur all around the globe including power outages, strange weather patterns, and even oceans turning to stone. Meanwhile, Sue and Reed are about to get married but find themselves hounded by the media due to their newfound celebrity status as super heroes. In Latveria, Dr.
Doom is awakened by the Surfer’s cosmic energy and quickly proceeds to plot his revenge on the fabled foursome. Ben is getting serious with Alicia and Johnny is still his same old self, dating models and desperate to plan Reed’s bachelor party. Reed finally agrees to proceed in making the marriage happen when things start to get bad for our heroes and our planet.

After dancing with some lovely ladies in a bar, Sue and General Hager arrive with some dire news. The general tells Reed that strange occurrences have been happening around the world and the energy source is unlike anything seen before. Reed is told to build a device to monitor these energy anomalies, but Reed is determined to get married first and keep his promise to Sue and his family.

Doom is also tracking the energy source, which leads to a confrontation with the Surfer. The Surfer is creating huge craters inside the Earth at various places around the world. This is a cool twist on the Surfer being a true herald to Galactus. Instead of just floating around doing nothing till his master arrives, the Surfer is actually creating these holes for Galactus to feed on when arriving to consume Earth. Doom naturally wants the Surfer to work with him, which leads to Doom being ignored and attacking the Surfer. The Surfer retaliates, and the energy he shoots at Doom cures him of his horrific scars and burns. Meanwhile, Reed and Sue are tying the not, and even Stan Lee can’t miss this momentous occasion. (Great cameo by Stan, very similar to the comic where he and Jack Kirby were turned away from the wedding.) But like all things in the Marvel Universe, things don’t go as planned. The Surfer shows up and fries the device that Reed built, ending in a helicopter crash ruining the wedding. Johnny flies after the Surfer in one the best sequences of the film, only to be thrown away from the surfer with little ease. Clearly, this being is extremely powerful and a true threat to the planet and team. Later, General Hager really hammers the problem out to the FF, and Johnny tries to impress Captain Frankie Raye with little to no luck. The FF agrees to help out though, despite the General’s feelings for the celebrity heroes.

Reed and Sue realize they aren’t normal and will never have a regular life to raise children. This leads to them realizing they are going to disband the team after this business with the Surfer is finished.
Johnny hears this and gets pissed, leading to more inner turmoil and strife among the team. On top of this, Johnny’s encounter with the Surfer has left him being able to trade powers with his other team mates upon the simplest touch. Things continue to go bad for the team and the planet as the Surfer continues to create craters all around Earth. The team is drifting apart and Doom is enlisted to help detain the surfer, creating only further doubt and confusion among the FF. As the Surfer is spotted in the woods, Reed and Doom’s devices are set in place and actually create a powerful pulse signal that separates the Surfer from his board. Sue almost connects with the Surfer before he is brought down by the army, giving audiences the notion that this being isn’t exactly evil. Still, if they were true comic fans they would know this anyway.

At the base, the Surfer is tortured by the army scientists. Doom is determined to experiment on the Surfer’s board, revealing his ulterior motive in helping the army out. The FF realizes that they need to help the Surfer out after Sue learns that the Surfer isn’t the destroyer and that the board is luring the destroyer to Earth. (Just call him Galactus people! This make this as comic bookish as can be. The destroyer sounds too generic!) Doom reveals his true colors by killing General Hager and claiming the Surfer’s board for his own. The FF frees the Surfer and realizes that Doom now has the board. Reed summons the Fantasticar to help catch up with Doom. The next few sequences are pure action, showing that the film makers really did an awesome job in bringing the Fantasticar to life. By this time, Sue is dying after Doom throws a spear at the Surfer and sue intervenes. The spear hits Sue’s chest, saving the Surfer. (This is very similar to how Duke saved Falcon in the animated G.I. Joe movie from 1987. At least Sue didn’t “go into a coma” though!) Now the Surfer realizes that Earth and its people are special, and it’s a good thing since Galactus has arrived.

Doom is still super powerful so Johnny takes all the powers from his team-mates and becomes the Super-Skrull, I mean super Johnny. Johnny separates Doom from the board and the Surfer and his powers are restored. The Surfer saves Sue and decides to defy Galactus. In a final effort, the Surfer is successful in sending Galactus away from Earth. Galactus does not die! I’ll mention the commentary where that was revealed in a moment. With the world safe, Reed and Sue have a fast wedding and then the team takes off to tend to an emergency elsewhere on the planet.

Now onto what makes this DVD set awesome. First, listen to the commentary by director Tim Story. Tim gives lots of juicy details about what was kept from the movie. First, Tim is a true comic fan mentioning many of the various Stan Lee and Jack Kirby stories and how they were used as inspiration. Tim also mentions Ultimate Extinction and how all the huge computers Reed had in that mini-series were used in the interior of the Baxter Building shots. Tim also mentions how General Hager was intended to be Nick Fury for this film. Marvel is developing a SHIELD movie so they couldn’t use Nick Fury. But the scene where Reed chews out General Hager came from a comic where Reed told Nick Fury to show him and his team respect. Also, the issue of Galactus was explained.

Galactus is not a storm cloud. Galactus is hidden in the cloud. He is a being behind all the smoke and was hidden on purpose. Tim did this because the proposed Silver Surfer spin-off is in the works, and he said that he wanted that movie to be where Galactus is fully seen. He felt like he owed it to the director of Silver Surfer to have that honor and it really makes a lot of sense to do it like that. Also, at the end the Surfer did not kill Galactus. Tim said that he merely sent Galactus away, and the big G could show up once again in a future FF movie. So that really makes me enjoy the film a whole lot more. It’s cool they wanted to use Nick Fury and I love that Galactus is not a cloud and the Surfer didn’t kill him.

Disc two is full of special features. There is a great documentary on how they made this film. It involves all the pre-production and production moments. Very cool insight into how this film was created. There are tons of featurettes detailing how they designed the Fantasticar, how John Ottman did the musical score for the film, and a great documentary on the Surfer’s history throughout the comics. This included interviews with Stan Lee, Ron Marz, Jim Starlin, J.M. Dematties, and other Surfer comic creators. There are theatrical trailers for this film, FF1, and X-Men 1-3. Also, there is a preview trailer for the upcoming Futurama film “Bender’s Big Score” hitting this holiday season. There are other special features on this disc but I don’t have the DVD with me right now so I am forgetting some things. Still, it’s a great set with tons of cool insight on how this film was made.

All in all, this is a fun film and a great DVD package. I’ll give the movie itself a B+ and the DVD set an A . Go get it if you are a fan of comics, the FF, or the Surfer himself. If you love Galactus like I do, be patient and wait for the upcoming Silver Surfer spin-off.