Fantastic Four....about as I remember

Watching the Fantastic Four earlier this week I was reminded of something I felt as a kid about the foursome.... (spoilers abound)...

Before I elablorate...the FF movie did not transport me back magically in time as a youngster reading the comic for the first time (as both Spider-Man movies did).

...back to that thought...

What it made me remember was...that except for Ben Grimm, they're a fairly boring bunch. Ben Edlund was pretty much on the mark when he made up "The Civic Minded Five" for "The Tick" animated series as a FF spoof. As a kid, the only FF books I usually liked were the crossovers, and of those; Spiderman was the best. Johnny Storm usually came off like a super-powered Flash Thompson (actually a Good thing), Sue usually got a wink and a flirt with Spidey in. Reed tried to "reason" with Ben and John....and of course Ben usually wanted to fight until he saw Spidey getting the better of Johnny and decided to watch the show. Other than the crossovers, any book with a FF story in it (I was big on those 100 page summer specials with all the old stuff in them) was the story I read last when everything good was already read.
Character-wise, the movie hit a lot of the same chords as when I was a lad: Most interesting is Ben (yikes! he still needs a bigger eyebrow), they don't even let him even invent the term "It's clobberin' time"! Next is Sue (though the embarrassment "fades" are not as convincing as Violet's in "The Incredibles"). Johnny is self centered comic relief...and Reed is actually MORE boring than he is in the comics. They actually deprived the movie Reed of his innate leadership ability....wiggy! Dr. Doom...well...first of all...no accent ( I always imagined a slight one)...and he comes off exactly what the actor is...a soap opera villen...though his double cross of Ben (and it's outcome) is pretty entertaining.

....oh...besides that...(dash the nags)...I actually liked it.

It was a classic Lee/Kirby (or should I say Kirby/Lee?) origin story...maybe even too much so for non-comics fans (though that made me like it more). It was for the most part wholesome (barring one swear word, one instance of the Lord's name in vain, and Dr. Doom blowing a electrical hole in someone (with all the body parts wiggling at the edge of the hole). Other than that, there was not much to upset younger kids (or their parents). We covered the eyes of our 7 year old for the body blast (it was obvious when it was going to happen). The blaspheme was missed by both kids (?), and the swear word was "ass" to which our 7 year old gasped and then admonished the human torch loudly for saying it (good thing the theater was nigh-empty). The movie is fun (though it might have been more so in other hands). Ben goes through about 20 years of comic-book torment during the months of time the movie takes place in (losing his wife and gaining his blind girlfriend rather quickly for someone who just became living rock). This is actually a good thing, as he is the emotional center of the film. Ben's best line is at a low point when Sue is trying to cheer him and he says: "Sue, I'd give anything to be invisible."...you believe him. Stan Lee make his appearance as Reed's mailman (with a stack of bills). The climax is a Kirby stalwart...a duel of scientific knowledge with real world results between Reed and Victor. It was geeky...and many critic's found it hokey....but it was PURE early Fantastic Four...and again...that made me like it more. Kudo's to making the suits blue (not forcing them to black like in X-men). Speaking of X-Men...comparitively (IMO) this is a much better movie than X-1...at least from this comic's fan perspective.