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Prepare for the fantastic.

The Fantastic Four were Marvel’s first comic book heroes and it is quite astonishing that they have not hit the big screen long before. The movie is essentially an introductory tale showing the metamorphosis of four scientists (a knockout Jessica Alba, the Shield’s Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans) into the popular crime-fighting quartet. While in outer space and conducting experiments on fellow-scientist Victor Von Doom’s (Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon) space station the four soon-to-be heroes get hit by a cosmic storm, leaving them with altered DNA and unique powers that reach from invisibility, catching fire and being indestructible to extreme elasticity. After an exciting rescue scene on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge the fantastic bunch and their superpowers are exposed to the media and their secret is revealed to the world. The Fantastic Four are born.

After the amazing Batman Begins this is already the second comic book adaptation this season. Obviously different from the latest Batman flick, The Fantastic Four is a light-hearted and some might even say simplistic take on the superhero genre. However, this ’simplicity’ plays a big part in the original comic books and is also part of the appeal of the four unlike heroes because after all their powers are no secret and their identities are public knowledge. That being said, The Fantastic Four still sports some major flaws. The story feels flat and uninspired, the acting seems awkward at times and the abrupt and rather unspectacular ending was quite unsatisfying. After all this first story about the superhero A-Team is a by the numbers summer blockbuster, with a good marketing campaign, great special effects and the notorious one-liners. Before you buy your ticket just think about this for a second: What kind of movie casts Jessica Alba and then makes her invisible half the time? Come on!

Not that fantastic. (2 out of 4 things)