Review: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

For this week's on line movie review, I decided to do something a little different. I let my roommate Stoke 27 (his artist name, not his real one) give his thoughts on the latest installment of Fantastic Four, which opened today (June 15) in theaters everywhere. Not because he is a movie expert but because what he dislikes about the movie is so nitpicky that I had to share it with the world. Stoke likes to throw in obscure art theory and French into everyday conversation (imagine watching So You Think You Can Dance with him), so I have added translation for you in bold. Enjoy --Crystal Preston-Watson

So I just saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and I liked most of it except for one thing........but first let's start with what I liked about the movie.

The computer graphics were amazing!! I was surprised to see how "hyperreal" Silver Surfer was!! His body was so life like in that silver body suit I was stuck in the middle deciding who was hotter: the Human Torch or the Silver dude.... I know it's all computer generated but when Jean Baudrillard (French cultural theorist) coined the term 'hyperrealism,' I believe he was referring to the not-so-real reality. Thus, applying this term to the Silver Surfer, I could image how he would capture my eyes!! (Just nod your head) As a follower of the comic books, I was pleased to find almost everything accurate from the fire, the stretching, the invisibility, to the electrical power extruding from von Doom.

Which leads me to the not so good part of the movie....Jessica Alba's blue eyes!!!

So what was up with Jessica Alba's contacts????? Out of the whole movie this was the only thing that I had trouble with. I could not see pass the faux contacts, even with her artificial blonde hair!! It felt fake (the whole story is non-fiction, but come on aren't there color contacts that make the eyes look real?). And Yes, the Silver Surfer was fake and CG, but I found him to be more real than Alba's blue contacts!! Come on Hollywood, couldn't you afford to buy life-like blue contacts? The thing that egged me about the contacts were that her pupils would not dilate. Might as well have had a real blonde with "real" blue eyes to satisfy the need for hyperrealism. But that's just my take on it.

The Silver Surfer and all the other computer graphics meet my gold star standards. But those blue contacts, Alba should've got better contacts for what she's worth....I see chicas back home with better blue contacts and they say they're not real.

And that's my parole (French word for 'word' )

STOKE27