Okay, I finally get it. You see, I was less than enthusiastic over the first film, but it was after all, mostly an origin story. Having read comic books as a kid, I love super hero movies as an adult. But origin stories bore me because I already know their origins. I suppose, though, that they're necessary for the uninitiated. So after slogging through the origin story in the first film, cheesy dialogue and a lack of character depth, I was hoping for much more in the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. And yet the sequel also has flat characters and cheesy dialogue. Further, it lacks the emotion and personal journey of the Spider-Man trilogy and the superb character development of the X-Men movies (well, at least some of the characters in the X-Men movies).

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer picks up with our fearless foursome where the last movie left off. Although Johnny Storm, Sue Storm (soon to be Sue Richards) Reed Richards, and Ben Grimm have hero names (Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, and the Thing, respectively), their identities are known and therefore not secret. Superman, Batman and Spider-Man never had to worry about celebrity status in their private lives, but the Fantastic Four do. So the beginning plotline of the movie revolves around Sue and Reed's attempt to get married in the midst of a paparazzi nightmare. Security is so tight, not even Stan Lee can crash the party (literally). But ultimately, it's the arrival of the Silver Surfer, whose presence symbolizes the end of earth's existence, that puts a real damper on their wedding plans.

So back to the part I now get. I think some of my disillusionment with the Fantastic Four movies stemmed initially from my comparison of them to the Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies. If you don't know this, the Fantastic Four is just as much a part of the A-list of Marvel Comics characters as these other guys. And granted, there have been a few stinkers in terms of Marvel adaptations: the Punisher immediately comes to mind as well as the Daredevil, which I like somewhat except when Ben Affleck is ruining it for me. So the FF movies aren't as bad as those two examples. I'd even put them on a level above the recent Ghostrider. Regardless, I've finally come to understand what the creative minds behind the FF movies are doing. I figured it out by looking at the movie's rating. Both FF movies have been rated PG as opposed to PG-13. The latest installment's PG rating is for "sequences of action violence, some mild language and innuendo." Now the mild language (and it is pretty mild) and the sexual innuendo are completely unnecessary because as opposed to all the other super hero movies of late, the FF movies are much more along the lines of family fare. The fight scenes are much less brutal and the themes are less serious. Understanding the two movies along these lines makes me like them a bit more and certainly less critically. This is the stuff of Saturday morning fare, and when seen in that regard it's well done.

In spite of poor reviews, the first movie did fairly well financially--not groundbreaking, but fairly well--and the sequel should do the same. This means we will probably see more, and that's fine with me. This particular movie is finally hitting a level of I've wanted to see in the genre for quite a while--the aspect of heroes coming into contact with other heroes. And it's fitting that the Silver Surfer should be the focus of the movie because if memory serves, he was first presented in the FF comic books to begin with. And for what it's worth, although the purists will probably nitpick it to death, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is probably the most immersive movie we've seen so far into the Marvel mythos. Not only is there no attempt to tone down the characters to make them more believable, but we also get introduced to unimaginable characters like Galactus the planet eater. This is the stuff of the comic books that the movies have tended to shy away from in their attempt to be more believable and more grounded.

So don't take the FF movies too seriously. This is good popcorn fun, and even better something you can enjoy with the whole family.