Fantastic Four faced an uphill battle in making its mark amid the renaissance of superhero movies during the 2000s. The Marvel comic, about a team of astronauts (Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans) who obtain extraordinary powers after a freak accident in space, has never had the cachet of big-name properties such as Batman and Spider-Man, and it certainly hasn’t received the same big-screen treatment. The movie reminds us how spoiled we’ve been by such story-driven and character-rich superhero movies as Batman Begins and Spider-Man. Take those elements away, and you’re left with little more than fantastic fluff.
