For a cleaner, much more family-friendly review of a Fantastic Four film, see our review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which, unlike this review, is actually sane. This review is NOT all-ages!
Jessica Alba is hot like the surface of the sun, but Sue Storm, she ain't. Hey, she's even a decent enough actress and all, no qualms about that. But if I HAD to fanboy nitpick I'd say that Alba was hot-but-bad casting.
No, wait. That's not my fanboy nitpick. After all, bad casting or not, WHOAFREAKIN'MAMA that's some nice eye candy. No, my fanboy nitpick isn't a nitpick, it's a genuine complaint. And the complaint is that in this film one of the greatest villains in comic book history, Dr. Doom, sucked like a 16-year-old Traci Lords. What'shisname is a cool actor, charismatic and all that, but the whole Doom vibe just did. Not. Work.
Yet with all that said, Fantastic Four was a total hoot, giddy and fun and funny and action-packed, and my whole family enjoyed the living hell out of it. (And no, my family sure won't be reading this review!) For the spot-on relationship between Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm alone  this was great fun. These guys NAILED it. The Thing's pathos. The carefree, careless way the Human Torch blazes through life. Great stuff. Some would even say kewl. Bright and shiny and kewl.
By now you know the plot. Science folks. Accident in space. Some sort of cosmic radiation. BOOM! Superpowers. Folks are transformed into superfolks. They discover their crazy powers, have a tumultuous family-like relationship, break apart, learn their powers, and come together again to take down the Power Hungry Bad Guy. Yeah yeah yeah.
So the extended edition DVD adds about 20 minutes of footage, absolutely none of it essential but some of it pretty neat. The real reason to get this DVD is for the KILLER extras, which I will discuss below.
 The movie was great fun and Jessica Alba has a hot ass. In fact, here's a game of "Fuck, Kill, Marry" for you: Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jessica Simpson.
Go!
(The answer is, fuck Biel because boy howdy does she have a fine ass, kill Simpson because she's a goddamn DOLT and would be irritating enough to spark thoughts of suicide in, oh, about 3 minutes, and marry Alba because not only is she smoking hot, she seems kind of fun and intelligent and appears to have a great personality. So now you know.)
How much fun is this movie, kids? LOTS!
 Disc Presentation
This disc is chock full o' eye candy, and I'm not necessarily talking about the aforementioned sweet piece of ass. With huge, budget-busting action it had better look good, and it does. Bright and shiny and keen, it'll look swell on your TV. It'll sound thumping, too, with a nice, walloping surround mix that should give your system a workout. Is it so-called "reference" quality? No, it falls short of that. The blacks are muddy and the surround could be more active. But those are quibbles; this looks pretty sweet.
Disc Extras
Whoa Nelly! Good God in heaven, thank you lawd for this bountiful bounty of booty I behold. Boo-yah! Truth of the matter is, I got this edition of the DVD solely for the bonus materials - honestly, I didn't care about the extended flick - and it certainly did not disappoint. Packed tighter than a whorehouse rat with a biscuit in its ass, this two-disc release has enough extra goodness to make your mother drop her pants with ecstasy.
Disc One
Extended Edition- Duh! You get the theatrical version and the extended edition, with 20 minutes of non-essential but interesting material. Yay!
Cast & Director Commentaries- Two commentary tracks, one with the cast (theatrical version) and one with director Tim Story, producers Avi Arad and Other Guy, and writers #1 and #2 (extended edition). The cast commentary is like every other cast commentary in the world - which is to say, unless you have to hear Jessica Alba giggle and play like she's not a smokin' hot babe, don't bother - while the production team's is solid enough for a listen.
Deleted Scenes, Trailers, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer teaser. - You know the drill with this stuff, folks. Few extras scenes, trailers, yada yada. Self-explanatory, right?
 Disc Two
Jack Kirby: Storyteller. This Jack Kirby documentary has balls of steel. Jack Kirby was a visionary, a wildly talented man who followed his muse, who never stopped creating, and who informed the way comics will be done forevermore. He had big, bold ideas. He wasn't afraid to fall on his face and fail. He just put himself out there and created. You've got to respect that. There are guys in the world of comics books who talk a big game, invoking Kirby's name at every opportunity, but they aren't a pimples on Jack's ass. This one-hour doc was worth the price of the entire DVD. I loved it, and if you're a fan of Jack Kirby -- hell, of comics in general -- you'll love it, too. It's awesome. More, please.
The World's Greatest Comic Magazine. One hour of interviews with people who have worked on the Fantastic Four comic over the years. That alone should be enough to sell you. Fantastic Four has long been an awesome comic. Great team, great characters, great ideas, great concept. And it's cool to hear from these people. Sure, it's a little light on content, most of it centering on people saying, "It's really tough to write this comic! No one can touch Stan Lee and Jack Kirby!", but it was highly entertaining nonetheless. Enjoyable. Oh, and John Byrne is a punk bitch. This was your chance to lecture people about how to do the FF "right," you colossal windbag, but when push comes to shove you punked out. Again. No wonder few of your peers respect you.
 Heroes Are Born: The Making of Fantastic Four. If you're seen one making of you've seen them all. "Here's how we did the special effects on this big sequence. Here's what it was like to play this character. Here's how the director works. Here's how much everyone loved one another on the set. Here's how every male members of the cast, including the gay ones, wanted to munch on Jessica Alba's vagina." Blah blah blah. But I also like stuff like this, so at the end of the day I enjoyed this hour-long look at the making of the film despite it being empty, empty, empty. It's another hour of viewing for your money. Can't argue with that.
The Baxter Building: Declassified. One of those behind the scenes peeks at the film's key set, with some comic book stuff thrown in for good measure. Swell.
Visiting The Stately Ross Museum. Alex Ross paints pretty pictures for comic books, he made oodles of money, and has a house full of geek junk. Think MTV Cribz for geeks and you have the idea.
From Comic Book To Film. Throw-away mini-feature, self-explanatory title.
Multi-Angle Scene Studies & Still Galleries. Again, self-explanatory. You've seen this stuff once, you've seen it a million times. Still, cool stuff that only adds to this great value.
The Bottom Line
Sweet, sweet ass badly cast. Big rock guy who cannot cry. Guy in flames who gets the dames. And that dude who stretches.
I don't care what anyone else says, Fantastic Four was a flawed but fun superhero romp that managed to give me and my family a short but sweet dose of Saturday afternoon entertainment. And sometimes, that's all you can ask for.
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