Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Did You Know?

• The teaser trailer was initially exclusively attached to Night at the Museum.
• The cast made an appearance at the Coca-Cola 600 Nextel Cup NASCAR race in Charlotte over Memorial Day weekend.

Plot

The United States government enlists Reed Richards to investigate a meteor-like object entering the atmosphere, which is carving large craters and causing erratic weather and blackouts. Meanwhile, Reed and his fiancee Susan Storm, busy planning their wedding, contemplate retiring from the Fantastic Four. Their ceremony is disrupted when the phenomenon heads for New York City. Johnny Storm chases it and finds a humanoid alien riding a flying surfboard, later called the Silver Surfer. Johnny attacks but is easily overpowered. Reed examines Johnny and discovers that contact with the Surfer has put his molecular structure into passive flux, letting him swap superpowers with his teammates by touching them.

Reed tracks the Surfer's cosmic energy and finds a trail of destroyed planets the Surfer visited, predicting the next target is London. The Fantastic Four fail to stop the Surfer from creating another crater, which empties the River Thames. The Surfer also passes over Latveria, thawing Victor von Doom from his frozen state. Doom confronts the Surfer at the Russell Glacier; the Surfer defeats Doom but inadvertently restores his human appearance. Using his encounter with the Surfer, Doom pressures the US military into forcing the Fantastic Four to cooperate with him. Reed builds a pulse generator designed to separate the Surfer from his board, the source of his power. They locate the Surfer in the Black Forest, where he tells Susan he is not the one trying to destroy Earth, just before the pulse is activated and he loses his board.

Weakened and captured, the Surfer is imprisoned in Siberia and tortured by the military. Susan sneaks into his cell and learns he serves Galactus, a giant cosmic entity that consumes life-bearing planets. The Surfer's service protects his own world, and his board acts as a homing beacon for Galactus. Doom steals the board and flees to China. The Fantastic Four free the Surfer and chase Doom in the Fantasticar, confronting him in Shanghai, where Doom impales Susan. With the Surfer powerless, Johnny absorbs the combined abilities of the team and, with help from Ben Grimm, defeats Doom and recovers the board.

Production

Frost and Don Payne were hired to create the screenplay. Payne said the film is based on 'The Galactus Trilogy' and comic issues 57–60, in which Doom steals the Surfer's power, and also takes inspiration from the Ultimate Marvel limited series Ultimate Extinction. As of March 2, 2007, Galactus' design was not yet done, and by April 18, until hiring Laurence Fishburne to perform the voice, the filmmakers were unsure whether the character would speak. Doug Jones was chosen to physically portray the Surfer and supposedly was unaware that he was being dubbed over. The film includes the Fantasticar and a larger role for Kerry Washington's character Alicia Masters. In June 2006, the Silver Surfer was announced to appear as a 'villain/hero'. The Surfer was created by combining Doug Jones's performance, a grey-silver suit designed by Jose Fernandez and created by VFX shop Spectral Motion, then enhanced by a new CGI system designed by Weta Workshop. The sequel's working title was Fantastic Four 2; it was officially titled Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in August 2006. Filming began on August 28 in Vancouver, set for a June 15, 2007 release. Michael Chiklis' prosthetics as The Thing were redesigned to allow him to take them off between takes and for better ventilation. Andre Braugher dropped out of an ER supporting role to be cast as General Hager, whom director Story described as 'an old acquaintance of Reed Richards'. The script originally contained Nick Fury, but the role became General Hager because having Nick Fury would have forced Fox to purchase that character's rights, and Marvel refused to license the character; some of Hager's lines originate from Nick Fury in Ultimate Extinction. In September, Jones was confirmed to portray the Silver Surfer, and Julian McMahon reprised his role as Doctor Doom. The Baxter Building was also redesigned.

Reception

The film opened as the number one movie in the U.S., earning about $58 million in its first weekend, which was $2 million more than the first Fantastic Four movie. However, its box office dropped sharply, falling 66% in its second weekend and 54% in its third. Worldwide, it made $301.9 million, with $131.9 million from the U.S. and Canada, against a production budget between $120 and $130 million.

Critics were not kind. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 37% of 171 reviews were positive, with the site’s consensus calling it an improvement over the first film but still “juvenile, simplistic” and reliant on special effects. Metacritic gave it a score of 45 out of 100 from 33 critics, meaning “mixed or average” reviews. Audiences gave it a “B” grade on CinemaScore, the same as the original. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times described it as “an amalgam of recycled ideas, dead air, dumb quips, casual sexism and pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo.” Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal found it “more fun than in the original” but said it “fails to sustain its modest running time of 87 minutes.” James Berardinelli of ReelViews.com called it “so lackluster it makes Spider-Man 3 feel like a masterpiece by comparison.” Kevin Maher of The Times praised its light tone, calling it “garish, giddy, emotionally simplistic, boldly idiotic and mercifully short.” The New York Daily News was more positive, saying the sequel was “actually better — much better — than the original.”

The film earned fifteen award nominations and won two. It won the 2008 Golden Trailer Award for Best Teaser Poster, beating out Saw IV and Quantum of Solace. Jessica Alba also won Favorite Female Movie Star at the 2008 Kids’ Choice Awards, ahead of Keira Knightley and Kirsten Dunst. It received five additional Kids’ Choice nominations.

Franchise

The main four cast originally signed a three-movie deal, and Julian McMahon also signed for a third film. Michael Chiklis was told Ben Grimm's relationship with Alicia Masters would have had a greater focus in a third film, and Jessica Alba expressed interest in introducing Franklin Richards, while Beau Garrett wished to return as Nova. Tim Story said he was interested in directing a third and fourth film, and writer Don Payne stated he was interested in working with more Fantastic Four characters, including the Inhumans, the Skrulls, the Puppet Master, and Annihilus and the Negative Zone. In May 2007, Story said he wanted Djimon Hounsou to play Black Panther. As Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer performed less at the box office than the first film, 20th Century Fox was unsure of the series' future, and no script was in development. In March 2008, Chris Evans revealed, 'I'm pretty sure we won't do another one. I'm assuming that one is a closed book. In August 2009, Fox announced plans to reboot the franchise, with Michael Green and Jeremy Slater writing, Seth Grahame-Smith polishing the script, and Akiva Goldsman and Matthew Vaughn producing. After the release of 2012's Chronicle, Josh Trank was linked to the reboot, and in mid July 2012, he was officially announced as director. Filming started mid September 2013. The reboot, Fantastic Four, was released on August 7, 2015, to worse critical reception than the original films and failed at the box office, leading to the cancellation of a planned 2017 sequel. In 2019, after Disney acquired Fox, the film rights of the Fantastic Four reverted to Marvel Studios, with plans to integrate the characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. John Krasinski portrayed an alternate version of Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).