Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
The Fantastic Four meet their greatest challenge yet as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, The
Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the
globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of The Silver
Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is
lost.
An alien world withers and dies by a mysterious force. Leaving the scene, a silvery flash of light
shoots across the stars, arriving at a familiar blue planet: Earth.
Across the globe, inexplicable weather phenomena and power outages are associated with
the arrival of this force streaking across the sky. The Fantastic Four: Reed "Mr. Fantastic"
Richards (Ioan Gruffud), Sue "Invisible Girl" Storm (Jessica Alba), Ben "Thing" Grimm (Michael
Chiklis) and Johnny "Human Torch" Storm (Chris Evans) are busy preparing for the wedding of
Reed and Sue. Interrupting Reeds' bachelor party, U.S. Army General Hager (Andre Braugher)
requests Reed to build a sensor that can track the object. When the big day arrives, the nuptials
are literally crashed by the appearance of the object. Johnny gives chase to this mysterious being
which is revealed as the Silver Surfer (voice of Laurence Fishbourne). This encounter leaves
Johnny unable to control his powers: whenever he touches a member of the team they switch
abilities. Meanwhile Reed has made a troubling discovery: tracking the Surfer's movement across
space, he sees that every planet the Surfer encountered has been destroyed. Now, huge craters
have started appearing on Earth. After a disastrous attempt to stop the Surfer at the London
Eye, General Hager brings in Dr. Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon) to help. Reluctantly, the
team agrees. Will they be able to work together and stop the Surfer before the force that
destroyed those other worlds can do the same to Earth?
I enjoyed the original Fantastic Four, and its sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver
Surfer is just as entertaining. Like the first film, I found I enjoyed it more the second time
around, once I knew what kind of film to expect. The sequel is fast and light, shed of the burden of
telling the origin of the characters. There is also a larger sense of scope, with much of the film
taking place outdoors in various locations around the world. What sets these films apart from other
comic book adaptations is the humor and fun, without descending into the camp that plagued the
original Batman franchise. Even the cast seems to be having a good time, particular standouts being
Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. Evans brings a real sense of playfulness to his scenes with Chiklis
and you believe these characters like and care about each other, even if they don't always get
along. Just like any family...except with super powers.
Don't let the PG rating fool you, the film is still full of action and adventure that's enjoyable for
folks all ages.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is presented in 1080p and encoded in MPEG4
AVC. The video bitrate hovers in the mid 20s-30's (the box says 27Mbps average). The transfer and
encoding are near perfect, with only a small bit of noise that may be source related and not the
fault of the transfer or encoding. Colors are rich and deep: this is how a comic book movie should
look! The depth associated with HD material comes through in nearly every scene. Grain is minimal,
and the image has a nice texture that allows a viewer to count every hair on Susan Storm's head or
crack in Ben Grimm's stony visage. Cue up nearly any scene on the disc and you'll find an excellent
picture. Chapter 7: "The Silver Surfer" is a perfect example and destined to become the demo loop
for Circuit City's across the country (and who's product placement is even more noticeable thanks to
Blu-ray). As seen in the film's theatrical trailer, the chase of Surfer by Johnny Storm down the
eastern seaboard is an amazing sequence that goes from the bright outdoors to the blackness of
space. Despite all the various locations, the transfer never becomes blurred or washed out, the
exception being the final chase over China where the picture was artificially darkened at the last
minute by the production team.
Note: the main audio track of this disc is encoded with 5.1 DTS-MA Master Audio, since I am
using
the Sony PlayStation 3 as my playback unit only the lossy core 1.5Mbps DTS is currently available
to
me.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has a VERY active soundtrack and is prime
demo material for any home theater system. Audio is rich and deep. Dialogue never drowned out
by
the sound effects or music. Environments have a nice "you are there" feel to them, and there's
even some moments of subtle panning dialogue. Dynamic without being overwhelming. It's one
of
those soundtracks that allows you to become more involved with the film without drawing undue
attention to itself.
The film also includes a (rare for Fox) English Dolby Digital 5.1 track @ 448kbps, as well as
French
and Spanish in DD 5.1 (also @ 448kbps). Not every system is DTS capable, and being able to
engage things like Dolby's "Night Mode" is appreciated. This multi-option approach allows the
soundtrack to be heard on all systems ranging from simple stereo to full blown DTS lossless.
Thank
you Fox!
Wow! Fox makes up for the lack of extras in their initial releases by including everything from the
Special Edition DVD and taking advantage of the interactive JAVA features that the Blu-ray
format offers. While it would have been nice to have the extras in 1080 HD, I can understand
why they aren't since the disc is a full 46.6GB in size!
All extras with the exception of the trailers are presented in 480p and encoded in AVC.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 @ 224kbps except for the deleted scenes which are Dolby
5.1 @ 448kbps.
Commentaries:
Commentary by Director Tim Story:
Feature length. Very interesting to listen to, the man knows his FF history and points out cool
details and salutes to the source comics. He acknowledges controversies fans have had and the
reasons for whatever decisions he and the writing team came up with. A must listen.
Commentary by Producer Avi Arad, Writer Don Payne, and Film Editors Peter Eliot & Bill
Hoy:
Feature length. A bit drier, despite 4 times the participants of the other commentary. They go a
bit deeper into the behind the scenes aspect of the film and story itself. Particularly interesting is
the conversation between editors Eliot and Hoy: they show how much of the film was molded
and changed from the script in post production.
Documentaries and Featurettes:
Extended and Deleted Scenes (0:09:36):
Scenes cut for time and pacing. The film isn't hurt by their absence, but once you see them you'll
wonder if it wouldn't hurt if they had been left in. Includes the very Superman-ish
original opening credits and a couple of very funny scenes with Johnny Storm. Includes optional
commentary by Tim Story.
Family Bonds-The Making of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
(0:46:11)
Thorough documentary covering the entire production of the film, from a "fly on the wall"
perspective. You'll be amazed how they got the film completed in such a short schedule.
The Fantasticar: State of the Art (0:10:37):
Featurette on the creation of the team's vehicle.
The Power Cosmic (0:15:10):
Creating the look and visual effects of the title character.
Sentinel of the Spaceways: Comic Book Origins of the Silver Surfer
(0:39:02):
History of the Silver Surfer character beginning as a guest in the Fantastic Four comic to having
his own series. For comics fans and anyone interested in the character's origin.
Scoring the Fantastic (0:04:39):
Short interview with composer John Ottman.
Character Design with Spectral Motion (0:11:34):
Featurette with the bulk being an interview with actor Michael Chiklis as he undergoes the
grueling makeup process to become The Thing. One tidbit I learned was that Chiklis created Ben
Grimm's deep, gruff voice without the aid of audio processing!
Still Galleries: Behind the Scenes, Characters, Concept Art(various
running times):
Short slideshows of the film's production, characters, and artwork.
Trailers (various):
The film's teaser and final trailers presented in 1080p
Fox on Blu-ray (various):
Trailers for Fantastic Four, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, X-Men The Last Stand, presented
in 1080p.
Java features:
Personal Scene Selections:
During the film, pressing "1" on the remote bookmarks the selected chapter for later playback.
Saving the World One Question at a Time Trivia Game:
Series of 180 trivia questions you answer while the film plays in the background. Get a question
wrong or take too long to answer and Galactus "eats" a set number of planets. The game ends
when he gets to Earth. VERY difficult since it not only is based on the film, but requires a good
knowledge of the source comic books.
Who Dares Defy Galactus? Strategy Game:
Rendered board type game where one player is the Silver Surfer and one is Galactus. Each player
tries to "possess" planets in various solar systems, each planet is worth a certain amount of
points. Takes a couple tries to get used to, and I'm not entirely sure the computer isn't cheating
in the one player game.
A good film for all ages, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a surprisingly pleasant
time at the movies. With all the other comic book film franchises starting to crowd the marketplace,
the approach by Tim Story and his team to have a fun, funny, lighthearted adventure is welcome.
Fox has delivered a terrific Blu-ray disc with top rate picture, sound, plenty of extras, and interactive
features that one can spend hours exploring. Highly recommended.
Reviewer's Note: I tried playing this and The Day After Tomorrow on my
Windows Vista Ultimate PC with PowerDVD Ultra 7.3. At first the program wouldn't play the disc at
all, then an update appeared on site. Downloaded the update, the application starts but all I get is a
blank screen. Reinstalling from scratch did not help. Looks like BD+ and PCs don't get along very
well, at least for now. Those of you playing via Media Center PCs take note.
Fox Home Entertainment has released the official specs for 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer', 'Live Free or Die Hard' (Unrated), and 'Diehard Trilogy' Blu-ray releases. 'Fantastic Four' will get AVC 1080p video and DTS-HD MA audio on a BD-50, and is set ...
Fox and MGM have revealed 29 upcoming Blu-ray releases. Included are 19 catalog titles from Fox and MGM, and 10 new release titles to be sold day-and-date with their DVD releases. These titles include 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' and 'Live Free or ...
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