The Fantastic Four (1994)

“Look at you- the Fantastic Four!”

I've always wanted to see this unreleased little film, and tonight I got my wish. And what we have here is unquestionably a B movie, with an older Roger Corman producing, with no stars (other than Alex Hyde-White the only member of the cast I've heard of is young Mercedes McNab, Harmony in Buffy and Angel, who plays the young Sue Storm), no budget and some questionable acting. But actualy, well, I rather like this.

Yes, it's incredibly cheap. Yes, the script lacks sparkle. But the film's heart is n the right place. Doctor Doom's costume looks cheap (and his castle very Count Duckula!), but they're really trying to be faithful to the comics. We get cheap looking but faithful John Byrne era costumes. We get Alicia.

Even better, though, these are the characters we know and love- with Sue's embarrassed and cute crush on Reed and proper time given to Ben's angst at his predicament- with Alicia a big part of his healing. A comparson to the awful Captain America film of four years earlier shows what this film gets right- we recognise and care about these characters, even if the acting is somewhat functional.

Best of all, cheap though the film is, it makes a surprisingly decent stab at showing all of the heroes' powers in action, even if we have to wait a long time to see Johnny get a proper- and pretty damn cool- "flame on" moment.

So yes, this is a cheap B movie. Yes, the acting is functional. Yet it gets most of the big scripting decsions right and is a surprisingly entertaining movie with real heart.