Tonight, in spite of hearing poor reviews about “Fantastic 4,” I paid my money and went to the show.  I have to say…

I liked it.

Oh sure, the alternate dimension set could have had a bit more “oomf” put into it, or you know, money with the CGI, but the story itself was solid.  This film is an origins story, plain and simple.  It doesn’t jump right into action, and the characters actually talk and relate to one another.  As a Tarantino fan and a lover of character development, I actually appreciated this.  They were trying to construct a story around its characters, something which the first few films with the same name sorely lacked.  I feel like the hate for this film is stemming from three places:

Things not going “Boom!” straight off the bat, not staying true to the source material 100% [not many adaptations do, for the record], and a Johnny Storm that has a deep, cellular tan.  As far as I’m concerned, those reasons are not legit.  Sorry/not sorry.

You know, I liked this cast.  They had good chemistry.  It was unfortunate that Ben Grimm didn’t exactly get that much screentime, however.  I didn’t read the comics, but I don’t understand why Ben was stuck in that form, whereas Reed, Johnny and Sue could “turn it off” so to speak.  But for all intents and purposes, this film had a good set up and a strong foundation.  It’s like the first episode of a series:

You gotta give it room to “breathe.”

I will say, however, it was disappointing to not have a post-credits scene, as Marvel has made me so accustomed to seeing.  Still, I hope this film does well enough to get a sequel, or at least to integrate the characters into…I guess the X-Men verse.

In short, I’ll give this film a “yea.”