‘Surfer’ rides past first film

This year should be known as the summer of sequels.

Audiences have lined up to see the latest installments of a number of franchises such as “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Spiderman,” “Shrek,” and “Ocean’s.” Hoping to cash in on the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for sequels is “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”

This time around the Fantastic Four are enjoying their celebrity and getting ready for the wedding of Sue Storm (Invisible Girl) and Dr. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic). The remaining members of the foursome, Johnny Storm (Human Torch) and Ben Grimm (The Thing) are anxiously awaiting the nuptials.

Unfortunately, the so-called wedding of the century is disrupted by the appearance of a metallic man on a flying surfboard whose every appearance causes environmental catastrophe.

Soon dubbed the Silver Surfer, the alien is in fact a herald for a planet-devouring force known as Galactus. Dr. Richards is recruited by the military in the person of General Hager (Andre Braugher) to discover a way to defeat the Surfer. Against Richards’ wishes, General Hager also enlists the aid of his nemesis Dr. Von Doom (Julian McMahon) who established contact with the Surfer.

The first “Fantastic Four” film wasted a lot of time establishing the origin of the characters and the action didn’t commence until the second half of the story. “Rise of the Silver Surfer” dispenses with the setup and almost immediately presents a stunning set of special effects sequences.

“Rise of the Silver Surfer” runs a brisk 92 minutes and hardly stops to catch its breath before launching into yet another breathtaking action scene. The effects here are as good as anything recently released and are all relevant to the plot rather than randomly placed.

“Rise of the Silver Surfer” may lift “Fantastic Four” out of the superhero minor leagues.

Any other summer “Rise of the Silver Surfer” might have been the event of the season. Hopefully this enjoyable film won’t get buried by its higher profile competition.