After the Fantastic Four's first live-action movie, there was naturally planned to be a sequel. Enter the one with Rise of the Silver Surfer. The goal in this was to introduce him and tell the story of why he arrived to Earth. Now, before going into detail talking about the movie itself, it was done in animated style. The 1967 cartoon had him involved and a being that would be involved named Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds.
The Silver Surfer was once known as Norin Radd and lived on the planet called Zenn-La. Think of that as a utopia version of what Earth could look like. His love is none other than Shalla-Bal. All was peaceful until one day Galactus appears and threatens to devour this world so that he can survive. Norin eventually is able to persuade Galactus to not devour his planet in return to be his herald. How he got the power of Cosmic was given to him by the being known as Galactus, though it was just a portion of his power. Now I may not be familiar with the comics and it may not be accurate but his memory of his life as Norin Radd was stripped from him and was reborn as they put it as the Silver Surfer. What I do know however was it happened very similar to what was said in the 1998 Animated Series about The Silver Surfer.
Anyway, back to the movie itself. It was actually a solid movie and probably would be said to be better than the first movie. As far as overall recommendation, it might be all right for those who were fans of the Fantastic Four, whether it is from the animated cartoon shows or the comics.
The story begins with Reed Richards and Sue Storm getting married and just when it was about to happen, a terrible crisis hit the Earth. The alien that came was none other than The Silver Surfer, an alien of few words that does what he is told. He is like all versions initially thought of as a villain but in reality he isn't. Johnny Storm met the Surfer and somehow got the ability to change powers with anyone whether it's good or bad is up for debate. No one could touch him. The one that liked it was The Thing, known as Ben Grimm, as he wanted to be human and not be what he is. Eventually they have to meet up with Dr. Doom and have to work together temporary.
One thing that is different is that the power of cosmic is in the surfboard and the Surfer doesn't seem to have his memory lost. After being captured, he gets freed by the Fantastic Four and eventually a major battle ensues. He was touched by Sue's talk of making a choice and how he could be his own man and betray Galactus making him free but with a price at the end. Now, we never actually saw Galactus and that probably has something to do with the possibility of a Silver Surfer movie going over his origins and how he got it.
This is your super hero movie where the villain tries to either take over or in this case destroy the planet. The Surfer prevents Galactus from devouring the planet even though it's a bit of a smoke surrounding and not actually the man himself. He's not pure evil so he'd technically be a neutral character but that will be saved for another time. The ending of the movie has Reed and Sue finally married but away from New York. Everything is resolved and the Surfer seems to be alive.
Overall, the movie was interesting to say the least. I wouldn't say it was better than some of the Spider-Man and X-Men movies but it's acceptable and worth watching. Would it be worth watching? Mainly if you are like Marvel but mostly the Fantastic Four. I do not see another happening but if it did, I wonder where else it could go.