Fantastic Four

By Buzz McClain -- Video Business, 11/21/2005

Fox, 106 min. plus supplements, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, widescreen, Street: Dec. 6; First Run: W, July 2005, $154 mil.

A very visible Invisible Woman, actress Jessica Alba takes charge of the Fantastic Four DVD's 20-minute behind-the-scenes "Video Diary" segment, which is one of the only bonuses on the disc that hasn't already been shown on the Fox Movie Channel. She works as a camera operator (OK, it's a mini-digital camera, but still!), who cheerfully energizes her sometimes exhausted (or hung-over) castmates and takes the producer credit on the featurette, which follows them around the world for the film's international theatrical premieres. The cast gets to cut up again for the commentary track—which does not include director Tim Short, who is only seen on-set or as a talking head in the making-of and casting segments—and Alba, once again, is the life of the party. The eight-minute breakdown on the film's Brooklyn Bridge action centerpiece moves too fast to really show how anything was done, but it's exciting to watch nonetheless. Of the three deleted scenes, all of which center on Alba, the most entertaining one finds Mr. Fantastic (Iaon Gruffudd) altering his face to look like Marvel character Wolverine. And speaking of X-Men, in his own brief segment, producer Avi Arad provides a tantalizing glimpse at X-3 as he builds anticipation for the 2007 release, the same year Fantastic Four 2 is slated to arrive.

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