Earth faces a new calamity. A strange silver figure riding what appears to be a surf board has appeared reeking havoc everywhere he goes. Giant oceans have frozen over, snow begins to fall in Egypt and giant holes deciding all the way to the planet’s center keep popping up in locales as wildly divergent as the ice sheets of Greenland and the Thames River in London.

But who cares about the end of the world when all you really want is a little peace and quiet and an opportunity to get married outside of the glare of the paparazzi. That’s exactly how it is for both Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) a.k.a. The Invisible Girl. Five times they’ve tried to tie the knot and five times things haven’t gone the way they’d like and now with this mysterious Silver Surfer flying around and nightly news reports talking incessantly about their love life who knows what’s going happen?

And things manage to get even worse. Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) a.k.a. The Human Torch tangled with the alien visitor only to discover now every time he touches one of his team members, including the mountainous Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) a.k.a. The Thing, he switches his superpower for theirs; the military, led by cranky General Hager (Andre Braugher), want the group’s help but only if it follows their rigid rules; Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon) rises from the proverbial ashes wanting to capture the Surfer’s powers for his own nefarious devices.

For most people this would be too much bad news to handle. But this is The Fantastic Four, and dealing with trouble and saving the day is what they do best. Why should this latest calamity be any different?

I loathed 2005’s The Fantastic Four. Sure it got better as it went along, but that still didn’t make that particular superhero adventure any less of a mess. It was, in many ways, virtually impossible to watch, and other than a pair of spirited performances from Evans and Chiklis reasons for seeing it at all bordered on the nonexistent.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is still a mess, but thankfully this time around it is a rather amusing and not at all difficult to watch mess. Sure nothing happens (and considering this one revolves around “The End of the World!” that’s probably not such a good thing) and yes the dialogue and characterizations are unbelievably lazy but, unlike the first film, I never actually hated sitting in the theater watching it. It is a relatively easy and breezy way to spend 90-minutes, just don’t expect to remember a second of any of it after you get out of your seat and head out the door.

Not that this should sound like a major recommendation of any sort whatsoever. I wouldn’t pay to see it, not even a matinee, but if it was on cable television or I saw it sitting in the video store I wouldn’t begrudge a person for turning it on or for picking it up. More, this might just be the first true PG-rated film of the summer I can actually say is for all ages without reservation, and for families looking for wholesome entertainment with decent morals this could be the way to go.

Listen, I still don’t think Tim Story is a very good director, while the script by Dony Payne and Mark Frost is so thin and so silly Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would never have used it as the basis for one of their comic books. I also still think Alba (who has never looked more like a Barbie Doll then she does here) and Gruffudd are hopelessly miscast, their love affair so unbelievable and unemotional anyone saying they care if the twosome get married or not are definitely lying through their clenched teeth.

But, like I said, I never hated sitting in the theater. Heck, moments (including the highly imaginative way the malevolent menace intent on destroying the Earth is visually depicted) here and there are actually pretty darn wonderful. Evans and Chiklis are still great, and there is a spirited energy running through this one the first sadly lacked. While it isn’t the ride (or probably the hit) its makers probably intend, Rise of the Silver Surfer is hardly a failure. Heck, every now and then, it might even be fantastic.

Film Rating:  êê1/2  (out of 4)