"Fantastic Four"
Score Composed by John Ottman
Audio Clips: Main Titles | Cosmic Storm

John Ottman is in a nice spot. After earning the right to score for higher budget movies, he continues to flex his skill with a somewhat fabulous (if not fantastic) score for the latest Marvel superhero film. "The Fantastic Four" offers some of the best, most enjoyable music of the summer season!

The key for the entire project, both film and music, was to embrace the fun nature of the script and characters. Both the director and composer have done that, and the end result is lighthearted fare that plays straight from the pages of a comic book.

The main theme is simple and enjoyable fanfare that is both compact and useful. It doesn't expand to epic proportions, but it fits the tone of the movie nicely. There is also a secondary "Marvel" theme at work, if I am not mistaken. A swirling underscore that seems to have also been in place with "X-Men 2." It's a nice orchestral tie-in from Ottman.

Now, all the gleeful appraisals aside, I do have to comment that the latter half of the score, from Track 8 onward, is not as outstanding as the first portion. Most of the music in these stages are comprised of average sounding action cues and some underscore dedicated to the good Doctor Doom. That bit of disappointment is not enough for me to derail this score, however. The energy and excitement from the opening tracks can carry the burden. It's a fair trade off.

In summary, I'll say that fans of Ottman will enjoy this effort and might get some value out of the latter tracks that I did not. I'm recommending this one for the strong material in the early stages of the soundtrack. There is also over 45 minutes of music on this disc, which is slightly more than a typical Varese release that features an orchestral score.

Final Score: While this score is not an epic entry, "Fantastic Four" doesn't fall short. A nice tune up for Superman.