When a comic book movie works – Spider-Man – you won't find a better popcorn movie. And when it's done badly – Hulk – you want to jam the little plastic toys down the marketing exec's throat.

Fantastic Four is certainly more Hulk than Spider-Man, but a degree of wit in a script that lacks a kernel of a story keeps this from sinking like a giant, mutated rock.

Here's the premise – Dr Reed Richards (soon to be Mr Fantastic) goes to a rich friend he knew at college, Victor Von Doom (spot the bad guy), to ask if he wouldn't mind blasting him into space for an experiment.

Apparently, a giant cloud of special effects is going to pass earth soon and they would like to see what it does to a pot plant.

Within moments, five unfeasibly good-looking scientists are on a space station and, sure enough, the special effects cloud comes along, slaps them around and messes with their DNA – creating the Fantastic 4.

The premise reads well, making it all the more frustrating that Michael France's script appears to have suffered so heavily in the editing suite.

Some wonderful touches give a hint that there was once a good script in place – The Thing's constant struggle with cutlery and wine glasses for one – but something is clearly amiss.

In fact, some scenes appear to have suffered such a degree of editing that the continuity will give moviemistakes.com a field day.

On the bright side, the action set pieces are often brilliantly realised with some of the best special effects yet created.

And it's the quality of these scenes that make this a perfectly enjoyable romp for the kids - but in a market where a movie of this kind is released on a monthly basis, one would expect it to work on multiple levels, ala X-Men.

Bryan 'The Usual Suspects' Singer's X-Men had Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. Tim 'Barbershop' Story, unfortunately, has Ioan Gruffudd as Mr Fantastic, a man whose talents wouldn't be strong enough to grace an episode of Pobol y Cwm.

Jessica Alba, meanwhile, looks as though she's waiting for post production to add special effects AND a performance.

An excellent Trojan horse for Hollywood marketing machines, an enjoyable and silly romp that the kids should love... and the worst comic book movie since Catwoman.

Will it make bucket loads of cash? I'd put money on it.

Nidai Esat