The vast majority of comic-book adaptations are met with outrage by fanboys. And so it was for Tim Story's breezy 2005 opener for the Franchastic Four. As always, they wanted it darker, riskier, deeper.

The story of a rubber scientist, his invisible girlfriend, her inflammable brother and a walking cold-sore was not, they felt, taken seriously enough. Not so - studio execs take $330 million at the worldwide box office very seriously indeed.

Those who haven't cancelled their Marvel subscriptions yet may be interested to know that 4-by-2 covers the plot points of issues #48-50 and #57-60 which, it says here, detail the Silver Surfer's backstory and his encounters with the evil Dr Doom.

An emissary of Galactus – a giant vortex that sucks the life out of entire planets - the Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne) zooms to Earth on his cosmically powered board, screwing up the weather, disrupting power supplies and leaving huge craters everywhere.

Basically, he's the intergalactic equivalent of British Gas.

But nobody really takes notice until the Surfer interrupts the celebrity wedding of the year between 'Mr Fantastic' Reed Richards and 'Invisible Woman' Sue Storm (ironically played by an actress who should be seen and not heard).

When a helicopter nearly lands on The Thing's blind girlfriend (Kerry Washington), 'Human Torch' Johnny gets all fired up and gives chase in an action sequence that could have been spliced together from bits of Ghost Rider and Terminator 2.

Then something weird happens to Johnny. Whenever he touches one of his teammates, they switch powers. This almost leads to a catastrophe when the Four catch up with the shimmery surf dude at the London Eye.

As leader of the anti-SS operation, General Hager (Thief's Andre Braugher) is not impressed. Huffily, Hager turns to their former colleague-turned-nemesis Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon), back in business with crucial intel but still dressed like a Star Wars conventioneer.

Can Doom be trusted? Ladbrokes isn't taking odds as Reed and the gang have only a few days to part the Surfer from his board (cue a slice of Black Forest action) and find out what his story is (it's tragic but noble) before Galactus devours the planet.

The action may span the globe but the geography hasn't changed for an innocuous and refreshingly snappy sequel designed to keep 10-year-olds quiet.

You want dark, risky and deep? Wait for the Dark Knight to return. Or go potholing.

Elliott Noble