Marvel's longest-running comicbook Fantastic Four made it to the big screen after months of casting hype. Producer Avi Arad and director Tim Story eventually settled on relative newcomers Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and our own Ioan Gruffudd as a gang of scientist superheroes. Although it lacks a decent story, this was a modest hit and the actors ensure "it is a laugh".

Four On Tour

If you opt for the single-disc package, the highlight is a rare inside look at the gruelling business of international promotions. Alba does the bulk of camera work for this light-hearted video diary, which sees the cast bouncing across continents and finally ending up at the world premiere in New York. A spirit of camaraderie shines through and we even get to see how Gruffudd psyches himself up for endless TV interviews, ie "I'm young, I'm beautiful and I have a secret..."

Alba, Gruffudd and Chiklis re-team for a cosy but lightweight commentary. Among the behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Chiklis reveals how he almost came to blows with a temperamental (or maybe just mental?) film extra. Fans of The Thing may be disappointed to know that the tough guy responded to the challenge by merely asking the Assistant Director to make him go away. Unfortunately that's as exciting as the commentary gets and without a director to pull focus, there is rather a lot of verbal meandering.

Aside from two music videos, Avi Arad hosts an Inside Look at X-Men 3 to wrap up disc one. "Wolverine in this movie is going to find himself doing the thing he likes least," says the producer, "Be a leader."

Putting The Fan In Fantastic

A batch of four deleted scenes in the two-disc edition adds another cheeky X-Men tie-in. Gruffudd does his best Wolverine impression in one of two smoochy scenes between Reed Richards and Sue Storm, but there's little else of interest here. Elsewhere, nine animatic-to-final-film comparisons demonstrate how key stunts - like the Brooklyn Bridge scene - were meticulously choreographed in a CG environment before Story called "action".

The making of documentary Heroes Are Born is the main draw on disc two with a runtime as long the film itself. Cameras rove around the Vancouver set to find Chiklis gushing under "200 pounds of latex" on the day comicbook creator Stan Lee visits the set. As the actor tells it, he dreamed of playing The Thing ever since getting hooked on the comic book as a child. Meanwhile Julian McMahon (Victor Von Doom) has trouble taking things too seriously, larking about between takes and commenting, "It's not about acting. It's about the mask."

Another look at the making of the film is redundant at just over five minutes, but a look at The Making Of A Scene does afford a few interesting insights regarding the Brooklyn Bridge sequence. Basically it was shot using a 200ft set erected against a blue screen in a Vancouver parking lot and then enhanced with CG views of Manhattan. Meanwhile The Baxter Building: Declassified offers a fleeting tour of the main interior set.

Finally Alba and co get to pat each other on the back in the superfluous Casting Session featurette. In fact the actress resorts to patting her own when she says, "The guy who created it embraces me so how can the fans get mad?" Overall, this two-disc edition comes with more padding than Michael Chiklis, but a good amount of behind-the-scenes access will surely pacify fans.

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