The new movie inspired by yet another Marvel comic, the second starring the quartet of superheroes known as the Fantastic Four, reaffirms the old connection between the moving image of film and the series of static panels of the comic. Along with the predictable exaggerated battles between good guys and bad guys and the usual special effects, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" also continues the odd mixture of the shallow and the pretentious that characterizes much of the Marvel product throughout its history.

Like some shapely little comedy, the picture begins and ends with a wedding, the long awaited nuptials of Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Mr. Fantastic, and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), The Invisible Woman. Sue's brother Johnny (Chris Evans) a.k.a. The Human Torch, will give her away, and Ben Grimm (Michel Chiklis), unkindly called, for want of a better name, The Thing will serve as best man. Attended by the panting jackals of the press, and front page news everywhere - these celebrity superheroes eschew the traditional secret identity - the ceremony, alas, is interrupted by a call to defend the nation, the planet, perhaps the entire solar system against a mysterious menace.

Unable to resist the bullying of the armed services, the Fantastic Four swing into action against the new threat, a figure who travels through the galaxies at enormous speed on a small, sleek platform. Silver plated and looking rather like the Motion Picture Academy's own Oscar, the character surfs the universe, destroying planets by bringing drastic declines in temperature wherever he goes. On Earth, for starters, he freezes the sea off Japan and creates a sort of crater in the Thames River that swallows up vessels and people; the Four just barely manage to rescue thousands of people from that particular difficulty.

Quarreling constantly with an overbearing general (Andre Braugher), the Four deploy all their super powers to protect the planet from global freezing. The Surfer's own powers, however, trump theirs, even to the degree that he can induce a molecular metamorphosis in the Four, so that when they touch each other, they exchange powers. For a while The Torch turns invisible while his sister catches fire, then he and The Thing acquire each other's characteristics, and even Mr. Fantastic's elastic abilities cause his elongated limbs to light up.

Complicating matters further, the general invites the Fantastic Four's great nemesis, Victor Von Doom, good old Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon), to join the battle against the seemingly invulnerable Surfer, who hits harder, flies faster, and thinks better than all of them. Doom, of course, maintains an agenda of his own, presumably the usual goal of world domination, and attempts to squeeze the quartet out of the action.

As anyone can imagine, the Fantastic Four triumph over all adversaries - the general, Dr. Doom, and the Surfer - and, more important, discover his motivations, which derive from the familiar metaphysical mumbo-jumbo of the comics. He serves a colossally powerful entity named Galactus, who for reasons of his own desires the destruction of just about everything in the universe. His encounter with the Four, however, engenders a transformation in the Silver Surfer himself, so that he abandons his confused philosophy and for the inevitable sequels becomes a better sort of person, a sterling example, so to speak, of an interplanetary traveler.

Because of its origins in a popular comic and its connection to the first in the series, "Rise of the Surfer" should probably turn its silver into gold. It employs all the usual special effects, some of them undeniably spectacular, that so many viewers mistake for filmmaking; it faithfully sticks to the two-dimensional characterization of its literary original; and it corroborates that Marvel mixture of adolescent misbehavior with Deep Thoughts about life and goodness and stuff. And, despite its fireworks and occasional moments of humor, it maintains a surprisingly uniform level of dullness, rare even for a comic book movie. The plot, the alleged actors, the dialogue, the several chases and battles all conspire to create a work of amazing inanity: the creator of it all, Stan Lee, who makes a cameo appearance, may take pride in the fidelity to his conception, but also feel shame at the unrelenting awfulness of the whole business.

"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (PG), directed by Tim Story, is now playing in area theaters.