Cortechba Overrated

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

siggy_4844 My expectations for this movie were to see familiar comic book characters come to live on-screen and to include great racing scenes. I was a bit disappointed that it did not contain any formula 1 racing scenes which were the main focus in the comic series but I actually liked this movie quite a bit anyways. I watched it in french and didn't understand much of the dialog, interesting enough all of the people in the Leader team spoke English which helped me understand more of the conversations. The action sequences speak for themselves and the emotions of the characters came through clearly enough. The story of the rivalry between the brutal Leader team and the french Vaillante team continues when the Leader's daughter takes over and seeks revenge on the Vaillants whom she blames for the misery and death of her father. Suspenseful racing action, sabotage, tragedy, love and crime drama: this movie combines it all in a fairly well-written story plot (I've seen worse).Having read almost all the comic books when I was a child I remember the characters well and for the most part the movie does them justice although I found several inconsistencies: Ruth was transformed from a caucasion woman with short blonde hair to an oriental with long dark hair(in the comic Ruth had an assistant who looked that way - I assume the director got confused???). And what happened to Jean-Pierre's son Jean-Michel? I don't recall him having a daughter named Laura. And since this was supposed to be 13 years after the original incident with the Leader, Michel should have been married to Francoise by now and have a son named Patrick, so what was he doing with Julie Wood (who btw was the motorcycle-racing sister of Jack "Indie" Wood the young driver who replaced Steve Warson when he went MIA after finding out the truth about Ruth). When you base a movie on a comic book series you should at least get the characters straight (can you imagine the uproar of fans if they would have changed the names of some of the characters in the Superman movies?)With Michel Vaillant they created a mishmash of story lines thrown together from different points in time (afterall the comic book series ran for several decades). In my opinion the title character of Michel was a bit over the top, almost too cocky (he never would have done such an irresponsible thing like driving with his eyes closed in the comic books - KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!) The cast was well-selected otherwise and it's not the actors' fault that the director and screenwriters didn't do their homework. Even though the movie wasn't entirely believable, at least it was not cheesy like the animated series or live action TV series. One must bear in mind that the movie IS based on a comic strip geared towards kids and therefore reflects that (I used to read some of the stories in a kids comic book collection called ZACK when I was a preteen).Update: I have now watched the German version of this movie and was able to understand the conversations. Interesting enough the people who spoke English in the French version suddenly now all spoke German as well and the dubbing was terrible, I almost prefer the French version LOL. Bottomline: If there ever is a sequel to this movie I sincerely hope that the people responsible will do a better job to stay true to the comic book series.

killy_nl I never read any Michel Vaillant comic book. Maybe this is the reason why I found this film so great: the sound of roaring cars, the pictures of the silent sky, slow motion on details, expressive colours and a thrilling plot. Two enemies, Vaillant and Leader teams, see each other again after 13 years during the 24h of Le Mans, ready for a showdown. While the Leader team never heard about fair play, Michel Vaillant tries to make the best out of a desperate situation. 15 Minutes before the end of the race it seems that he has no chance at all to win the race ... So, if you like racing games (e.g. Project Gotham Racing) this film is a must. After watching it, grab your joystick or wheel , charge Forza Motorsport ans blast your enemies !

jennvirskus Michel Vaillant is an incredible, artistic visual feast of a film. It is the sexiest film since Top Gun and it is at once shocking, surprising, heroic and humble. A perfect marriage of big Hollywood action and French artistic quality. I am the photo editor at two major international fashion magazines and I went together with the head designer of one of them. We were on the edge our seat throughout the film, never knowing what would come next. We appreciated the sensuality of the under-lying love story. While you knew it was there, it was not focused on, there were no gratuitous sex scenes, in fact I recall only one kiss. But you knew it was there, you could feel it from the characters, in the looks, and in the intimacy of certain moments. Visually, this film is a masterpiece blending three distinct types of cinematography. The first being standard action movie at it's best. Fast cars and big explosions. The second being raw journalism, the kind of filming you'd expect if watching a car race on television and the third being incredibly artistic, turning a single moment into several minutes, or using ultra-high contrast grainy photography to convey mood and emotion. Further, the lighting and sound of the film cannot be ignored as it was superbe. The acting will not win awards, but the actors played their rolls perfectly.They were sexy, but humble. Gentle and caring, quietly heroic. My only issue is their solution to the problem of the actor playing Steve Watson's inability to speak French. It appears they filmed him doing his lines in English and then dubbed it over in bad French. I would have been nice to have an actor who could have spoken a little better French, but it was not overly distracting to the film as a whole. And, they were sexy. They were the dream of what a race car driver should look like, act like. Not only for women, but for men too. Makes you want to go down to the track and cheer. I cannot comment on the film's accuracy to the race world, but then again, it is a movie, adapted from a cartoon and to that end, it is phenomenal.

bandofoutsiders During my teenage years I was a fan of the Michel Vaillant-comics. This was the only reason I went to see the movie. I feared the worst and my expectations were fulfilled. The only thing this movie has to offer are a few decently filmed race scenes (the ones in the mountains). Forget the lousy screenplay and other major flaws. The dubbing is what finally kills the movie. There may be a French and an international version, but the latter is a complete mess-up. French actors speaking English (with a French accent); other French actors' voices are dubbed into British English or American English (at random : they have Steve Warson's sister (Irish ?) speaking with an American accent); only Steve Warson's character has a decent British accent, simply because the actor himself is British.How could this mess come about ? Simple, they wanted to sell the film to an international (read English-speaking) audience. Shame on you, Luc Besson, for getting involved in this disastrous film project!