Michel Vaillant

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.

I liked that movie very much. First of all - all actresses are look like models and all actors are like from Men's Health magazine, so why don't like it?

Seriously, almost all scenes shot with macro lens, and in some point of time you feel like you are in the movie or in the driver's cabin!

Nature scenes are so beautiful and fantastically looking that only rude and not romantic persons wouldn't like it.

I don't get other's comments about dubbing and acting and all that stuff, I watched it in Russian and like it, so it's not the director's fault and responsibility to translate.

And guys, what you expect from action movie - how the actors suppose to play there? Common, it's not a drama or something you don't have to make intriguing stories and unpredictable thrillers - it's just a good looking movie, watch and relax.

I can rate it at least 8 out of 10. Cheers.

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 !

It's funny how much this movie is hated and bashed by mainly the French speaking people and critics for whom Michel Vaillant is a real icon figure, while in the rest of Europe and outside of it, this movie is regarded as a good movie! It are mainly the people who grew up with the comic books that saw and hated this movie, hence the low rating on IMDb.com. But for those who aren't familiar with the comic books this movie is a fun watching pleasure and very well worth seeing. I'm sure when the movie gets more world widely released, the rating will go up as well, something this movie really deserves.

This movie is a great example of how a movie based on a comic book should be. The movie is very stylish and uses some great camera positions and editing (even though at times the editing is very sloppy)

Granted that the story is absolutely unbelievable and dumb but in this case I had no problems or what so ever with it. Keep in mind that this movie is based on comic books, so if you expect any reality or logic, this movie might not be your kind of thing. Just sit back and enjoy and don't think too much about the story.

Of course the best things about the movie are the races. For a race lover this movie is a real must see. The races are really spectacular and should get your adrenaline flowing.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more Michel Vaillant movies being made!

8/10

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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!