Fantastic Four Actor Defends His Critically Panned Films Amid First Steps’ Box Office Drop

Actor Michael Chiklis, who played Ben Grimm a.k.a. the Thing in Tim Story’s Fantastic Four films from the 2000s, has defended the early Fox-era Marvel movies. In a recent interview, The Shield alum noted that even though his Fantastic Four films garnered negative reviews upon release, he doesn’t believe that they were truly bad movies.

Michael Chiklis believes his two Fantastic Four films were ‘really good movies’

While speaking to Collider, Chiklis reflected on how his Fantastic Four films were perceived back when they were first released, highlighting that there was a clear gap between the audience’s response and the response from critics.

“There were a lot of people, I think, critically who got it wrong. They really maligned our films, and they were very underrated considering… they were very loved by the audience. It was one of those cases where critics weren’t great to those films, but the audience was, and that still remains,” the Thing actor said of his two Fantastic Four films.

Chiklis then mentioned how the consensus around the Fantastic Four movies he starred in has changed drastically over the years by saying, “Now all these years later, people are sort of acknowledging like, hey, these films are family-friendly, fun movies… they got a lot right. They may be imperfect, but they’re really good movies.”

The former Thing actor’s comments come following the release of Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which has experienced a steep decline in its box-office performance since its strong opening weekend. Chiklis concluded his account by highlighting the financial success of his Fantastic Four movies, stating, “We made three-quarters of $1 billion [from] those two movies. So, you know, all those people can’t be completely out of their minds, you know what I mean?”

Featuring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis, Fantastic Four premiered on the big screen in 2005. The film garnered an underwhelming Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 28%. Its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, fared a little better with critics. The follow-up film garnered a Rotten Tomatoes score of 37%. In sharp contrast, The Fantastic Four: First Steps has managed to secure an impressive Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 91%.

Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net