Washington DC [US], August 13 (ANI): Actor Michael Chiklis, who played Ben Grimm / The Thing in 'Fantastic Four' (2005) and 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' (2007), shared that the films were 'very underrated' and he believes that critics at the time 'got it wrong', according to The Hollywood Reporter.

'There were a lot of people, I think, critically who got it wrong,' he said of the 2005 film and its 2007 follow-up Rise of the Silver Surfer.

'They really maligned our films, and they were very underrated considering... The audience very loved them. It was one of those cases where critics weren't great to those films, but the audience was, and that still remains,' Chiklis said.

However, he acknowledged the appreciation shown by the audience as opposed to critics, adding, 'And 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,' according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Alongside Chiklis, Fantastic Four starred Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman and Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch. Marvel revamped the characters for the 2025 film, which saw Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn star as the team.

About the new movie and Moss-Bachrach, who plays Ben/the Thing in the modern adaptation, Chiklis said, 'I had a great experience doing them, and I just... I hope that it kills. And it seems like it's doing really well. And by the way, I really like Ebon Moss-Bachrach. He's a terrific actor, so I'm really looking forward to see what he does with... the Thing,' according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Michael Chiklis is best known for his roles as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield (2002-2008), for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2002, and as Ben Grimm / The Thing in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).

Other notable television roles of his include bald Commissioner Tony Scali on The Commish (1991-1996), bald Dell Toledo in American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014-2015), and Nathaniel Barnes in Gotham (2015-2017). (ANI)