Should we watch the channel+ sequence on the 14-18 robocop, “the sentries”? | EUROtoday
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HASVril 1915. For the previous few months, the First World War has been raging. The Germans have received numerous floor, however the French haven’t mentioned their final phrase. In a Parisian laboratory, the military works on a secret analysis program that would change the course of historical past. There, we recuperate dying troopers to rework them into overpowered robocop, after the injection of an experimental serum referred to as Dyxénal.
Wounded after leaping on a mine, Gabriel Ferraud agrees to combine this elite which might change the course of the battle. By changing into a superhero, a kind of invincible “Captain France” in entrance of the German enemies, he must surrender his life earlier than, his spouse and his child.
The ambition of a French “Captain America”
Let’s be frank: we had been anticipating so much – little doubt too – from this new unique creation of Canal+, freely tailored from the excellent cartoon The Sentinels by Xavier Dorison and Enrique BRECCIA. A couple of months in the past, Olivier Bibas, director of the group’s unique creation, we talked about it in these phrases: “It is an actual risk-taking for us, since now we have by no means made a sequence of superheroes. It is a fragile style in France as a result of it primarily refers to a really American creativeness. »»
Alas, this sequence created by Guillaume LEMANS illustrates the French syndrome of the large spectacle sequence: a licked realization will not be sufficient to cover narrative weaknesses. The uncooked materials, the cartoon of Dorison and Breccia, provided an uncompromising unique take a look at the violence of the battle the place the hero, Gabriel Ferraud, is the inventor of a battery with a revolutionary radium. Instead, the “Steampunk” sequence – actually steam “steam” and “marginal” punk, an expression that refers back to the world of business revolution of the top XIXe century-DEBIT XXe And in Victorian era-gets misplaced in a multiplication of sub -intrigues.While the steampunk, with its steam machines and retrofuturist expertise, might have provided a captivating touch upon the industrialization of battle and the mechanization of our bodies, the sequence is content material to make use of its superficial aesthetic codes. There is a pell-mell these troopers elevated, generally with Dark Vader, generally from Marvel superheroes, a medium with supernatural powers in Paris in 1915, spies that conspired within the shallows, a journalistic investigation by the hero’s spouse …
The uncooked violence and the anti -militarist message of the unique work are watered down in favor of an aesthetic actually licked, however which sounds hole. The “super soldiers” of Sentries look extra like Marvel heroes than in elevated bushy, dropping the essential dimension on the dehumanization of combatants. The Cabaret Les Damnés, which might have been a captivating distorting mirror of this society at battle, is just one extra decor in a visible escalation. This place turns into a easy pretext for ambient scenes with out actual narrative depth.
A strong casting in favor of a wobbly story
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The kangaroo of the day
Answer
Even the motion scenes, technically spectacular, battle to search out their tone, usually too stylized to evoke the horror of the trenches and serve the topic. The sequence consistently hesitates between lifelike battle movie and the steampunk fantasy, with out ever absolutely assuming one or the opposite of those instructions, in a mix of genres which is kind of indigestible.
The actors do what they’ll with this unsure materials. Louis Peres in Gabriel Ferraud delivers a convincing efficiency as a tortured soldier. But his character oscillates between too many archetypes: the superhero despite himself, the torn husband, the loyal soldier, the potential monster … We additionally admire Noam Morgensztern, of the Comédie-Française, who embodies a chilly colonel Mirreau like a ice dice and Pauline Étienne, already seen in The legendary workplacewho performs an apprentice Marie Curie. It is as if the sequence was attempting to compete with American productions whereas protecting a nationwide specificity, with a Paris and an nearly fantasized battle. The result’s a piece which, regardless of its plain technical qualities and some moments of bravery, by no means manages to transcend its standing of train in fashion to the touch the guts of its topic: the horror of battle and the dehumanization of troopers.
https://www.lepoint.fr/pop-culture/faut-il-regarder-la-serie-de-canal-sur-les-robocop-de-14-18-les-sentinelles-01-10-2025-2600068_2920.php