Friday's words: Hollywood's ability to create heroes and monsters out of thin air is obvious to all. However, no matter how awesome the heroes and monsters are, there are times when the public is tired of seeing them, so those companies have come up with some ideas such as the ultimate universe and the monster universe. Strong alliances, tit-for-tat confrontation... I call this form of film "Monster Spring Festival Gala".
However, the liveliness of the Spring Festival Gala is not enough. After all, it is a movie, so there must be a story, so the screenwriters and directors racked their brains to get the seven aunts and eight aunts of the hero monster family to come together to complete a story. As a matter of fact, the audience is addicted to the eye and the story.
This article "Friday Literature" takes "Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters" released last year as an example, let's see how a variety show was turned into a life-saving blockbuster by other American film companies, let's see how they really are What a magic weapon.
1. Magic weapon 1: big + many + long
This first magic weapon is a bit like the style of serving dishes in our northern restaurants - taste and quality come second, and the first one is large and large!
Regardless of whether your monster is a bug, an alien, or an animal, the bigger the better. Looking at the monster movies in Hollywood, those small ones such as the strange duck, the police dog Carl, and the ET alien are mostly eliminated. The wasps can't meet the public's demand for "big"! "Godzilla" is bound to return to the arena! That head, I'm afraid no cinema can hold it no matter how big it is!
Of course, a "Godzilla" is not enough for the audience to buy it. The reason is very simple: traditionally, a movie with a monster (or hero) alone must set up suspense in advance, and the protagonist must be called out for a long time. There will be more urine; and after the monster comes out, the audience will be prone to visual fatigue (or cover their eyes all the way) after the monster comes out, so there will be more sleep. Letting multiple monsters "sing the same song" is a good way to solve these problems, so "Godzilla 2" has a new monster face almost every ten minutes. What Godzilla, the three-headed dragon, and the flamingo come to a "Huashan on the sword", let them one-on-one, deadly and cruel...
In this way, the audience is always on a roller coaster, and there is no chance to sleep! The last "long" refers not to the monster's tail or the hero's sword, but to the "length" of the movie. Just imagine: a movie with crowds of monsters and crowds of people, it takes an hour to pass through the scenes one by one. After the cutscene, everyone has to confront each other, between humans and beasts, and between beasts and beasts, and some emotions must be interspersed between them. The movie, another hour has passed, plus the beginning, ending, easter eggs, advertisement placement... How can such a movie be reliable without a little length!
So, if you just make a fuss about the size, number, and strength of the monster, everything will be fine, of course not, after all, this is a movie for people to watch, naturally, "people" are indispensable!
2. Magic weapon 2: two or three protagonists, one team
Why are there two or three protagonists here, not one? Very simple, two protagonists can hold up a love drama, three main characters can hold up a family drama, and if a team is built around two or three main characters, then a world can be saved!
Don't underestimate these three things, which are the eternal tricks of American film companies to create the "American Dream". In other words, with these three things in place, the stupid things those characters do can be understood.
Let's take a look at the three protagonists in "Godzilla 2" - father, mother, daughter.
Mom lost her head for a while and released the prehistoric giant beast, killing so many people, and causing a large number of civilians to flee their homes and destroy their homes;
Dad left the mother and daughter alone and ran wild sketches. If something went wrong, the military had to send a special plane to pick it up (how much public resources were wasted);
Not to mention my daughter, who stole her mother's animal control equipment in a mischievous manner, led a monster to the center of the city, and caused the destruction of a large number of buildings (this is equivalent to how many 9/11 incidents)...
All these guilt, to be honest, 10,000 shootings are enough, but in this kind of movie, we not only did not accuse them, but even sympathized and praised them, why, because they respected a major principle of Hollywood, that is:
Daughter loves father, father loves mother, mother loves daughter, father, mother and daughter love family... Under this concept, no matter how much you make a mistake, you have to write it off.
Let's look at the teams built around these three protagonists - the U.S. military and anarchy.
Usually this group of people play soy sauce in blockbusters, but at the same time they are indispensable. They are equivalent to the audience under the stage of the gala, the cheerleading team on the NBA court...
Note that this cheerleading team is carefully selected - there are people of different skin colors, different races, and different nationalities. This setting once again confirms the essence of the American blockbuster "variety show": when the monsters fight, the cheerleaders open their mouths to watch,
When the protagonist is emotional, the cheerleaders coax, and when the scene is sensational, the cheerleaders cry... What an indispensable team, this is called "a family from all over the world"!
In this way, there is a protagonist who is causing trouble, a monster who is making trouble, and a team that makes a fuss. In the end, there is one "officer" (and what to do)! Or rather, there is just one more topic.
3. Magic weapon 3: Killing the same theme - saving the world
Presumably many viewers are in a mess when watching such blockbusters: the faces of endless monsters, waves of positive and negative teams, good and bad protagonists, and plots that go around... …
All of these elements make this blockbuster seem super complicated. But remember one thing, this kind of film is not for the audience to burn their brains (who will buy a brain-consuming movie), and it is not for you to sort out the seven aunts and eight aunts. While watching the film, everyone is addicted to the eyes and ears, and it is enough to figure out one theme "save the world". Let it complicate the rest on its own, and you'll eventually have to wrap your head around the subject anyway.
There will also be a series of sub-themes around this theme, such as sacrifice, love, unity and so on.
So how can the audience follow this theme without going astray? This is not something the audience needs to worry about at all. Everyone just needs to hold the protagonist's thigh and walk down, that's right.
This also determines what we are going to say next -
Fourth, the magic weapon four: life and death all the time, but no one can ever die!
You said that the three protagonists: the planes in the sky were shot down one by one, and it sounds bad, and the monsters can burn a group of people with any spark from their tails, but Dad can always handle this crisis with ease and leisure walk;
In the scene after the three-headed dragon was led to the city, the high-rise buildings collapsed one by one, but the daughter was able to descend from the high-rise to the street. Under the circumstance that the monster regarded herself as a bullseye, she thought of going home without a hurry. Find the way home, and finally make it all the way into the house successfully;
Not only a few protagonists, but basically none of those teammates were killed. It was like a spectator in a bullring protected by a glass fence—there was no danger. Even if the Japanese sacrificed, it was someone who took the initiative to send him to his door to die, okay?
If so, what else is there to worry about! Just hold the protagonist's thigh and see the movie to the end!
5. Magic weapon 5: Kill the two unchanging advertisements
Finally, let’s talk about the placement of American blockbusters. Over the past hundred years, there have been countless advertising sponsors for American blockbusters, and the form and content of advertising placements are constantly changing, but the two implanted things have never changed, and there are basically no less, that is: "American flag" and "" Jesus Christ". (one administrative symbol, one state religion symbol)
Of course, American film companies are not stupid enough to talk about those political and ideological propaganda, a picture, a gesture or even a casual joke is enough.
Enough to allow "Great Americanism" to be promoted globally!
6. Magic Weapon 6: Great Reunion
Well, after all that said, let’s have a big reunion at the end—that is, of course, the reunion of the sons and daughters, each going back to his own family, the end of good for evil, and world peace!
So far, a "Monster Spring Festival Gala" has become a life-saving blockbuster! Everyone is happy!
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