Jackie Chan is currently one of the most popular brands in Chinese movies. The last three films, "Fugitive from the Jedi" to "Kung Fu Yoga," have all done very well at the box office.
Why does he still have such high box office appeal? Because audiences know what entertainment to expect from him. This is the value of Jackie Chan's brand over the years, a Jackie Chan movie comes out and you know what it will be like. What does this mean? It's like going to a restaurant you know and ordering a quick snack when you're hungry, knowing you'll fill your stomach, and the taste is okay.
So if you have movie viewing needs, Jackie Chan's movie is a relatively less bad choice.
In the current Chinese films, who can do this for decades?
This is brand value.
The current Jackie Chan belongs to the stage where you know that his films are not as good as when he was young, but you can still watch to pass the time. So the box office lower limit is very high.
So why did "British Showdown" fall short of expectations at the box office? It's very simple, because it's not the kind of Jackie Chan movie mentioned above.
The specific analysis of my long film review is very detailed, and here is a little bit of content:
This is not a typical Jackie Chan movie. As a director of two 007 series films, director Martin Campbell has always been known for being good at telling stories. The suspense of stories and the rhythm of commercial films are his strengths. Originally, it doesn't quite match the style of Jackie Chan's movies, where the story is simple and focuses on action scenes.
Judging from the temperament of this film, this should be a political suspense film. Whether it is the focus of the movie or the main contradiction of the plot, it is focused on how the various forces solve the terrorist attack. Jackie Chan's influence on the direction of the entire movie's plot is extremely limited. Even, to an extreme point, the presence or absence of the role of Jackie Chan does not affect the final development of the plot.
This is a movie that completely removes Jackie Chan's character. But why give Jackie Chan so many scenes?
I think the director's intention is, first of all, he doesn't want to give up his personal style and make an action movie with a simple plot; but at the same time he wants to take into account the box office. Whether it is the box office in the Chinese market, or the box office in North America and the United Kingdom, Jackie Chan's signature is very loud. . Therefore, while maintaining the suspenseful style, Jackie Chan's action scenes were appropriately increased, taking into account both art and the market.
The director's strategy is somewhat of a chicken thief. But if you want to take advantage of both, it is often that both ends are unflattering. Jackie Chan is the protagonist, or Brosnan is the protagonist? The two lines did not promote well, but the story line of Jackie Chan's revenge was a bit overwhelming, which seriously weakened the dramatic tension of the main line of the film. After watching it, the audience will inevitably be a little puzzled. Does this really want to talk about how Jackie Chan takes revenge? Or does it want to talk about a political power struggle triggered by a terrorist attack?
The director's uncertainty in this idea has caused the plot to get out of the way, which is not pleasing in two aspects.
It is difficult for Chinese audiences to understand the background of the separation of power between Britain and Northern Ireland, which is described in the film, and they will not care at all. When they see these brain-burning scenes in the cinema, they go to the cinema to watch a Jackie Chan movie entertainment. Immediately, expectations were completely derailed.
Even though the trailer has warned the audience that this is a Jackie Chan movie that is not quite the same as before, the psychological gap is still a bit big.
So it's no surprise that it ended up not doing well at the box office.
But this is really a relatively good movie, except that the handling of the double-line plot is not very good, it is really good in all aspects.
In addition: this film is one of the rare films in recent years that directly confronts how terrorist attacks affect the lives of ordinary people. For this point, it is also worth going to the cinema to support it. Terrorist attacks are the cancer of mankind, and it is difficult for every country and nation to completely avoid them. Jackie Chan's pain of losing his only relative is worth pondering after reading it. How to avoid a terrorist attack requires everyone to work together. This is the greatest value of this movie. Compared with Hollywood fighting against aliens every day, I don't know where the genius is.
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