Wolfgang Petersen, who won the reputation of Hollywood's "best action film director" with "Air Force One", with "From the Bottom of the Sea", "The Line of Fire", "Terror Zone", "Perfect Storm", " "Troy" and a series of thrilling and thrilling films that are both acclaimed and well-received have shaken Hollywood, and have gradually become an important weight for big Hollywood film companies to rely on to make huge bets with the cruel film market. In 2006, "Poseidon" was the most expensive gamble that Warner spent $160 million on Wolfgang Peterson. Because the story was similar to that of "Titanic", this film was It can basically be regarded as trying to replicate the magic and immortality of the "Titanic" of the year. But the final box office was terrifying. The opening weekend was $22 million, and the North American box office ended up with $60 million, only one-tenth of the total North American box office of "Titanic" that year. Not only the box office of this film is in stark contrast with its huge investment, but also the reputation is poor to a certain extent. Most of the comments focus on criticizing it for lack of soul. There are only two aspects to express. First, the joy of the survivors. 2. The cruelty of the ship capsizing. The IMDB score is 5.6, and the freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes is only a pitiful 33%. The final impression presented to the audience is like a high-achieving student who has been playing happily for a year. When one month before the start of school, he finds that he has not done his homework for the year, so he rushes to make it up, but he wants to spend 30 days. To write an assignment that takes a year to complete, how can the time be used? As a result, the director decided to focus on a few important parts that the teacher would focus on, and deal with the other parts. (The film started on June 18, 2005, and premiered in North America on May 14, 2006.) Hasty and cutting corners, it could have been a masterpiece of disaster themes, but it ended up as a "rough house".
In fact, the concept of "Poseidon" is still very good. Basically, it takes the route of organically combining several classic commercial film elements such as "disaster", "thriller" and "adventure" with gorgeous special effects. In most cases, the film of the route will not miss, because the difficulty is not very big, as long as 80% of the investment is used in the place where it should be used, such as inviting stars with box office appeal and making dazzling special effects (this is also Hollywood blockbusters are always at the same level), writing scripts (as long as they are not too bad, it can be explained), doing publicity (Hollywood is at the forefront of the world in this regard), and the other 20% can be wasted. From this film, you can also find the above-mentioned commercial elements and spectacular computer effects, such as "big waves hit, the disaster that overturned the entire hull" (much like "Titanic", but this time the ship overturned first and then Shen), "after the hull capsized, the water entered the ship, the water level continued to rise, and the crisis and fear of various sudden and dangerous situations continued" (much like "the opposite sex", but the beast was replaced by a flood, but the tension was there Even more), "a small team's adventure deep into the bottom of the ship in order to survive" (much like "Destruction of the Center of the Earth", all of which have to conquer dangerous and unknown areas in order to survive) These are classics that have been proven countless times. The elements of commercial films, as well as the computer effects of the 180° overturning of the hull, are absolutely shocking! Just such a scene is enough to show that the special effects team of this movie is not vegetarian.
But what is it that makes audiences reluctant to buy the movie? Basketball fans know that there are many NBA players with excellent personal abilities, all of them are star players at the BUG level, but the basketball level of the NBA team composed of these players is high and low, they lack It is teamwork; many people have also seen the "animation blockbuster" "Superman" that CCTV once pushed. Wind, fire, water, and land are all invincible, but the most invincible is the little boy with the "mind" ring in his hand. Hei boy, what difficulties did the first four encounter, the "mind" was overwhelmed and the difficulties were solved. What they lacked was cohesion. In the same way, while "Poseidon" has so many classic commercial elements and gorgeous special effects, how to organically combine it to form a story with a theme is the most important thing. Although it is very difficult to find a theme with a unique perspective, but Just looking for a theme that has been said countless times in other movies of the same type is better than nothing. Why did "Titanic" have a North American box office of 600 million, which is 10 times that of "Poseidon"? It has been said for 100 years through "love". It is estimated that this theme from the birth of the movie to the present makes all commercial elements reasonable The fusion is definitely the most important reason for its success factor. Let's not talk about the once-in-a-century miracle. Let's talk about a recent Korean disaster film "Haeundae" that imitated Hollywood. The success of this film in Korea also lies in the fact that it tells us about the disaster in the background. A process of emotional sublimation of a group of lovers. There are many such examples. Basically, every successful disaster film is emotionally moving, putting one or several emotional entanglements in ordinary real life into the special environment of disaster for severe torture, all special effects, Thriller, adventure, comedy, suspense, etc. these fancy things are just the appearance of the magnificent branches and leaves of a big tree. The reason why this big tree can stand still depends on the roots and stems that penetrate deep into the soil under the surface layer. , that is, the "true love"!
We can only regretfully say to the film "Poseidon", "a fancy film with only its appearance and lack of soul!" No matter it is the father-daughter relationship, mother-son relationship, and love that we want to express, there is no desire for survival. Strong, to be precise, "I want to live!" triumphed over all emotions and made this group of people escape the disaster. Although this theme is more in line with what people really think when faced with disaster, it is not in line with our contemporary society. The mainstream moral standards of the media, what the media praised and what the audience wanted to see was actually a kind of white lie, not the cruelty of the facts!
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