It is no exaggeration to say that this popcorn blockbuster 12 years ago, from any angle, is worth reading as a textbook for all movies of the same type in the last three or even three years later.
War has come and gone, but my soldiers are always loyal.
——《Xtreme Agent 2》
Last month, I wrote some opinions on popcorn movies in "Popcorn Times". In fact, that article is more about the current movie audiences’ thoughts on these kinds of movies. They always feel like the fast food era. It is not good and ignores the meaning of its own existence.
And this time, from another angle, back to the film series itself, from the perspective of a third party, to examine the popcorn blockbusters that are now rampant in the global film market.
At the beginning, we must start with a veteran blockbuster twelve years ago.
In 2005, the black-American rapper, producer, and actor Es Cooper starred in "Xtreme Agent 2".
Let the time go back a little bit, back to earlier this year, when Van Diesel starred "Xtreme Agent 3" was released worldwide. After countless speed and passion, the bald head successfully brought another series into him. Standard formula for popcorn blockbusters. The whole film explodes and continues to shoot again and again naturally without saying more. But for me, the segment that really made my blood boiled the most was the moment when the decisive battle was nearing the end, when Darius Stone, played by Escobe, was carrying the grenade launcher and the magical soldier descended from the sky. His appearance instantly brought me back to 12 years ago, back to the Hollywood blockbuster that has not yet taken shape, "Fast and Furious" is still a second-rate action film, and in the years when the Marvel Universe was just beginning to show its edge, that movie can be called a classic god. "Xtreme Agent 2" made.
It is no exaggeration to say that this popcorn blockbuster 12 years ago, from any angle, is worth reading as a textbook for all movies of the same type in the last three or even three years later.
Recalling the classic shots of "Fast and Furious 7" in 2015, one of them must be the collision of Van Diesel and Jason Statham in a high-speed racing car. To be honest, I have never figured out the meaning of the existence of this bridge. Two people are like two particles in the European Nuclear Center Particle Accelerator. They drive all their cars to extreme speed and go straight to face each other. Do you want to What to show.
Unless you have watched the "Xtreme Agent 2" that year.
As early as 2005, there was a similar bridge section in this movie, and what is more shocking than the meaningless collision of a high-speed sports car is that these two tanks collide with each other with destructive forces. Of course, tanks cannot drive the speed of a sports car, so where does this impact come from? The answer is that the jets on the aircraft carrier accelerate orbit.
Putting a tank on the acceleration orbit of an aircraft carrier's jet is like a stone on a slingshot and hits another tank impossibly. Just thinking about it makes adrenaline explode. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the highlights of the whole movie.
Transform the aircraft carrier into a mobile military base and play tank drifting in it; bomb the White House with tanks; speedboats go straight to the bridge from the river; airborne troops strafing around the U.S. President and Secretary of Defense; and classic car modification; heavy lifting on the streets The jack instantly robbed the military tank; the Hao wheel hub was stuck on the rails and the bullet train was racing at extreme speed; all these scenes, even if they were put 12 years later, would definitely be a visual feast of stormy waves.
Compared with the bald Van Diesel, he only knows that there are endless explosions and explosions, smashing cars, smashing cars, and smashing cars.
However, if you think that these big scenes are all the reasons why "Xtreme Agent 2" is regarded as a biblical work of popcorn blockbuster, you are very wrong.
The more exciting place is that it can be called a wonderful plot.
At the beginning of the film, a branch of the National Security Agency was invaded by unknown personnel, and 16 agents were killed. Gibbons, who was in charge of the Xtreme Agent project, escaped at the last minute and survived.
He found the former Marine Darius Stone, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his fight with the current Secretary of Defense Dyke, and successfully planned an escape operation to intercept Stone from the prison. come out.
Stone and Gibbons are old comrades-in-arms. But the other people who fought with them in the past disappeared one by one during this period. Several people understood that an unknown force was undergoing an invisible purge, unknowingly removing their old troops.
That night, Gibbons returned home to retrieve confidential information, but unexpectedly discovered that it was Secretary of Defense Dyke who was waiting for him at home. It turns out that Dyke has always believed that the current US president’s policy is too weak, and he has to take power with arms and replace it.
With an explosion, Gibbons and his house were shattered to pieces.
Darius, who had lost his leadership, had to solve the puzzle by himself. He first obtained the hidden confidential documents from the hard drive of the National Security Bureau branch of the attacked Gibbon, and then found the insider Charlie of Gibbons in the government department through the list of personnel above. After that, he found Charlie secretly, and with the help of Charlie, he disguised himself and sneaked into the banquet, approaching the military commander and the secretary of defense to get information. At this moment, he found that he was being calculated all the time, and Charlie created a trap to almost force him into the Jedi. What's more frightening is that Charlie is just a small pawn in the whole conspiracy.
At this point in the plot, only forty minutes have passed.
The director used extremely smooth filming rhythm and narrative techniques, in a 100-minute film that is only short and succinct in the entire length of the film, he narrated such a huge story with meticulous layout and tight rhythm, without any disconnection. It can be said that only with this kind of strength, in recent years, the running account has generally been flat and straightforward.
Not to mention anything else, it's the sequel "Xtreme Agent 3" after 12 years. The story of the whole movie is that the government has researched a magical black technology called Pandora's Box, which can invade all artificial satellites for monitoring, and even make them fall into the earth's orbit to strike ground targets accurately. Then the terrorists snatched the box, and the government sent the Xtreme agents that year to investigate and found that the person who snatched the box was also a former Xtreme agent. The government actually intends to kill them all at once. So the two sides joined forces to destroy the military's conspiracy.
Such a stupid plot that was thought of using the ass was actually filmed for more than two hours with great fanfare. Looking at the plot alone can be said to be extremely boring, so the director has to frantically join various battles in the movie, explosions, drag racing, puma boats, and a group of neurotic gags to prevent the audience from sleeping in the theater.
Back to the story just now. Darius, who got out of the mechanism, spied on the conspiracy of Defense Minister Dyke. So he dived into Dyke's military base on the aircraft carrier from underwater, but unexpectedly found Gibbons, who had been dead for a long time there.
It turned out that Dyke had been secretly searching for Gibbons and his old comrades, and imprisoning them on the aircraft carrier. On the day of the action, when the president delivered a peace speech, he led the army to launch a coup, killed all leaders from the president down to the level higher than his own, and then killed the troops of Gibbons, and he could justifiably become the new United States. President.
This is the first time this film has staged a wonderful plot reversal. It can be said that this is simply a splendid love story, allowing the audience to enjoy the colorful scenes while at the same time compelling the screenwriter's icing on the cake. It also makes the process of the movie have several twists and turns.
Darius, who was alone, could not immediately rescue his old comrades, so he escaped alone after the battle of the aircraft carrier base introduced earlier.
Then it was Darius' counterattack. Revolutions within the system must be checked and balanced by forces outside the system. Darius, who was born in the street, found his brothers and came to an extreme rescue.
They intercepted trucks transported by the National Security Agency to transport arms and equipment, and used their extremely rich experience at the bottom of society to develop precise interception routes from hidden roads that were not marked on the map to organize Dyke’s army to attack the White House. Staged a wonderful street robbery and robbery of military tanks, smashing Dyke's plan several times.
Finally, desperate, Dyke held the president to the bullet train, while Darius drove a modified extreme supercar, stuck the hub on the rails and pursued and rescued the president all the way. Performed the final climax of the whole film.
A full-length 100-minute action film, without any useless plot, compact and neat rhythm editing, puts it in today's commercial film market enough to stare at the world. The unparalleled action scenes, the visual effects of climaxes, coupled with the exquisite plot perfect reversal, it is difficult to imagine that this movie was born in an era when the popcorn blockbuster was unknown.
At that time, there was no Marvel universe, no "Avengers", no endless "Transformers" series, and no "Fast and Passion" that only knew about bombing but had no skill at all. At that time, this was just an ordinary action movie.
But after 12 years, when we re-examined it with our current eyes, we found that it had almost all the elements of commercial blockbusters of this era and brought it to the extreme: beauties, shootouts, robbers and punks save the world; jump into the sea , Drag racing, tank drifting bullet train. In every respect, this is a textbook action movie that can be recorded in the annals of history. Its consciousness lies not only in its unprecedented control over the rhythm of the plot, but also in carrying forward the core theme of this series to the fullest.
"Xtreme Agent":
They have not undergone biochemical transformation, no super powers, and no secret government training and super weapons. However, they have extremely rich experience, excellent skills, extraordinary reflexes, and incredible psychological qualities;
They can sneak in disguise, come and go without a trace, wear a tuxedo and watch all directions at the banquet, or they can open their posture and blow up a place to earth, driving tanks and planes, facing an army like entering No man's land
They are exquisite, military politicians, gangster thieves, and they have no common people.
The most valuable thing is that they will never be fooled by the enemy. The so-called calmness is so calm. Even if he is attacked by the enemy, even if he is embarrassed on all sides, he still maintains a clear head in the chaos, obeys the most rational mind, and tries to turn the tide.
This is the real 3X agent.
Looking back, look at the image of the bald Van Diesel agent again, all the way through, all kinds of crushing. Pretending to be cool and handsome, a pair of Lao Tzu is the protagonist's virtues. Relying on the halo to rampage, the image is wretched, and the face is rampant, just like a rich man who has filled tens of thousands of dollars in Tencent's games. I'm really sorry for the name of the 3X agent.
Think about it in 2002, the first part of this series was actually created by him personally, and in the end it was carried forward by others, but he completely ruined it, which is a great irony.
This is an era when fast food movies are popular. But not all fast food is the same taste. We have become accustomed to this formulaic popcorn movie routine that can be bombarded by just throwing money, and we are used to watching one or even two superheroes a year and "Transformers" one two years. What's more worrying is that more movies of the same type will appear in the future, and more brand-new IPs will fall into such a weird circle.
Looking back, this is nothing more than an upgraded version of "Fuchun Mountain Residence".
They have the value of their existence, because they have audiences and needs. But this era shouldn't be an era that is enough to stop, and creativity shouldn't stop in front of interests. Wasn't the "Xtreme Agent 2" filmed 12 years ago a resounding slap on the faces of the SB directors who only knew the ignition powder?
As a viewer, I do not reject these exploding buns, because a ticket for more than 20 yuan has no value at all. But as a movie lover, I don't want audiences, directors, screenwriters, and most importantly, investors to stop here. Domestic audiences can’t play art, niche, or deep, but they can’t just play this kind of stuff. If you want to play explosions and scenes, you can play it to the fullest and have a good time. This is what it is. The best way out for us.
At the end, the last thing I want to say is the lines.
In addition to the shocking scenes and the wonderful plot, "Xtreme Agent 2" has a variety of excellent lines. Some even cooperated with the director's editing, exerting a force far greater than the sum of the two.
Nowadays, let alone this kind of fast food movie, even if you look at all types of movies, there are only a handful of movies that can leave classic lines. But I have to say that the screenwriter of "Xtreme Agent 2" is attentive. The classic phrase "the war has come and gone, but my soldiers are always loyal" has almost been endowed with spiritual connotations beyond itself by the film.
The tree of freedom needs the blood of patriots and tyrants to water; the fate of the world rests in the hands of a group of thugs and thieves; and when the president of the United States makes a peace speech, every line proclaiming peace, Dyke’s army outside the White House Just have a head-to-head match with Darius' gang. Such extremely sharp contrast editing gives the movie a very deep connotation.
In the final battle, the President was rescued, Darius jumped out of the car to escape, and Dyke and the President’s bullet train were turned to ashes under the missiles of the plane. At the end of the movie, Dyke, as the hero who rescued the president, performed the most solemn military funeral, and Darius's name is unknown. The president kept a medal for him and gave a vague thank you by saying lines that only he understood.
Whether it is helpless or indifferent, the audience will always be unfinished and thoughtful at such an ending.
Say it all here, not to mention more.
Just like Darius driving his superb sports car back on the road, everything in the past is just a piece of memory. The accelerator slammed, the engine spun wildly, and the smoke and dust from the rear of the car dissipated, leaving no one behind.
(Thanks for reading)
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