"Pacific Rim: Rising Thunder" must have been seen by you all.
If you haven't watched it, you don't actually need to watch it, unless you are a veteran fan of mecha control and Hollywood no-brain spectacle blockbusters. The word-of-mouth of this film went straight to the heart of the earth. From the first day of its release, it has been full of complaints. All criticisms on the Internet are basically the same: far less than 1, the top is awesome, the Jingtian movie universe...the same caliber. Unite.
I think if this article is written from this angle, it is really meaningless, and it is difficult to write new ideas. After all, I am not a person who likes to chase hot spots, many times the comments of new films are posted quite late. I just want to talk a lot. Next week, I will probably see "Number One Player" a few days in advance. It is said that this new movie by Spibao is very awesome. If this is the case, I should publish a text in advance.
In short, there are too many movies that are not worth exploring recently in theaters, such as "Black Panther", "Tomb Raider", and this "Pacific Rim 2". If you analyze the film itself, it is nothing more than the dismantling of special effects, narration, performance and other routines. The attributes of these movies are relatively single, and the assembly line method is also very obvious, and there is no analytical value anymore.
So, I'll try to write something else.
Human civilization has always had a tradition of worshiping giants . From the pyramids to the Great Wall, from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus to the colossus of the sun god, from the Stonehenge to the Statue of Liberty, we are amazed by these construction miracles. To put it simply from the perspective of humanistic aesthetics, from ancient times to the present, men have demonstrated power with muscles and heavy weapons. The "big" and "heavy" of weapon forms are equivalent to strength, and muscles are equivalent to the huge transformation of the body. At the same time, men also continue this thinking on women's aesthetics, such as big breasts. On the other hand, women have long been in a subordinate position, and they also have a tendency to worship giants, such as the concept of male genitalia.
After the Industrial Revolution, steel machinery became a new object of worship for giants. Those cumbersome and roaring giant machines not only make human life quickly enter a new stage, but also reveal the smallness and fragility of human beings. To some extent, the development process of science and technology is the process of eliminating human productivity and life skills. The current universal thinking guides us, whether it is the direction of scientific research in the real world or the sci-fi vision in cultural works, we are advocating to make future humans become as comfortable as babies and replace all our work with technology.
This demand is also reflected in the war. From four-wheeled carriages to catapult siege hammers, from aircraft tanks to aircraft carriers, the larger the equipment, the stronger and more destructive it is. Not only can better protect the fragile body, but also improve the individual combat capability. Projected into the works of art is the rise of popular cultures such as Ultraman, Gundam, EVA, Transformers, and Pacific Rim.
In these works, either like Gundam, the future war has shown an extreme situation. Not only does the battlefield extend to the universe, it becomes more diverse, and the scale of the war is also different. At this time, the huge humanoid mech became the main force in the war. Either it is EVA, the Pacific Rim, an invasion that conventional military forces cannot resist, forcing people to develop new weapons. And this kind of invasion threat is often a giant existence that is difficult to match. Therefore, if the strength is equivalent, a giant mecha needs to be developed to counter it. Of course, you can also summon friendly alien giants like Ultraman and Transformers.
Similarly, spectacles such as giant mechas have long been beyond the scope of realistic logic. For example, if these heavy and huge military equipment are formed into a human-like form like that, the combat efficiency can be imagined. But in film and television animation, the strong aesthetics of spectacle made them form a solid existence system early, which made the audience ignore this logical omission. Whether these fighters or extraterrestrial giants, their aesthetic conditions are derived from the worship of giants, especially the worship of giant machinery after the Industrial Revolution.
If we talk a little closer, now mecha, the representative of the subculture science fiction theme, is naturally Japanese anime. There are probably three reasons why Japanese animation can develop a mecha culture:
The first is the birth of the tank. Tanks give mankind the concept of "entering into a huge machine and operating the machine to fight" . During World War II, Japan established the "Army Mech Headquarters" in April 1941, and it still refers to the armored forces as "Mecha Units."
The second is the rise of special photography films . The most representative ones are Ultraman and Godzilla. Teenagers at the time were generally obsessed with "giant heroes", so animators also began to consider the possibility of adding similar roles.
The third is the export of American culture. After the defeat of the war, Japan almost became a vassal state of the United States, and the United States also systematically carried out large-scale cultural exports to Japan. The main part is science fiction and magazines brought from home by American soldiers. Among them, Robert Heinlein's "Starship Paratrooper" had a profound influence on the Japanese . The "Mobile Suit" in the Japanese national-level animation "Mobile Suit Gundam" is a combination of "Mobile Infantry" and "Power Suit" in "Starship Paratroopers".
Although the United States is regarded as the predecessor of the Japanese in this respect, the mecha culture is finally carried forward in the hands of the Japanese. Therefore, "Pacific Rim" can be regarded as a tribute to the younger generation by the predecessors. This is a very interesting perspective.
So, strictly speaking, mecha is not just a romance for men, women also have a tradition of worshiping giants. Just take care of the female aesthetic tendency when designing the appearance. I remember that there was a game called "Sakura Wars" a long time ago, and its selling point was a female fighter jet.
However, the emergence and popularity of mecha-themed works like "Transformers" and "Pacific Rim" are not just as simple as the worship of giants. It also contains the heroic complex of ordinary people and the group anxiety of human beings themselves .
Historically, the fascination with heroes may be longer than the worship of giants. The heroic dream of ordinary people is an everlasting complex—especially when a huge crisis comes. Mecha provides a means to realize this complex. When weak humans are ravaged by large monsters and helpless, as long as they enter the same giant fighter armor and control it, there is the possibility of turning the tide and the opportunity to become a hero.
In addition, from an aesthetic point of view, the mech is the ultimate embodiment of industrial power, and it is the expansion and sublimation of the human body. Therefore, it is naturally the simplest and most straightforward idea to make a mecha into a human shape.
The various armors in "Iron Man" and the power armor of "Special Forces" all have similar expressive functions. And the most unusual and deepest reflection of this kind of complex is the "Robocop" series. The police protagonist almost died in an arrest operation, leaving only half of his body, but he was transformed into a half-human, half-mechanical robotic policeman, becoming the incarnation of justice. This violent aesthetic born on steel and self-transformation is obviously irresistible.
As for group anxiety, Karl Popper said in the book "Open Society and Its Enemies": "We must face the unknown, uncertainty and insecurity, and do our best to seek safety and freedom." In our time , Freedom often coexists with risk, but if there is no security, risk is a threat, not an opportunity. In contemporary times, our belief crisis is also one of the reasons for this anxiety.
In the history of Western philosophy, the interpretation of "anxiety" is also varied. It was originally Heidegger's "separation anxiety" , Freud further developed "primitive anxiety" into three states of "signal anxiety", "castration anxiety" and "superego anxiety". Kierkegaard associates " freedom" with "anxiety" , while Rollo May uses Kierkegaard to define anxiety more practically: when the individual's personality and survival The anxiety that arises when its basic value is threatened is anxiety.
Until the 20th century, the great thinker Paul Dilich pointed out that anxiety is closely related to the problem of human existence. It is the experience of human finiteness caused by feeling the pressure of "non-existence" such as death and fate. That is, "death (emptiness) anxiety" . Of course, having said that, when we are unable to change our own dilemma, the worship of giants and the fascination with heroes are also effective means to resolve this insecurity.
This "non-existence" pressure is largely reflected in science fiction works, such as alien life, artificial intelligence, natural disasters, and so on. When we look at these science fiction novels or cartoon movies and TV series, what they describe is essentially a "doomsday illusion" , that is, the cruel manifestation of human beings, the loss of identity and the absence of humanity, or the irresistible external force infringement. The many uncertainties in the future have left human beings in a sense of insecurity of "being prepared for danger in times of peace". In history, we have suffered similar losses, such as the two world wars that brought heavy blows to human civilization (humanity’s own uncertainty and anxiety).
Therefore, this long-term vigilance always allows humans to continuously strengthen their own control and possessiveness. Although many things remain at the hypothetical level, human anxiety and strong sense of insecurity about the self have been largely projected into science fiction works. On the one hand, we are worried about the invasion of powerful foreign forces, and on the other hand, we are also worried about the betrayal of our own creations.
As far as the mecha theme is concerned, it is an entertaining adaptation of the anxiety on the philosophical level by removing the complexity and simplifying it. The logic behind it is that this kind of mecha controlled by humans is an effective way to solve these two problems, or to eliminate these two kinds of crisis psychology.
In fact, there are also works like "World War" and "Independence Day" for the psychological anxiety of this uncertainty, which use common viruses on the earth or mankind's own strategies to disintegrate giant enemies. Or the deterrence method in the "Base" series that relies solely on personal wisdom, and the deterrence in the "Three-Body" series, is also a clever strategy. Therefore, I personally appreciate this kind of work. It is not blindly rigid, which can better reflect the author's meticulous thinking and logic.
But more often, the demands of popular entertainment are not just satisfied with this. We prefer to see the direct confrontation of power, which also allows the work to have a more fascinating spectacle aesthetic. Mecha culture can take root and sprout. Just like in "Rim of the Pacific", the "Jaeger" mecha manipulated by tiny humans can directly use fists and firearms to beat the chrysanthemum beast into flowers and water. What a refreshing violent stimulation, and even more fundamentally. Dissipate our anxiety.
Betrayal against one's own creations mostly refers to human clones, bionics, and artificial intelligence. Especially artificial intelligence has been regarded as one of the most serious threats to mankind in science fiction works. The entire story of The Matrix is based on the premise of large-scale betrayal by artificial intelligence. In the final moment of life and death, the APU exoskeleton armor driven by humans played a decisive role. Therefore, such mechas that need to be manipulated by humans are safer than artificial intelligence. They provide the best way to solve problems for humans who do not trust robots .
The exoskeleton armor is worth mentioning because it has become a brand new display of the concept of armor in movies and television. For example, the previously mentioned "Iron Man", "Special Forces", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Wolverine 2" in "Tight Wrap" armor, as well as "Avatar", "The Matrix" in AMP, APU combat armor. Among them, the concept of mecha in the game "Fall of Titans" is more complicated. The Titan mecha can not only be controlled by the iron driver (human driver), but also has autonomous intelligence. In addition, the simpler exoskeleton armor in "Edge of Tomorrow", "Elysium" and the game "Call of Duty" have also become a new trend in popular culture.
These are the evolutions of human beings after they have pursued power to a certain degree. Although they are not as tall as the skyscraper-like mechas, they are naturally inseparable from the worship of giants and anxiety. This reminds me of the engineering robot that defeated the mother in "Alien 2": the civil steel machinery confronts evil alien life, and it is still a female driver! Zhan Shen is really good at catching points.
In the final analysis, the mecha complex is a product of the industrial age and continues to permeate the information age, producing a variety of new faces. We can not only see the "steampunk" retro sci-fi on the screen, but also the new smart mechas in various comics and sci-fi movies. Although mankind has entered the information age, many of the aesthetic appeals still remain after the industrial revolution. Mecha is one of the evidence. Although the operation interface of these powerful combat equipment is mostly futuristic visualization or holographic projection, the appearance still follows the powerful design of the industrial age.
And to how to strike a balance between industrialism and two futuristic aesthetic elements, it is a problem faced by many of the same work. "Pacific Rim 2" is so bad at this point.
To ask me what I think of this series, I actually don't like both of them very much. So in terms of vertical comparison, the second part actually doesn't feel that bad to me, and it's not like a bad movie, that is, the passing line is hovering. But from the perspective of theme presentation and entertainment material, it does throw away the only flash point of the first part.
In the first part, the weak narrative and poor mirroring did not give me much pleasure. However, the mechas appearing on the scene are rendered extremely capable, and the details of the clanging gears, the burning and rotating power core, the twisting of the mechanical joints and the operation of the weapons have indeed fully embodied the worship of the tops of the mecha. Including the comparison of containers, ships, conventional military facilities and mechas, the giant will be more exaggerated. And that kind of slow fighting style is not my food, but it does reflect the unique sense of power in the industry. In one scene, an injured and dangerous wanderer roared down in the snow, with two humans standing next to him, which is a typical display of the extreme sadness and romance of mecha culture.
In "Pacific Rim 2", not to mention the abrupt domestic actors and Chinese elements. The presentation of mecha alone is not as interesting and sentimental as the previous one. Although there have been a lot of day battles (the large area of night in the first part is what I am not satisfied with), but the lack of that bulky power, even the battle between mecha and mecha does not reflect the relationship between steel Collision . On the contrary, it is a large number of holographic three-dimensional consoles, and the flexibility and ingenuity that are obviously born out of information-based aesthetics, and the texture is not good. From this point of view, the film has indeed become more like "Transformers", such as the "boxer" created by the little girl alone, a bumblebee.
In fact, if you want to reflect the retro industrial atmosphere, you must not only think about the appearance of the mecha, but also deliberately adopt crude or even outdated methods in shooting. For example, it is similar to a special film, using a physical model, or deliberately "stiff" in terms of the lens.
Although the gyro's "Pacific Rim" is lackluster on the lens, it basically follows the Japanese way. In the second part, the director obviously lacked thinking about mecha culture, obsessed with similar themes, and lacked production experience, which led to the neglect of these links. This is why people criticized that the second movie has been indistinguishable from those vulgar Hollywood blockbusters.
In addition, there is no ingenuity in the play, and even the classic soundtrack is completely changed. The bad reputation naturally makes sense.
PS: I can't be Jing Tianfen no matter what I think, but her silly performance in the film, I think it is more of a screenwriter and a photographer. That line was obviously not written according to Chinese habits, but rather abruptly translated from English, and the translation was overweight. Not to mention photography, I can't shoot Chinese people at all, let alone illuminate.
PPS: As the son of Mr. Dongmu, Scott Eastwood's acting and receiving skills, why is it so unbelievable?
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