First of all, I am not really cold with the old version of "Superman". Even most of the movies before the 70s I basically can't see it, except for those classic dramas and super-technical ones, such as "Ben Xu". It's nothing else, it's just technically unacceptable. The sci-fi movies (or movies with visual effects) of the same period are even more senseless, also based on technical reasons, even "Star Wars", because I watched "Star Wars" relatively late, watching "Alien" and "Terminator" is earlier, and there is a reason: in our small town, the midnight video hall will play more "powerful", and "superman" such "elegant" is rarely played. Later, after the popularization of VCD, large-scale film reading began.
Since the old version of "Superman" is insensible, what about the version after 2000? I can only say that it is a gay director who is filming the "male god". Every shot is looking up, and every shot is an exquisite close-up. In addition to keeping up with the times in special effects, in fact, it is still a re-enactment of the old version of Superman. Brian Singer completed a self-satisfaction. And Zach Snyder's "Steel Superman" opened up another pattern.
About the story
Many people say that the quality of "Iron Superman" is entirely attributed to the production of Nolan Great God. I don't agree with this statement. Just like "Batman Restart", Nolan and David Goyer have indeed created a bad movie close to reality. The superman of the realm, but the glory in the overall degree of completion goes to my big brother! Having said that, I would like to talk about Zach Snyder's "Watchmen". It is a movie I like very much. Meet my appetite. Zach Snyder can actually tell stories, and he is also calm. In his earlier works, due to investment factors, he would rely on his time-tested housekeeping skills (in fact, his own lens sense, Many people say that there is a style, but in fact, I don't think there is a style. Each film has a completely different but impressive lens set) to enhance the overall look and feel. Even the negative review of "Pretty Girls Squad" has a very powerful and tricky synthetic long shot at the end, which is amazing. Having said so many other things, I pulled back "Superman", the flashback editing of Superman's growth, I guess it was also forced by a helpless compromise, right? If the previous process is lengthened, it will inevitably become a lot like the "Watchmen", "Superman" such a large investment, you must leave time for the chaos. Everyone wants to watch Superman, right?
The story of "Steel Superman" starts from Krypton, a planet that is developing in a completely different direction from the earth’s civilization. It has advanced science and technology, but a very traditional system of culture: for example, it has been developed to be able to build interstellar spacecraft, but it still retains riding. The tradition of riding the beast. I don't know if there has been a description of Krypton in the previous "Superman" movies or comics, but this step is done in "Superman" although it is not very large, but it is very grand. Then Superman was sent to the earth, and most of the stories in the previous version started from the earth. The main story of the film’s earth begins with Superman’s search for himself. As mentioned in the previous article, this could have been done. I even suspected that it had been filmed, and then cut it. Flashback is the most economical way.
Another biggest change is that when Clark started working as a reporter, Louise already knew his true identity. I think it makes sense, because it’s like wearing underwear. Clark is no longer known when he wears glasses. ? This is ridiculous.
about. . fight
Please allow me to say first: Akira Toriyama is really a great action director. The animated version of "Dragon Ball" does not have the essence of manga, and "Steel Superman" did it. "The Matrix 3" has been tried, but it has done a bit of momentum until the end, but the action design is too bad.
In the action scenes of "Superman", the passage between Superman VS General Zod’s female first mate and the big man is really high. Although Zach gave up the previous fast and slow handover shots, it was a fast fight, but There is no feeling of seeing clearly, and every movement and editing can be seen clearly. This is by no means easy to do, nor is it a job that can be done purely by motion direction. Zach Snyder has a lot of his own in motion design. Set of. Often in this kind of chaos, the choreographer will make the characters...different colors in order to let the audience distinguish each character, doesn't it sound very mentally retarded? But it is really useful, please refer to "Transformers" and "Avengers". In "Transformers", the blog is colorful and the Decepticons are all dark and metallic. The same setting in "Reunion" is the same. It is not so much about shaping the characters, it is better to be lazy. In "Superman", although the clothes of Superman and the villain are different, the colors are all dark, and in a fast fight, you may think you can't see clearly, but in fact there is no such situation. No, I'll talk about it later in the photography part.
Many people think that the ending battle is just bumping into each other. It may seem like that, but I think that paragraph that focuses on destructive power still makes a very interesting trick. For example, Zord’s desperate violent actions were vividly shown in his actions. There was a scene of a collision with Superman upstairs and downstairs, and Ya actually used a dog-climbing style. . . . Later, he unloaded his armour for a duel, and wanted to remind him of "Dragon Ball." In the comics, Wukong or other people would often have weight-bearing fights to do warm-up exercises, and then unarmored to start the real duel. The only shortcoming of this section is that the scene is too single, I think it should be completed by adding a field field. In this regard, Ang Lee's "The Hulk" does a good job. In fact, the production cost of fighting in the wild is lower.
And this time Superman's destructive power is really amazing, just like the senior Hong Xiu Tianfan said, it is not really serious, but feels. Many action scenes in "Iron Superman" broke the "moral bottom line" of Hollywood comic hero movies. Maybe some people would say that there is a moral bottom line in the action scenes? There is. For example, when you recall the destruction in many movies, although it is full of momentum, there are few shots of direct victims of innocent people. (Please note that I'm talking about the comic hero movie) The ground of the exploded plane must be sea or wasteland, the people in distress will be rescued, and the damage object must not indicate the presence of human beings. And these, I call the "moral bottom line" of the action scene, Superman broke all of these. And this kind of shocking psychological hint, the dark lens tone also played a role that can not be ignored. Take the street battle section and the “gravitational collider” section produced by Krypton as examples. In the ending battle, because there has been a round of destruction and the bright buildings, I don't feel so worried.
Regarding special
effects, special effects should be entirely for the film. In Hollywood, only a limited number of directors can really overcome the temptation to show off their skills. In Zach Snyder's early works, as I said earlier, there is a clear tendency to show off his skills. In fact, I think many directors are like this. This is often a process of growth. It's like expecting money to spend when you don’t have money. Suddenly, you really have money. You have to take a good time. Well, it’s a nouveau riche. Mentality. When you gradually become rich, you will learn how to spend money. The upstart mentality is not so obvious. The performance in special effects is to make some special effects that the audience (or the owner of the movie company) "sees". Look, I did spend my money. When you are almost done, you will start to learn how to use special effects well. . And those dudes who were "rich" at the beginning did not have this process, such as Spielberg, haha.
The non-biological special effects of "Superman" are purely technically difficult, and there is no breakthrough. They are basically rigid body collisions, particle systems, and synthesis, but in particular, the action attributes of "Superman" are the premise. Let these special effects have no "display space", I roughly recalled that in the past movies with many special effects, almost any place where special effects was displayed, the speed must be slower, for fear that you can't see the exquisiteness of the model and the texture. The details, ray tracing rendering is powerful, but it is often the result of the dazzling technique when it is slow. I sometimes wonder whether this is the problem of the director or the special effects company. In order to show the technology, the special effects company will Xuanji, if you are a director, you should be like Zha Ge. I need special effects to complete my awesome shots. If special effects companies want to show off their skills, let's shoot commercials.
Let’s talk about the digital avatars in "Superman". Everyone knows that avatars are used by big-name celebrities when it’s dangerous shots or backs. This is very common in traditional action movies, but in the digital age, everything is impossible. Digital avatars will be used in real shots or in some specific scenes. In the fighting scenes of "Superman", almost all the mid-range and long-range action shots are digital doubles, and there are even some close-ups of Superman in non-fighting scenes, and the back view is not real. When I watched it the first time, I was dazzled and excited, and I didn't have time to take care of it. When I watched it the second time, I started to pay attention to these details. And I guess that Kryptonian heavy armor is often drawn by CG on real people, because although there is no visual difference between the armor and the armor drawn by CG, the walking posture of the person can be seen, and it is very obvious. Later, I saw a video footage in which the director’s explanation confirmed my guess. The most memorable use of "digital doubles" is the CG fights in "Blade Warrior 2" and "Hellboy 1" by Gilmour de Dolo, who is also known as the red panda, which used digital doubles. It is quite amazing. You know that these two movies are very early, but I still have a deep memory and made that kind of unreal but cool shots. Unfortunately, the usage in many movies is just the idea. Want to be as real as possible, but not cool.
About photography
I have seen a lot of people’s comments before, saying that the non-action shots of "Iron Superman" are very similar to the style of Terrence Malick ("Tree of Life" and "Day of Heaven"), but I can see it a little bit more clearly. Yes, it feels very different. Terrence Malick’s style is a kind of lingering feeling at a moderate distance. The photographer must have carried Steadicam on his back. The lens is very stable and looks very comfortable. "Superman" is not at all. Aerial photography is rarely used in the whole film. The standard equipment for Steadicam and large movies such as rails and rockers seems to be the most used on the shoulder. The characteristic of the shoulder is the smoothness of the image. It’s not very smooth, but it’s not as swaying as a hand-cranked mirror. The most obvious thing about the hand-cranked wind is that the screen of Bournemouth 2&3 is extremely informative, and the mirror can be cut frequently. The street battle in the middle of "Superman" obviously benefited from the choice of close-up photography. A large amount of picture information can be used to form a macro perspective of the fighting scene, starting from small points to develop the level of the entire battle scene. Just imagine, if you are shooting with large-scale stabilization equipment, it is more difficult to capture details. As a result, the scenes look like big scenes. Excellent action design + a lot of action details = cool play.
Another major feature of "Steel Superman" photography is the use of a large zoom lens for manual zooming. The basic principle of this technique is that the large zoom lens can easily switch between the panoramic view and the close-up. This is very often used in news events. There will be a sense of presence, that is, for the sense of reality. Quentin is used in many of these techniques, but Quentin’s approach is a kung-fu film born out of the "Shaw Brothers" era. Often, when expressing atmosphere and characters, he quickly pushes from the panoramic view to the close-up of the face to create impact. In fact, Quentin is a little joking. The technique in "Steel Superman" is a rigorous live reporting mode of breaking news. Show the overall situation with a wide angle, and quickly push to highlight the main points of the news protagonist. The whole film is almost full of such methods, and the director thinks of all the ways to pull the seriously untrustworthy comic hero "Superman" off the altar and let him fall to the ground. It's really well-intentioned.
Finally, I want to say how the first time Superman put on the Superman suit in the Krypton spacecraft, how did he shave his beard clean? Is there a razor in the Krypton spacecraft or does Superman bring it? Or is it super-powered? I was lost in thought...
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