The summer vacation this year was hot and long. In early August, some movie theaters nationwide were closed due to the epidemic, accounting for about 20% of the market. But guess what, it has no effect on the box office! Because even if the theater is open, there are not many movies to watch. With the announcement of "Changjin Lake", the only movie with a big hit in August disappeared. Compared with the 3.4 billion box office in August after the film market restarted last year, it has only passed 2 billion as of August this year, and this 2 billion might be even worse if it weren't for the sudden fix of last Friday's "Out of Control Player".
You can see the shadows of many other movies in "Out of Control Player", "Western World", "Trumen's World", "Groundhog Day", "Lego Movie", "The Matrix", "Number One Player" "etc. The director did not shy away from borrowing some high-level concepts from it. On the surface, it tells the story of an NPC in a game awakening from a daily repeated virtual life and deciding to be the hero, but in fact the core is still a traditional romance film.
The hero of the movie Guy (the name itself is full of metaphors) lives exactly the same or copy-and-paste life every day: greet the goldfish early, open the closet and put on the same blue shirt and khaki pants as yesterday. Then go to the street corner to have a cup of "medium roasted" coffee, and then go to the bank to work with his friend Buddy (ibid., the name is also seemingly random but there is room for interpretation). With the sound of robbery guns outside the counter, the two calmly lay down on the ground and waited for everything to be over before going to the beach for a drink. The sun rose the next day, and everything was repeated again as usual.
I don't know how many people feel sad when they see this scene. After being an adult, it is embedded as a part in the huge machine of society, doing repetitive work and living a repetitive life every day, being a "normal person" "normally". If someone suddenly tells you that all of this is fake, and the greatest significance of your existence is to entertain others as a background or wait to be harvested, what would you do?
Guy's sudden awakening comes from meeting the heroine Millie, love at first sight and destiny. Originally an NPC, in order to chase girls, he broke the rules and snatched the players' glasses, thus opening up a whole new world. Afterwards, like all the old-fashioned, tacky, and cliché stories, the male protagonist worked hard to upgrade the game (earning money and equipment) in order to win the favor of the beauty, and even staged a stage where the hero saves the beauty. I have to say that although these plots are too old-fashioned, you can even guess the direction of the story with your toes, but thanks to the charisma of the actors themselves, when you see two people walking on the beach and eating bubblegum flavors on the big screen Ice cream, swinging happily in the night, and even two relaxing, sparkling, intoxicating kisses... Enough, Enough, Enough.
The performance of the actor Ryan Reynolds in the film was basically in line with expectations, but there was not much surprise. It seemed that under the blue shirt, there was still a shadow of "little cheap". Mainly because the script itself did not give him more room to play, most of the time he only needed to play the smiling "good guy" obediently, to help others, protect the community, and at the same time to love the heroine, all this is written in In his code genes.
The performance of the heroine Judy Comer is more eye-catching. I believe most people know that she is because of the American drama "Kill Eve", and she was also given the nickname "Little Pervert" for her wonderful performance in this drama. In this film, she simultaneously portrays the beautiful and sassy "Molotov cocktail" in the game and the frustrated game developer in reality. It feels like one person plays two roles. If this film were described from her perspective, it might be more interesting.
There are also some supporting roles and easter eggs that have become the highlights of the whole film, such as Boss Qian played by the otaku loser in his 20s who is still playing games in his mother’s house, and Guy in version 2.0-"Dude" who can’t understand the words. Look at this name), and the sudden appearance of the US team and the sound of "Star Wars" music when the lightsaber strikes, once again demonstrated Disney's super powerful ip linkage effect.
In comparison, the villain is the least brilliant or even the worst performing part. I wonder if it is due to the excessive exaggeration of the actor's performance or the bug in the script itself. Anyway, seeing the president of this brain-disabled game company makes people think, why? Can this kind of person become the top of the industry? There is no logic to decide based on the mood, and at the end, a hand axe to slash the server room? Too drama and too over.
Speaking of what a qualified popcorn blockbuster should have? Scenes, special effects, characters? No, no, the most important thing is-"no brain is cool"! Don’t forget why ordinary viewers buy tickets to enter the cinema? For entertainment, to pass the time, to be happy, to change your mind! No one wants to watch a film full of metaphors and meaning after a busy week of work, and one needs to watch countless film reviews to understand it. At the cinema, entertainment comes first.
"Out of Control Player" did it, even if it was full of clichés.
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