After watching "Black Panther", I was deeply shocked by Marvel's business acumen, especially their business experience in the movie.
The film itself is a fairly satisfactory film. The typified narrative is very conventional, the tension of several scenes is diluted by the bad rhythm, the structure is also very mediocre, and the audiovisual language is not considered superior in Marvel's movies.
However, this movie aroused my desire to discuss some extended topics. For example, I have seen some new things in Marvel's business book, and the issue of black hero images in American movies. These may make "Black Panther" an important icon in the history of popular culture, which is of great research value.
I think that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has done it now, and the real value is no longer provided by the original comics . It can also be seen from "Black Panther" that Marvel movies have tended to use the stories and characters in the comics as the substrate. The real gimmicks and highlights are almost based on the production of the movie itself.
As an outdated American comic fan, I used to write superhero movies. I always like to compare the plot, characters, or various hidden eggs in the movie with the original comics. Nowadays, I find more and more that if I want to say something nutritious in Marvel movies, I need to deliberately avoid the original. Now I'm going to dig some comics and put them in the movie. Unless you do science popularization for passersby, or pretend to be forced in front of non-American comic fans, it doesn't make much sense. So I shouldn't talk too much about comics in this article.
Then simply expand the scope of the discussion (that's why the writing is flying...).
1. Traditional movies are in danger
After the MCU was established, superhero movies began to quickly encroach on the space of traditional commercial movies. Many traditional types of entertainment films are facing the danger of marginalization. When people are eager to chase the new works of "Captain America", "Iron Man", and "Batman", no one cares about who can succeed Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Bruce Willis and other veteran action stars.
Traditional action movies have basically declared death, and new-style action movies have also developed slowly. On the eve of the establishment of the MCU, we can also see various action movies such as "The Bournemouth 3", "300 Warriors", "Rush to Kill", "The Hot Blood Detective", "Dynasty Change" and so on. The new-style spy movies headed by the "Bourne Shadows" series have become popular themes. Not to be outdone, the veteran series-007 also ushered in the era of Daniel Craig-the first "Casino Royale" was quite successful. At the same time, the slow-developing "Mission: Impossible" series has quickly reached the third episode.
At this time, action movies are still exploring the richer and more fickle tastes of audiences in the 21st century. It seems that people are tired of muscular, unsmiling tough guys (Dwayne Johnson is an exception!). Therefore, the screen action heroes created by people such as Matt Damon and Jason Statham are all characters with moderate builds, flexible movements, unique personalities, and exuding mystery. The market performance proved that the audience really liked them more.
In addition, action movies began to incorporate other types of elements. For example, "Blood Detective" is a combination of detective comedy, "Dynasty Change" is a counter-terrorism plus political thriller, and "Hunting to Kill" also has comedy and adventure elements. These attempts are sometimes quite successful.
But after "Iron Man", to be precise, when the MCU established the situation ("Captain America", "Thor", and even "Avengers"), traditional action movies no longer have a chance to breathe, old-school actions The stars were beaten down by a new generation of superheroes. Beginning in 2008, the number of genre film projects with action as the primary attribute has dropped sharply. In the past ten years, the action movies that can make people memorable are not as good as the output of similar movies in the 1990s. Therefore, "Ace Agent" is very worthy of our cherishment-although it is also a comic adaptation, its publisher is Icon Comics, a subsidiary of Marvel.
Together with action movies are the big-made science fiction movies. Whether it is cyberpunk or space epic, the number of projects approved for traditional science fiction films is also greatly reduced. On the one hand, science fiction movies are integrated with superhero movies on a large scale, and on the other hand, they have begun to improve the road of independent production of small and medium costs. Unless you are a sci-fi series that was once all the rage, or adapted from anime, the big studios will definitely think twice-this kind of project is too expensive, and superhero movies have met the basic needs of the public for sci-fi (of course , Veteran science fiction fans must look down on those naive settings in comics and movies).
At the moment, except for pillar products such as "Star Wars", which have been relatively moist, other works are very tangled in development. For example, the "Alien" series has been struggling to move forward. No matter how good the reputation of "Blade Runner 2049", the box office is still on the street. After the restart, "Star Trek" is also deep and shallow. Before the MCU, we could see a lot of masterpieces such as "Son of Man" and "I Am A Legend" with good foundation and high entertainment. Now, more large-scale original science fictions have either lost both at the box office and word-of-mouth, or no one cares about them at all. Instead, small and medium costs such as "Source Code" appear frequently. Therefore, "Interstellar" and "Martian Rescue" are sci-fi masterpieces with high investment scale and extremely high originality, which are worth remembering.
In the field of mainstream movies, the erosion of the two major genres of science fiction and action by superheroes is much more serious than we thought, and this is represented by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is like a behemoth, devouring the living space of many traditional genres. For the industry, this situation is naturally not bright, and it is very likely to limit the diversity of future blockbusters.
The emergence of "Black Panther" once again confirmed this trend. Unlike previous simple Marvel works, this is a movie with an extremely complex context. Because it not only proves once again the success of Marvel's "defamiliarization" creative ideas, but also inevitably involves the issue of skin color.
2. Unique Marvel works
"Black Panther" is far from Marvel's best quality work, but it is indeed quite unique. Because I just wrote about Oscars before, I will never use those four words again. But to discuss this movie in depth, it is really impossible to get around that problem. In any case, this film is very likely to become an important example in the academic circles to explore the relationship between mainstream films and popular culture.
As Marvel's 18th film and the first "gift film" for the 10th anniversary of MCU, "Black Panther" successfully set off the first wave of global box office hot topics this year. It stands to reason that when the 18th part of a large series is photographed, there are still very few hot discussions (of course, it is the credit of the "universe" concept). And "Black Panther" not only hit the North American box office, but also has a strong global expressiveness. Although the film is not well evaluated in China.
Marvel is now playing business and has basically reached the level of popularity of how to shoot and how to make money, and how to shoot. Even if you don't count the acquisition of Fox, many of Hollywood's top resources have been concentrated in Disney's hands (distressed DC for three seconds). Every year, Disney Marvel will contribute two or three movies that are enough to set off a global boom. This year, because of the big event "Avengers 3: Infinite War", the originally small "Black Panther" is not much of the attention. But judging from market feedback, the MCU's tenth anniversary celebration has been half-successful.
The alternative characteristics of "Black Panther" in the Marvel map are reflected in its different narrative style and the natural topicality of the characters. In essence, the film is a refurbishment of Thor. After abandoning the meaningless gag about the narrative, "Black Panther" was rarely serious in the Marvel universe-the laughter in the film was counted with one hand.
The first two parts of Thor are superficial imitations of Shakespeare's plays, while the third part completely gets rid of this attribute and becomes a pure fantasy comedy. As a result, we quickly saw the reappearance of Shakespeare in "Black Panther". This film can be simply understood as a variant version of "Hamlet", but this time it is the villain Eric that bears the hatred. Director Ryan Kugler also confessed that he loved "The Lion King" very much before. Needless to say, the story of this classic animation is based on it.
This time, "Black Panther" uses Shakespeare's elements more seriously than "Thor". Many places in the film also show its deconstruction: it is the protagonist's father who kills the brother, and the villain who seeks revenge becomes the villain. In "Hamlet", revenge is a legitimate means of regaining rights, and the hatred of the film alienates Eric, and finally makes him fend for himself. Not only "Hamlet", the passage after Techara was usurped by his cousin, is also similar to Shakespeare's "The Tempest". In addition, the court coup and the sporadic sections of the ending civil war all have the shadow of "Coriolanus" and "Macbeth".
After reducing unnecessary jokes, the drama of "Black Panther" is very obvious. I vaguely feel that Marvel is gradually delegating power to the director when developing a new single-player series. In this film, you can see the shadow of Ryan Coogler's own experience, such as his hometown of Oakland, where the murder occurred in the film. And the establishment of the overall style tone should have also listened to the director's suggestion. This may be a good thing. After all, for companies that develop multiple projects at the same time, it is almost impossible to fully control all details. At the same time, it may also make Marvel's style more diversified and more flexible in operation. However, I believe that Marvel still has to strictly supervise such important works as "The Avengers."
3. Inheritance and development of creative mode
Like "Ant-Man" and "Guardians of the Galaxy", the film adopts the strategy of defamiliarization creation. This involves the reorganization of traditional film types in the first part of this article. In the past, what we saw more was the combination of action and science fiction/fantasy in Marvel movies. In addition, "Captain America 2" adds political thriller/spy warfare elements, "Ant-Man" is a tribute to the theft crime film, and "Guardians of the Galaxy" has the fun of a B-level film. This time "Black Panther" is an exquisite combination of black culture and African culture. Marvel's genre/subject fusion ability is unique in the world.
At the beginning of the story, several shots were used to explain the general landscape of the African American neighborhoods in 1992. Immediately, when the perspective shifted to Wakanda, we saw a country with distinctive African cultural characteristics and a strong golden age of science fiction. This familiar and unfamiliar picture of African futurism gives people a strange and divided feeling.
Wakanda became the most advanced country in the world because of a meteorite gifted by heaven. If the current world pattern is "one super, many powerful", then in the MCU, this "super" must refer to Wakanda. This is like playing the "Civilization" series, other forces are still in the Renaissance, but your country has entered the atomic age long ago. To me, Wakanda no longer belongs to the earth.
In the trailer of "Reunion 3", we can see Techara organizing a huge army, with the decadent American team and Winter Soldier preparing to fight against the hegemony. This plot now seems to be very reasonable and effective. of. If you encounter a full-scale invasion by the Skuru or Cree in the future, you should not expect the Shia Empire to intervene, and Wakanda will be able to solve it with the reunion.
Closer to home. Ignoring the background setting of such thick lines, the landscape presentation in "Black Panther" has no way to miss the G-spot of the Americans. The black street culture in some scenes in the film, even if it only appears for a few minutes, can immediately greatly enhance the intimacy of the audience. The display of Wakanda satisfies the new imagination of the West in foreign countries. Besides, this is still a high-tech country, it is a revolution to white science fiction! You can blame this slightly post-colonial illusion, but you cannot deny its role in pushing the film up to a cultural phenomenon. Considering the new racial issues in the United States now, at least the black people have been screaming again and again.
In addition, it also infected African audiences. The film’s soundtrack, costumes, tattoos, and even accents all have strong African characteristics. It can be seen that this time, Hollywood has used its superhero themes, coupled with African national totems, and perfect visual images, to carry out another thorough cultural conquest of the third world.
The spectacle of "Black Panther" is no longer how realistic computer special effects, how intense action scenes, but a peculiar picture brought about by the god-given attributes of the character itself. In the past, we hardly saw kind and benevolent black kings in mainstream commercial films, but more warlords and tyrants like "The Last Dictatorship" and "The King of War". Black superheroes are also relatively rare, so "Nationwide Superman Hancock", "Men in Black" and "Blade Warrior" can be kept in people's minds. Among them, Will Smith has made a great contribution, but "Blade Warrior" is hard to say. What kind of climate has formed in the mainstream are more subcultures (please don't mention Halle Berry's "Catwoman").
The emergence of Techara changed this face, which is the effect of the defamiliarization creative strategy. So I said that Marvel is very good at film business. When they were developing "Black Panther", their minds must be extremely sane. They know that the film will catch up with social hot spots, and they know the consequences of blindly catering. Therefore, Marvel did not endow the film with more reality, but instead created a fantasy-like spectacle to refract reality and awaken the imagination in the audience's mind. smart.
Four, Marvel's business experience
For Marvel, who is wealthy and has won many battles, the small problem of "all black movies" is not easy to sell, they will not care at all. In the past, we always criticized the routine and homogenization of Marvel movies, but we must also think that Marvel must know better than anyone how to develop its industrial territory, and they must be the most aware of the drawbacks of their model.
This does not mean that Marvel can still rule the world after developing 20 movies. Marvel certainly has such problems now, but I think they are far from the end of the war. Whether it is a scornful critic or a worried fan, there is no need to worry about the possibility that Marvel might be too angry.
The key to the success of Marvel movies lies in their macro operation. In their current business strategy, the failure of one film is fine, and the failure of two films is also acceptable. This is based on their development rhythm, choice of subject matter, in-depth research on the concept of superheroes, and strong support from various surrounding industries. These are the doorways for them to do business.
Why does Marvel release two to three movies every year instead of more or less? Because it's about how to keep the audience's sense of satiety and hunger in a delicate balance. After several years of practice and market feedback, this amount of arrangement and schedule selection is considered to be the most effective at present.
When the MCU was just established, Marvel hadn't understood this well, or that they were still adjusting their strategies. In 2008, we ushered in "Iron Man" and "Invincible Hulk", but in 2009 there was no movie. Of course, this year they were bombarding marketing. In 2010, we only saw one "Iron Man 2", the response of the film was slightly less than expected, and then Marvel even more crazy marketing. In 2011, the concept of the Marvel Cinematic Universe became clear. The quality of "Thor" and "Captain America" was not satisfactory. At that time, some people shouted that Marvel was going to die. And Marvel itself? Sit back and relax, quite calm. In their eyes, the two films became cannon fodder and there was nothing to do with them. At that time, they had established clear thinking and sufficient self-confidence.
As a result, the 2012 "Avengers" detonated the world and the rise of empires.
With this phenomenon-level movie in 2012, Marvel knew that there was no need to chase after victory. They are proud of the annual box office as a winner. Yes, only this movie is needed. And the success of this film is inseparable from the foreshadowing of the previous three years. People realized that every movie is very important to Marvel's layout, even those that have become cannon fodder.
Since 13 years, Marvel has been outputting two films a year, regardless of the market response of the film, it will not change their rhythm. 13 years of "Thor 2" and "Iron Man 3" are a bit weak? It doesn't matter, 14 years of "Captain America 2" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" both detonated box office reputation. 15 years of "Avengers 2" is a bit bad? It's okay, I will give you a small and exquisite "Ant-Man" at the end of the year for a little comfort.
When you see Warner DC chasing head-on and Fox's "X-Men" universe is getting better and better, Marvel only needs to adjust its strategy slightly in the coming year to be assured again. Will there be "Batman v Superman" and "Suicide Squad" in 2016? Then "Captain America 3" will be upgraded to version 2.5 of the reunion. At the end of the year, there will be the underpinning of "Doctor Strange", and the popular idol volume will star in the lead, so don't worry. Is there a "Justice League" in 2017? Ah, it seems that the battle is quite big, so let's join forces with the half-dead Sony to launch three movies ("Guardians of the Galaxy 2", "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Thor 3"). In 2018, there was "Avengers 3", no one can beat us. However, in order to bridge the gap with DC, three movies per year can be considered.
As for the X-Men universe? Buy Fox directly (laughs).
Marvel is not ignorant of the importance of differentiated competition. They were indeed a little conservative before, only daring to make some improvements in the corners and corners, and the big tone was fixed. And now the appearance of "Black Panther" is an opportunity that is hard to miss: portraits of black people, seclusion, palace coups... the interesting stories naturally endowed by the original comics hit reality one by one. Needless to say, the black crowd seems to be self-explanatory. Isn't Wakanda's retreat and state closure an allusion to the wall? The change in court politics is a reverie of political turmoil. What a godsend! Just take this opportunity to explore more possibilities of MCU.
Regardless of whether the film itself is good-looking or not, I am quite sure of the way "Black Panther" handles such stimulating and realistic issues. The film can never deviate from the established direction of the Marvel Universe, and it is impossible to be too hard-cored like "Watchmen", with a distinct political nature. But at the same time, the film has made great strides to distinguish the tonality of Marvel's previous works. This film did not completely avoid these controversial topics. Of course, your film is full of black characters. It is difficult to avoid it, but it did not directly discuss them. The approach of "Black Panther" is to put these controversial issues in a safe comic world, only touch the reality with an ambiguous touch, and leave the rest of the thinking to audiences who are good at brainstorming, nothing more. The film’s narrative seriousness and very restrained action scenes are the best hints. It no longer uses jokes and fights to dissolve the text, but uses very serious dialogue and stories to guide you to think about some questions that you can definitely think of.
Among them, it also includes awakening Americans' memories of the historical "Black Panther" comics and the "Black Panther Party". Panthers first appeared in July 1966 as a member of the "Fantastic Four", and of course there is a suspicion of being a hot spot. Because 1966 was a crucial year when the black movement changed from "democratic power" to "black power." Three months after the comic was released, the Black Panther Party was established in Oakland, California. Did you notice? Not only the director’s hometown, but also the place where Tichaka killed the prince’s brother in the film. Is this just a coincidence? I believe it is to give crazy hints to people who are familiar with history. However, Marvel did not like such coincidences in the past, and once changed the Panther "Black Panther" to "Black Leopard".
You can say that this is the usual routine of Marvel or Hollywood. But in my opinion, this time the shaking machine is really quite advanced. Again, Marvel is so smart!
V. Transformation of the black screen image
There are many black images in American movies, and there are not no black heroes. "Black Panther" takes advantage of the comic's humor and popularity as a natural advantage to improve the black screen image.
The benefits of this, first of all, of course, enrich the role map of the MCU. After veteran figures such as Captain America and Iron Man have lost their freshness one after another, the Panthers have the strength to inherit their mantle. From the perspective of the world, Wakanda's vibrating gold is the extremely key Magffin (the other is the infinite gem) of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From the audience's point of view, the black panther's skin tone is his advantage.
Another person who has the strength to inherit the mantle is Carol Danfoss of Captain Marvel, which will be released in 2019-of course because of her gender advantage. Some clues can be seen from the foreshadowing of the recent comic release. With blacks and women, will MCU be more popular in the future?
Techara is different from the "Men in Black" and "Blade Warriors" we have seen before. He has no dark background, and he is not grassroots. He is a born nobleman and heir to the throne. Although his growth curve is very dry in the movie, we can still see his determination to reform the country in the end. It can be regarded as a prince who was a little weak and hesitant, and transformed into a wise king.
Among film viewers in the United States, a quarter of the audience is black. But for a long time, the black screen image has been in a state of aphasia . They are constantly alienated, vilified or avoided deliberately, such as "The Birth of a Country". Of course, there are also positive black images represented by "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Gone with the Wind", but their limitations are also very large. Basically, they participate in the story as a kind black slave.
After World War II, with the promotion of the democratic process, the black screen image gradually became established. Since the middle of the 20th century, black characters with kindness, toughness and independence have appeared on the screen. For example, the famous "Guess Who Is Over For Dinner" starring Sidney Poet is a phenomenon worthy of a book. Class black actor, once won an Oscar.
When the racism problem was alleviated, more black actors entered Hollywood and made remarkable achievements, such as Denzel Washington and Samuel Jackson. Among them, Will Smith has made many contributions to black film culture. His popular "Jedi Men" series, "Men in Black" series, "Independence Day", "Mechanical Enemy" and "I Am Legend" and other films have taken the world by storm, and have established very distinctive black aesthetics, such as hip-hop clothing and The unique speaking style of blacks.
This also inevitably produced a stereotype of black symbolism. For example, he was born in the grass roots, advocated street culture, talked about tuberculosis, had radical views, and was random and even had a messy and poor living environment. In addition, many rebellious black characters created on the screen often achieved their goals with the help of friendly whites. Even in the "Men in Black" of the 90s, you can still vaguely see this creative inertia-if there is no recommendation from the white agent K, how can J join the Man in Black?
Therefore, the appearance of "Black Panther" is indeed an update of the black screen image. To say that he is the first black hero in film history is certainly not accurate. But his definition of black heroes can be said to be sublimated and extended. Of course, there are also some meanings of the times making heroes.
The differences between Techara and previous black heroes have already been mentioned in the previous article and will not be repeated here. In addition, the first easter egg at the end also reveals why Techara is more popular than previous black heroes: when he announced that he would no longer implement the closed-door policy, fully implement reform and opening up, and build a community with a shared future for mankind, The white reporter at the bottom asked: What can a country full of farmers bring to the world? Hearing this question, the things in Techara’s eyes are quite intriguing: he is proud of himself as an African and the king of a country, and he also ridicules and sympathizes with the ignorant white people, and moreover is backward and chaotic. The dissatisfaction and love of the world. This candy was really sent to the hearts of black people!
For this reason, the agent Ross played by Martin Freeman, although seemingly tasteless in the narrative structure (a resident character in the comics, here is only about the movie), he deliberately avoids the film on the surface, and is crazy behind it. The theme played a very critical role.
After Agent Rose's spine was penetrated, it was the black country with high technology that saved him. After he recovered, he almost completely became a Marco Polo character. According to common sense, the main function of this kind of outsider is to play a substituting perspective that leads the audience into another world, similar to a tour guide. But Agent Ross in this film is completely different, because he only appeared in the second half of the story, and we have already learned more about Wakanda through the lens than him, and we can be his tour guide instead.
Then Agent Ross played a more important role in bridging the two worlds of black and white. In fact, the focus is on a four-character topic.
Let me first say that the reason why this movie is not well-reviewed in China is of course that for many people, the story is not full enough, and there are even few action scenes, and even some people do not like to watch black movies. Objectively speaking, the story of the film is indeed very gentle, but this is not the focus of the main creator. The primary task of "Black Panther" is to use reality as a means to stimulate discussion and to better enrich the character map of the MCU. By then, "Captain Marvel" will definitely do the same (but there is already "Wonder Woman" before, Marvel should have something different). In order to accomplish this task, the film needs to solve several problems in the play, such as how to erase the role of Crow. The solution to these problems is basically not to improve visibility as a priority, but more like to effectively trigger the topic.
No matter how bad the film is evaluated domestically or how well it is evaluated abroad, it is behind this drama strategy. It's not for our low evaluation, because without that context, it is difficult to get a point.
Therefore, the film first made a lot of articles on the villain Crowe, this is to solve the historical problems related to the MCU and the comic universe. In Crowe, we have seen the damage caused by the "evil" of white people to the homeland of black people. This not only implies racial contradictions, but also hints at colonial issues , which in turn proves that Wakanda's retreat policy is very necessary. But later, we found that this white "evil" was only successful because of the help of black people. Isn't this interesting to compare the phenomenon that black characters used to resist successfully with the help of white people?
But Crowe was shot by the bigger villain, Eric, who was also black. Later, Wakanda not only ushered in the dying agent Ross, but Techara was successfully usurped by his cousin. At this point, the audience realized that race and colonial issues were no longer established, and the blacks themselves had conflicting positions. However, the film has completed the task by this time, because it reminds you of this kind of problem. So far, this alien imagination, which is all black residents, has the meaning of deconstruction and subversion. The princess Suri calling Rose a "colonialist" is no longer just a joke, but has been given a complex and profound meaning of the post-colonial era.
At the end of the fight, after satisfying the audience’s brainstorming on social hotspots, all deep-seated standpoint issues are reduced to small and trivial matters-to reduce everything to hatred, and use action dramas to make the audience. Relax . Including Detective Ross, they fought a life-and-death battle for Techara to regain the throne, and almost brought himself to justice. To help the black man so boldly is naturally also spurring the white man's G-spot. But what do you want to say about how these treatments have improved the interest and viewing of the film? Quite weak.
Therefore, it is more interesting to talk about the film from the perspective of mainstream American public opinion and popular cultural phenomena than to analyze the quality of the film itself. However, a mediocre work is a mediocre work, and nothing can be changed.
PS: A country whose technology has surpassed the age and has the highest productivity in the world, is still implementing a monarchy, and still retains the tribal social structure! It's amazing!
PPS: Lupita Nyong'ao's battle styling at the end of the film, which is just two pigtails.
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