"Battle Angel: Alita" is James Cameron's ten-year work, adapted from the comic "Gun Dream" created by Yukito Kijo in the early 1990s. Cameron has always been a technological innovator in the film industry. In film production, Cameron has always insisted on creating technology, not just using technology. From "Alien 2" to "Terminator", from "Titanic" to "Avatar", Cameron has been committed to pioneering the technology of the film industry, whether it is the large-scale use of special effects or motion capture, Cameron has always been Demonstrating to everyone that "it turns out that movies can still be shot like this". The technological innovation of "Battle Angel" lies in the use of extremely realistic CG characters created by motion capture, which is the first of its kind to be filmed with real people. If we simply talk about motion-captured CG characters + real people, it's actually nothing new. However, the reason why "Battle Angel" can be regarded as a technological pioneer in today's film industry is because this film only does a lot of extremely simulated CG characters and in-depth interaction and even "chaos" scenes with real people. This is the previous use of CG+ A level of technology that cannot be achieved by live-action videos.
With the current level of development of the film industry, it is not difficult to make CG characters. But the most difficult part is to show the details of the CG character, such as the light and shadow of the eyeballs, the dynamics of the hair, and the action state of a lot of mobilizing muscle movements. In the past, most of the CG characters can only build models of the appearance of the human body. There is no problem with medium shots, long shots, and panoramas. However, when it comes to close-up and close-up, it is easy to reveal "horses", and the details and muscle activities of the human body are not realistic enough. . But the reason why Alita, the CG character of "Battle Angel", is not afraid of close-up and close-up, is precisely because the special effects company models the bones, muscles, skin, hair and clothes (including the transformed body of the character) separately and then synthesizes them. From the skeletal movement, it imitates the real movement mode, which makes the CG character Alita highly simulated, overcomes the "uncanny valley" effect of the previous CG characters, and almost achieves the real effect. In order to fully integrate the CG characters into the real-life shooting scene, at least two materials need to be shot during the shooting process: one is the material that the motion capture actors and the real actors perform together, so as to fully present the interaction between the CG characters and the real actors in the future; the other It is a pure live actor performance material without motion capture actors, so as to facilitate the addition of CG characters in the later stage. In "Battle Angel", CG characters participated in all the action scenes, and the scheduling of these action scenes was extremely complicated. It is conceivable how much work was involved in the process of filming and post-production.
Among the many action scenes in "Battle Angel", the most noteworthy is the action scene where Alita and the bounty hunter fight in the Kansas tavern. In this scene, there are fully real actors (Dr. Ede and Hugo, etc.), "transformed" actors (several bounty hunters including Zapan), and the CG character Alita. When it was finally presented on the big screen, this scene was rich in scenes, and the editing rhythm was smooth and fast. It is conceivable that not only a large amount of material was taken in the early shooting, but also the special effects and CG production workload in the later stage was unimaginable. Compared with the first battle between Alita and the transformed man, which can be produced by pure CG, and several later mobile iron ball games, this scene of mixing live actors, special effects actors and CG characters can be described as the highest level in the current film industry. A full display.
In addition, when making the CG character Alita, the film bravely "stepped on" one of the biggest difficulties in current CG production: hair. With today's special effects technology, it is not difficult to make flowing hair. Three years ago, "Zootopia" was able to make the furry fur of animals look real. But Battle Angel takes CG hair production to the next level—challenging woolen fabrics and wet hair. After the CG character Alita was reshaped, the first set of clothes was a sweater. The reason why sweaters are difficult to make is that the wool is woven from countless wool fibers. The fibers are crisscrossed and irregularly arranged under a regular structure, and the color and light are very complex. If you recall the clothing designs of the CGs of the previous movies, most of them are fabrics with no obvious features. In "Battle Angel", the design of a high-simulation sweater appeared, and two scenes were used to show the dynamic image of the sweater, which can be said to be one of the breakthroughs in CG technology.
Another breakthrough is hair in water and wet hair. Alita, Hugo and others came to the lake to see the Huolian spaceship. Alita jumped into the water and entered the spaceship from the water to get back the Berserker mecha. There are a lot of scenes of Alita swimming in the water, and Alita's hair is wet after getting out of the water. The state of the hair in the water is difficult to express, especially Alita's hairstyle is loose medium-length hair, and the movement of the hair in the water requires very complex modeling. For wet hair, there are lumps, scattered strands, and water flowing and dripping on the hair. One frame needs to create numerous layers to express the wet hair. In this short film of a few minutes, the wet state of the hair accounted for most of it, and it was done quite realistically. Such complex special effects technology without ready-made models was not involved in all the previous CG technologies. Perhaps only Cameron, who has always been at the forefront of film industry technology, has the courage to challenge such cutting-edge CG production technology.
In the creation of "Battle Angel", James Cameron is both a producer and a screenwriter. It is obvious from the film that Cameron is very clear about how much special effects and CG can be done, and how to do it. There are very clear considerations to bring these cutting-edge film industry technologies to the extreme. From the overall plot advancement and character evolution, to the scene setting and character arrangement of each scene, Cameron has a clear design purpose, and does not miss any opportunity that can be used to showcase the beauty of industrial technology. This also makes the film finally show the most cutting-edge production technology in the Hollywood film industry, which is jaw-dropping. It can be said that Cameron is worthy of the title of "Card God" by fans, and is the real leader of the world film industry. The beauty of industrial technology shown by "Battle Angel" is certainly one aspect. On the other hand, as an adaptation of the Japanese manga "Gun Dream", "Battle Angel" has some points worth thinking about.
When I was writing "Crazy Alien", I once wrote that there are three ways to adapt a movie, one is to take only the form, the other is to take only the spirit, and the third is to take both the form and the spirit. The three are indistinguishable, and all have their own strengths. There is no doubt that "Battle Angel" is an adaptation of the shape, borrowing the content of the first part of "Gun Dream" to tell a typical American youth story. The core driving force for the growth of Alita, the protagonist of the film, is the family relationship gradually developed with Dr. Ide. In addition to Alita and the doctor, the relationship between several groups of core characters, including Ide and his ex-wife Qilian, Qilian and Alita, Alita and her lover Hugo, and Hugo and his friends, the emotional core is also Affectionate or an emotional bond resembling kinship. Family and affection (including love similar to family bond) are the core concepts adopted in American youth films (or more broadly, American hot-blooded films). The protagonist always loses old relatives (or lovers) and gains new ones Relatives (or lovers) and strengthening existing family relationships (or family-like love) to gain action thrust and complete the growth or transformation of characters. This American-style story-driven core may originate from the long-standing humanistic thought in the United States. Thanks to its unique geographical location and historical conditions, the United States has few overall crises and pressures from outside, so it has enough space and conditions to pursue self-realization. To give an example that I don’t know if it is appropriate, it is also a film about World War II. The Soviet Union’s perspective is often to show the suffering caused by the war to ordinary people. The German perspective is often a reflection on collective irrationality, while the American perspective is generally It is the sublimation of individual human nature, and it often carries some religious connotations. In fact, American hot-blooded movies often talk about personal growth and redemption with some religious overtones. The same goes for Battle Angel, as I wrote in my review of The Wandering Earth, American-style sci-fi movies will always have a Christian-style personal redemption and holy land complex, where Alita single-handedly saves (or Probation) people, and regard Salem Sky City as a place with the color of a holy place, which is actually a standard American complex. At the same time, there is an interesting and very American detail that Alita's mecha technique incorporates some Wing Chun, some free fighting and some karate, taekwondo, and her technique of using a Damascus steel knife also has some Japanese kendo and Iaido's style, this kind of "bringing" style of integration, can be said to be very American.
Under the limitation of this cultural context, "Battle Angel" chooses to present the character relationship with Alita as the core as a network similar to family relationship, and presents the Iron Town as a kind of fairy tale city, with the Cold Sky City presents a picture similar to a holy place, which is a very natural choice. However, this way of presentation has a certain gap with the original work of "Gun Dream". This gap can be regarded as a change in the adaptation process of "Battle Angel", which is affected by the context of the creator, which is an inevitable core replacement. This replacement makes "Battle Angel" more like an American movie, which can be stripped of the original and become an independent movie story.
If we go back to the context of the original "Gun Dream", we will find that the film's adaptation of it is almost subversive. "Gun Dream" was created in Japan around 1993. It is a cartoon with strong characteristics of the times and society. At that time, Japan had just experienced the bubble period in the 1980s and the bubble burst and financial collapse in 1990. The prosperity and glitz of the bubble period collapsed in an instant, and the entire social economy fell into lasting stagnation or even retrogression. The 1990s is known as Japan's "lost decade", and during this period, a large number of sci-fi animation works, including "Gun Dream" and later regarded as masterpieces, were produced - "Mobile Police" and "Engagement in the Shell". "Mobile Team", "Evangelion", "Cowboy Bebop", etc. These works are rich in profound philosophy based on the background of the times, and have extremely strong thoughts on the universe, the world, society, technology and people themselves.
In the world of Gun Dream, the scrap iron town below the Sky City of Salem (called "Steel Town" in the movie) is the place where Sky City dumps garbage and produces materials for Sky City. Here, the concept of "people" is confusing, almost everyone is a modified person (Cyborg), and the "original" flesh boy (meat boy) hardly exists. The so-called transformation of people is completely different from what we imagine. People can be transformed into any shape, trucks, firearms or even worms. As long as they are installed with human brains and spines, they can be called "humans". It is precisely because people have lost their original shape and social functions that in this world, the so-called dignity of people has been dissolved in scrap iron town. Just as the name of "scrap iron", all things, including "people", It's all garbage that can be "recycled". Any "original" human body is the prey in the eyes of many "scientists" in Scrap Iron Town. Once someone loses the ability to resist, they will be dismembered and transformed, and they are forced to become slaves who pay for the "transformation" with labor. . This logic is so impeccable and ironic-humans have created technological civilization, and then they have become "garbage" enslaved by technological civilization.
This social structure coincides with the Japanese society of the "lost decade". In the bubble era, ordinary people created a lot of wealth, and spent the next few decades of wealth through extreme enjoyment; after the bubble burst, a large number of people went bankrupt overnight because of the disappearance of these illusory wealth. Once a "professional elite" with infinite glory, now only his wife and family are separated and homeless. Recalling that wearing gold, silver and brocade clothes and food back then seemed like a fantasy. A large number of enterprises have closed down and laid off employees, many employees have been abandoned as bare shoes, their dignity has been lost, and the suicide rate has gradually increased, which is still high today. It is also in this social environment that all people are under enormous pressure to survive, and artists are forced to think deeply about the meaning of human existence. This is also an extremely absurd scene, just like when Anno Hideaki was filming "Evangelion", he originally wanted to make a mecha fighting animation no less than "Gundam", but he had to enter consciousness because of insufficient funds. At the philosophical level of the stream, he accidentally created a "sacred work". Although the creative process of "Gun Dream" is not as dramatic as "EVA", it also reflects the unique social thought of that era.
The spiritual core of "Gun Dream" is valuable in that even in a state of indignity and enslavement, the heroine Gary (Alita in the film) still blooms into a flower of hope. This is a very characteristic spiritual core rooted in Japan's "gorgeous destruction" culture and sublimated. This is a social thought worthy of in-depth study. It was like a flash in the pan at the end of the Showa era and the beginning of the Heisei era, and it was reflected in a large number of animation works at that time. Japan once had a "Showa spirit", if viewed without any political standpoint, it was a sharp, dull and resolute trend of thought, with a strong spirit of collectivism and idealism, even in order to achieve the belief in The goal is to "break the jade" (indignantly, it is this trend of thought that brought deep suffering to East Asia, especially China, in the early 20th century). The Showa era just ended in the special year of 1989 - this was the eve of the bursting of the Japanese bubble, and also the year when the Cold War completely disintegrated and the world situation changed drastically. Since 1990, Japan has entered the Heisei era (by the end of this year, it is exactly 30 years). Although the first ten years of Heisei were "lost ten years", the backbone of politics, economy and culture at this time were all grown in The people of the Showa era, enslaved by the pressure of the bust, retained a certain degree of Showa-style idealism. Therefore, Gary, the flower of hope that bloomed in the environment of extreme lack of dignity and extreme enslavement and oppression in Gunmeng, can be regarded to a certain extent as a highly condensed symbol of this unique trend of thought in Japan at that time.
The reason why this trend of thought at the end of the Showa era and the beginning of the Heisei era is unique is that with the changes of the times and the aging of the backbone at that time, this trend of thought was quickly hidden in the trend of historical development and gradually disappeared. The concept of "Heisei dolphin" as we know it now was born in the mid-2000s, and the young people of this era were born in the bubble era and grew up in the "lost decade". In their childhood, they experienced the whole process from extreme flamboyance to social collapse, and when they gradually entered the society, Japan's economic growth was slow and the social structure was hardened. The so-called "ideal" and "struggle" have become shameful characteristics. Therefore, in today's era, after these young people have become the backbone of society, they have gradually constructed a social trend of thought that has lost their ideals and is almost desperate. Therefore, there are quite a number of animation works today. Endless oppression was created for the spiritual core. This kind of "mourning" trend of thought has gradually become the mainstream culture in Japan to a considerable extent. I don't know if this trend of thought will change after changing the era. It is precisely because the social ideological trend has completely changed, so even if "Gun Dream" is adapted to today's Japanese directors, I am afraid it will no longer be able to shoot the same spiritual core; even if it is completely in accordance with the context of the 1990s It's unlikely to resonate widely these days either. This time-bound contextual limitation is even greater than the cross-cultural contextual limitation encountered in the adaptation of "Battle Angel".
However, the limitation of this context is only an external condition. If we consider "Battle Angel" as an independent film, this limitation is actually not much of a problem. However, it can be seen from the script written by Cameron that, as an older filmmaker, Cameron's dramatic aesthetic has certain characteristics of the times. Judging from the current viewing habits, the plot of "Battle Angel" is relatively slow, especially the opening rhythm is slow, with some commercial imprints of the previous era. If it was written by a young screenwriter today, perhaps the opening scene would not choose to show the relationship between the Sky City of Salem and Iron Town, but would choose a fast-paced motorized iron ball game or an intense action scene. Go straight to the unfolding of the plot.
The film industry technology shown in "Battle Angel" is astounding. As a filmmaker, I am really in awe of Cameron and Rodriguez. As a Hollywood commercial blockbuster, "Battle Angel" is definitely worth buying a ticket to watch in the cinema, please remember to buy 3D IMAX.
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