Unsurprisingly, as soon as the live-action animation "Slam Dunk 2: A New Legend" starring LeBron James was released, the comment area exploded.
The IMDB score of 4.3, the Rotten Tomatoes index of 30%, and the Metacritic index of 36 are all imaginable data. After all, Jordan’s “Slam Dunk in the Sky” was also criticized by the industry. But as far as the year was concerned, the experiment of combining real people and animation, and the commercial operation of bundling the two IPs of Jordan and Bugs Bunny were very successful.
But "Slam Dunk 2" is different. It has neither technical innovation nor mythological cohesion. Although it can still attract people's attention, it relies more on controversy. Judging from the status of the comment areas of various websites and major forums, the discussion of this movie is no longer a "movie event", but a "basketball event" or "star event". The core discussions not only focused on the historical status of James and Jordan, but also involved the historical grievances between James fans and other star fans (especially the deceased Kobe Bryant fans).
Back on October 12, 2020, the 35-year-old James led the Los Angeles Lakers to another championship and was elected FMVP unanimously. So far he has 4 championships and 4 FMVP trophies, and the controversy surrounding the best in basketball history has begun to raging.
Almost at the same time, Nadal won the French Open, tying Federer's 20 Grand Slam record; Hamilton won 91 F1 championships, also tying Schumacher's historical record. This group of famous sportsmen, born around 1985, teamed up to challenge the best position in the history of their respective industries.
"Slam Dunk 2" was put into production under this background. It is not only a performance of the movie’s sports enthusiasm, but also a cultural exchange or industrial return, as some industry insiders said: "James gives Los Angeles Bring a championship, and Los Angeles will give him a movie back." From the appeal and mechanism of this, James has the same influence as Jordan at the time, but this kind of cohesion in public opinion and the level of film mythology have already existed. The essential difference.
For example, Jordan has 6 championships and 6 FMVP, James only has 4 championships and 4 FMVP, there is still a visible gap in historical honor. In addition, there is a huge difference between the two in wind evaluation. Jordan is the first person in the absolute sense in his own time; and although James is the leader in the honor of his own time, but Kobe, Durant, Curry and others are still able to contend with it, and controversies surrounding rough technique, ugly playing posture, four-step layup, and group wins have made his black fans spread all over the world.
The period when Jordan filmed "Slam Dunk in the Air" was the window period between his two consecutive championships. His strength is still at its peak, and he has just returned to the NBA from the unsatisfactory baseball league. This comeback was close to the myth of "Superman Returns" at the time. Of course, Warner Corporation will not let go of this opportunity: since Jordan is a sports superstar at the level of all mankind, making a movie about him can be described as a top priority-but because audiences are used to watching Jordan’s "realistic myths" on TV screens. "In order to shape its charm on a larger scale and more exaggeratedly, it has become an inevitable choice to break the dimensional wall and push it to the dimension of the universe.
At the time, it seemed that only Jordan had such a status and became the only choice for the protagonist of a live-action animation blockbuster. In contrast, even Maradona, who was the first football player and more personal at the time, seemed not enough. Jordan's victory is naturally related to his perfect technique, gorgeous style, supreme honor, and positive personality, but it is also related to his rapid retreat after three consecutive championships in 1993. He retired to play baseball, not only related to the murder of his father, but also to his invincible loneliness on the basketball court. Three consecutive championships, retired baseball, comeback, and three consecutive championships, this resume is legendary; but after retiring in 1999, facing the economic crisis brought by 9/11 and the national depression, Jordan returned to the stadium in Wanmin's appeal. Was portrayed as a savior.
At least in the public opinion field of the year, the myth of Jordan was a "realistic imitation", otherwise it would be demeaning. Therefore, in the concept of "Slam Dunk in the Air", Jordan not only has to break through the dimensional wall, but also compete with those alien monsters to take on the heavy responsibility of defending the earth. At this level, it is no exaggeration to say that Jordan is a so-called "superhero".
In the 1996 movie, the Dimensional Wall is concrete, a solid film from the real world to the animation world, with the big WB logo written on it. But in the new version of the movie in 2021, the dimension wall no longer exists, and this kind of crossing appears as a barrier-free channel from the real world all the way to the server world. The dimension wall in the digital age is not important anymore, because everything can be digitally synthesized, so the combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional, and the combination of real people and animation no longer has the sense of surprise in the age of analog special effects. This distinction creates different potential identities of the protagonist: Jordan is the savior who entered another dimension, and James is just a powerful player entering the virtual world.
The typical difference is that in "Slam Dunk in the Air", the only members on the court are Jordan who is three-dimensional (if you ignore Bill Murray who came in to play soy sauce), the members of the Looney Tunes world and all the villains are Two-dimensional. In "Slam Dunk 2", everyone on the court is three-dimensional (including all members of Looney Tunes), and everyone is two-dimensional during the team formation (including James himself). This means that Jordan is a high-level existence (higher than Looney Tunes members), while James is a kind of equal existence (same as Looney Tunes members).
In "Slam Dunk in the Air", Jordan is the only god-level character who is a fairy rescuer moved by Bugs Bunny. All members of Looney Tunes, including Bugs Bunny, play supporting roles for him. At the same time, Jordan's performance is simple and low-key, like an honest friend, his only appeal is to let Bugs Bunny bring him a pair of sneakers and shorts from his North Carolina period. If the former is suspected of being implanted with the Air Jordan brand, then the latter can at least bring pure touch, including the scene where Jordan's child pulls his teeth from the mouth of a French fighting dog. Facing the old, weak, sick, and handicapped army of Le Yitong, Jordan did not complain at the slightest, but almost completed the defense of the earth with "one person".
But in "Slam Dunk 2", James was sucked into the server by the algorithm program played by Don Cheadle. The latter intends to use his own data ability and James' reputation to dominate the world. James' mission has become more of self-help and saving his own son, and saving the world is a proposition imposed subsequently. Here, he is no longer the immortal rescuer moved by Bugs Bunny, but he must find Bugs Bunny and members of Le Yitong to complete the game as a rescuer. Of course, James would never look down on these nonsensical members, because the members he listed for his dream team basically listed the strongest lineups in the Warner Universe: Superman, King Kong, Tritini, Batman, Iron Giant ...
This list is almost equivalent to cheating, and it also indirectly ridiculed the dark history of James's career as a team to win the championship. In 2010, James signed with the Miami Heat to form the Big Three with Wade and Bosh; in 2014, he returned to the Cavaliers to form a new Big Three with Irving and Love; in 2019, he recruited Anthony Davis to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Although he won four championships and FMVP during this period, he always made people suspect that his single-core leadership ability was not outstanding.
The same is true in the film. James had to team up with Loyitong members because he failed to recruit the All-Star Warner superheroes. Even so, facing the superheroes of Sue Bird, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Damien Lillard and others in the opposing lineup, James is just a strong physical mortal, almost There is no resistance.
For example, the opponent easily leads by 1000 points on the field, but it is the crooked wolf who cheated with a special cannon to recover the most points for Le Yitong; when the opponent turns on the Bug mode, it is Bugs Bunny who risked being deleted. The series of cross-retracting throws created a game malfunction, which gave James a chance to win the final goal (here, Bugs Bunny played an image similar to Iron Man in "Avenger 4"); Lola Rabbit also contributed to it. Because she almost assumed a role similar to Wade, re-enacting the "Jianwei Connection" of the year; even James' son Dom also sent a second assist at a critical moment.
On the other hand, James, in addition to frequent hands-outs and strong physical assaults in individual moments, relies on the last lore dunk. Of course, this buckle is more of a collective effect, but the overwhelming picture that James presented when he counted and dunked successfully turned into a freeze moment for the gods. This also shows that the rescue of James is by no means Jordan's own power, but only benefited from the team, and at a critical time won the "posture" final victory.
This is the logic of contemporary Fengshen, only looking at honors, only looking at goals, only looking at statistics, only looking at results; there is no awareness of the specific process, skills and subtleties. This kind of logic makes it easy for the athletes who occupy the best resource platform to achieve absolute success (even if their talents are not bad). This is why this era produces data mad stars like James. For the same reason, Like the aforementioned Nadal, Hamilton, and the same age group Ronaldo, Messi, Djokovic are among them.
Throughout the 25 years of "Slam Dunk in the Air", we can see that although Jordan and James have the same influence in basketball and the entire sports and cultural world, there are typical differences in public opinion and even the film's attitude towards them. This is not only because Shi Yi Shiyi is a generation away, but also because the two people's professional training mechanism and the public opinion environment have undergone earth-shaking changes. Jordan’s era was an era of both viewing and competition. It was also a golden age in the history of sports. In addition to Jordan, Maradona, Baggio, Sampras, Agassi, and Schumacher all fit this feature. ; But the era of James is the era of physical function, technical tactics and network influence. Today Durant, Nadal, Ronaldo, Hamilton and others are all models.
Another difference is that in the paper media era before the new century, people are more enthusiastic about the myth of "one's own power", so the six crowns of the Jordan Bulls are portrayed as the myth of one person, Platini in the 84 European Cup and the 86 World Cup Maradona has also been portrayed as a personal myth. But in fact, these people are not absolute lone heroes. They each have the best teammates around them, just like Pippen and Rodman around Jordan are the world's top, but the paper media is caused by a one-way transport from top to bottom. His dogmatic influence and the lack of audience acceptance channels and feedback mechanisms have allowed these personal myths to spread among sports fans and become legends of the age.
However, today, our media has become a feedback media, and our culture has become an interactive culture. Therefore, the sports world has more tit-for-tat. From the competition between James and Kobe, to the competition between James and Durant, the numbers of Zhanhei and Zhanmi are almost even in the process. The myth of loneliness no longer exists. This is because sports are becoming more practical, formations and tactical boards are becoming more and more important, coaches are becoming more and more important, and players are becoming more and more functional (too rational and lack of magic ); It is also because our culture no longer focuses on single-core heroes, but is more enthusiastic about the superhero team culture where traffic packets coexist. For this, the more and more popular Marvel and DC superhero universe development is a proof.
The obvious difference between "Slam Dunk 2" and "Slam Dunk 1" is that the Leyitong team in "Slam Dunk 1" all serve Jordan, and only Jordan is a superhero; but in "Slam Dunk 2" In China, the Leyitong team has become superheroes, James is just one of them, and it is hard to say who is in the C position between him and Bugs Bunny. This kind of thinking is equivalent to recruiting James as a member of a superhero team. Even if he does not appear in the world of Looney Tunes, he will also appear in DC or other worlds. The principle is the same. It is also under this production idea that all the symbols of Warner Pictures came out, including Superman, King Kong, Iron Giant, Tridente, Batman, Robin, Penguin, Voldemort, Wonder Woman, Rick He and Morty, as well as many roles in film and television works such as "Quanyou", "Calling the Soul", and "The Clown".
This kind of thinking is better called "Warner Movie Universe" or "Database Movies", while more ugly is called "Warner Show", "Hodgepodge" or "IP Advertising Gallery". This may have algorithmic considerations, but it must also be a tricky trick. After all, the theme of this film is a critique of the algorithm world and gratitude to the real world, but its production ideas are algorithmic. This self-talking logical contradiction also makes its theme unconvincing. .
Twenty-five years ago, the film paid tribute to Michael Jordan; 25 years later, LeBron James expressed his surrender to the database film. The sports superstars in the Jordan era are mythological and super-algorithmic, while the sports superstars in the James era are de-mythical and absolute-algorithmic. In this process, we have witnessed both the decline of movies and sports towards the algorithm world, the parallel decline of movies towards short video streaming and sports towards e-sports games. In this decline, YYDS has become an abusive term. It is precisely because of its abuse that there is no longer YYDS, because no sports or cultural celebrity can surpass the algorithm and become eternal.
【Iris】
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