First of all, we have to admit that it is a good thing that genre films like "Animal World" appear in the Chinese film market. Aside from those family and love branches, and only looking at the main part of the film, we will find at a glance that this is actually a gambling movie, but it is not the same as Hong Kong gambling movies such as "God of Gamblers" and "Macau".
Wang Jing's gambling films, in the final analysis, are actually a variant of Hong Kong gangster films. The God of Gamblers, Heroes of Gamblers, and Saints of Gamblers are actually gangsters. They can win the lottery at the gambling table. On the one hand, they rely on the legendary "Thousand Skills", and on the other hand, they rely on the power of the gang. Whoever has more younger brothers can swallow whoever. Look at Gao Jin's subordinates in "God of Gamblers", which one is different from the horse boy in "The True Color of Heroes"?
However, the gambling in "Animal World" does not have the heroic and big brother style of Hong Kong films. It does not construct a movie with romantic martial arts temperament, but uses rational mathematical algorithms to captivate people's souls.
This way of telling gambling skills was used by Hollywood ten years ago. In 2008's "Blackjack", a math professor took a group of high-IQ students to the casino to gamble, using card counting skills to win a table and another A table of chips.
The same is true of "Animal World", although it is the most familiar to everyone, and even the rock-paper-scissors game that is despised as children's toys, is still used to the extreme by the film, integrating game theory, permutations and many mathematical algorithms into it. Although most of the audience are in a state of ignorance about Li Yifeng's repeated calculations out of thin air, once such a brain-burning math scene occurs, the silly effect will always push the audience's adrenal glands and release a strong admiration. and exclamations.
This is actually similar to how some American TV fans felt when they watched "The Big Bang Theory" when they told four otaku scientists about some physical knowledge that normal people couldn't understand at all. The audience was deeply curious about this novel brain movement.
But "Animal World" won't make you completely blind, and the starring Li Yifeng constantly talks about the complex operation of this simple game, so that you can always keep your interest in the film. Because it's not just a game that doesn't matter, it's about the lives of the protagonists.
This kind of complete combination of games, gambling, imprisonment in a secret room, and criminal murder is almost non-existent in past domestic films. However, the core idea of this film is not the handwriting of director Han Yan, but the work "Gambling Apocalypse" by Japanese cartoonist Nobuyuki Fukumoto.
However, Han Yan executed this peculiar idea very well, at least in the scene construction and the presentation of mental arithmetic special effects, without showing any timidity. And combining this game of the jungle with the metaphorical level of "animal world" makes Zheng Kaisi played by Li Yifeng unsuspecting from the beginning, and gradually hides the city government. In addition, he is a mathematical genius himself. Under the entanglement of morality and interests, Zheng Kaisi finally penetrated the essence of the game.
Actor Li Yifeng's performance in this film will no longer be criticized excessively. Although it is still a little green, he has portrayed Zheng Kaisi's indifference, cold on the outside and hot on the inside, and a confident image quite well. In addition to mathematical gimmicks, this is the biggest thing to watch.
However, what is quite puzzling is the large-scale squandering of special effects in the film. It is said that the special effects team of this film is from the Weta company in the United States. Looking at the quality of special effects alone, they are indeed experts. Although compared with the top "Avatar" and "The Lord of the Rings", they have lost their delicacy, but the picture quality Imagination and rich details show the effort.
However, these gorgeous special effects scenes, together with the setting of "I'm sick" that Zheng Kaisi declared at the beginning, and the gambling plot in the main part of the film are really not enough.
Because Zheng Kaisi can win the game, relying on his mathematical talent, not every minute fantasizing about becoming a clown, entering the world of monsters and fighting for justice; in the same way, the gambling game of rock-paper-scissors can be unique, not gorgeous The special effect of the monster is given by the mathematical algorithm and the transformation of the character's character.
To a certain extent, all the parts of the blogger's eyeballs, "Animal World" have achieved a degree of completion of more than 80, but all the parts that should be deducted, or the parts that detail the characters' personalities are obsessed with special effects. Keep squeezing until you can only remember Zheng Kaisi's genius justice and brain disease.
As for why did Zheng Kaisi get on the gambling boat? How is his brotherhood with Li Jun? What class divisions exist in the so-called "animal world" in casinos? These things are blurred or scribbled in looming, half-concealed.
This situation directly leads to the actions of the characters in the film being made in a vague manner. For example, if Li Jun really has a deep friendship with Zheng Kaisi, why would he lie to him for the capital of his life? If not, why did Zheng Kaisi continue to believe in Li Jun and choose him as his partner after suffering a huge deception? If the two see the truth in adversity, why did Li Jun give up Zheng Kaisi's life for money?
There are untenable reasons behind the huge decisions of these characters' actions, but the space to make up for the persuasiveness of these characters' actions is replaced by various fancy special effects scenes. This phenomenon of putting the cart before the horse is not really clever.
"I'm Not the God of Medicine", which was released on the same schedule as "Animal World", is rarely confused in this persuasiveness. The first time Xu Zheng sold medicine was for money, so he could finally pat his butt and leave. But the second time selling medicine, not only did it not make any profit for the patients, but also sold it at a subsidized rate.
So much so that in order to help Xu Zheng get out of the crime, his assistant Huang Mao drove a fake medicine car to take the blame for him, and finally died unfortunately. These can all be found in the actions of the characters in the second half of "I'm Not the God of Medicine", rather than a random sensational stunt.
Therefore, it can be said that the characters' actions in "Animal World" are unconvincing, the special effects scenes are fancy and unreasonable, or it is not unrelated to the fact that Chinese commercial films pursue the external "face" and ignore the rationality of the story.
If our movie market is washed away by Hollywood's "Avatar" and "Avengers", we just miss other people's Weta special effects and Industrial Light and Magic, but don't think clearly about how those screenwriters deal with the Earthlings and the Na'vi people. Complicated mood, or the contradictory attitude of Thanos when he destroyed half of the universe, so many special effects are just grandstanding.
"Animal World" can open up a new type of domestic commercial film, which should be applauded and praised, but if it is abandoned, this is another sign worthy of warning.
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