Probably Hollywood's biggest names are very fond of trilogy, "The Amazing Spider-Man" is a continuation of the previous series of "Spider-Man" trilogy, and "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" is Nolan's "Batman". The final chapter of the trilogy.
The "Spider-Man" trilogy directed by Sam Raimi and starring Toby McGuire came to an end in 2007. The three "Spider-Man" movies, with a combined box office of more than $1.1 billion, have been in the limelight for a while. In particular, the first "Spider-Man" was released in the summer of 2002 after 9/11. It was precisely because the United States had just emerged from the short-lived recession of the bursting of the Internet bubble, and the patriotism of the people was also unprecedentedly high after the terrorist attack. American version of superheroes to inspire. It can be said to be born at the right time, just right. And the famous line "with great power comes great responsibility" is also the moral basis for the United States to attack everywhere and expand its power since then.
This time, "The Amazing Spider-Man" has changed the director and also changed the hero and heroine. It no longer emphasizes similar moral inspiration, and it has completely become an entertainment movie for young people. The hero and heroine are more youthful and beautiful than the previous one, and there are endless easy and funny plots, which are obviously aimed at the audience of young people in the United States. In the first episode of the previous trilogy, in order to fulfill his Spider-Man mission, Peter Parker hid his identity from the girl he liked, always watching her silently and protecting her from places she couldn't see, but he never could. Tell her about her responsibilities and buried love. In this one, even the exhortation of his girlfriend's father before his death can only keep him calm for three minutes. As soon as he sees the sad look in the heroine's eyes, he can't hold himself back. But we can't say that the new Spider-Man has no sense of responsibility, after all, while fighting crime, he still didn't forget to buy a box of eggs for his aunt. Even if you do Spider-Man, you still have to do the housework that should be done. It is estimated that this is the reason why many parents take their children to watch movies together.
Unlike Spider-Man, Nolan's Batman series is clearly aimed at an older audience. If the first "Batman: Mystery of the Shadow" still follows the old path of superheroes: when his parents were miserable in childhood, he escaped into the mountains to learn from a teacher, learned to succeed his husband and avenged his revenge, and finally became a hero who punishes evil and promotes good. On the old-fashioned way, it can compete with our Chinese martial arts films, so the second "Batman: The Dark Knight" completely broke the stereotype of previous superhero movies. Batman's slogan is "Everyone can be Batman", which means that if everyone hates evil and believes in justice, Gotham City doesn't need a dark knight who haunts the night to administer justice. He even hopes that the District Attorney can replace his mission and use legal means to punish crimes and become a Knight of Light. And the mantra of the big villain The Joker is "You don't need to follow the rules", and thinks that he and Batman are both using illegal means to achieve their goals. They are the two sides of a coin. Who can be called justice? Who is evil? After failing to seduce Batman, he succeeded in convincing the original Knights of Light to do whatever it takes to get their way. From this point on, he is no longer a concrete villain, but an idea, and fighting this idea is more difficult than eliminating a thousand villains.
At the beginning of Nolan's last "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises", I told everyone that at the end of the last film, the double-faced man (that is, the light knight in the past) was portrayed as a conspiracy by Batman. A hero, and passed a series of tough laws against crime, while Batman disappeared from Gotham City behind his back. But this legal system built on lies is not stable, and with the emergence of a new and more demagogic villain, he has to reappear, and he faces not only an opponent who is better than him in kung fu, The people at the bottom of the agitation are even more difficult to distinguish between friends and enemies.
Of course, this is still a superhero movie after all, so the result is still that the protagonist kills the bad guy, saves the world, and holds the beautiful woman. (Remember the lines in which movie this is? "Kill the bad guys, save the world, get the girl.") But it is undeniable that the confrontation between the rich and the poor in the film, and the waste of life under anarchy, all bring Give the audience an association to the phenomenon of "Occupy Wall Street", "Arab Spring" and so on in real life. This is also one of the reasons why this "Batman" trilogy is far superior to its predecessors: it gives the audience an immersive reflection and shock, rather than sticking to the original book, especially its almost contrived villains. It seems that Hollywood has done a good job in learning from Chairman Mao's "Yan'an Speech on Literature and Art": it has thoroughly implemented the policy of "literature and art should reflect the times, be close to life, and serve the people".
It is a pity that, while Hollywood superhero movies have set off a frenzy all over the world and wantonly attract money, Chinese martial arts movies are declining day by day, and their popularity is no longer there. Another blog post of mine, Are Martial Arts Movies Chinese Superhero Movies? "Compared in detail the similarities and differences between kung fu heroes and superheroes in five aspects: origin, martial arts, opponents, era, and retirement, and found that there is almost a complete one-to-one correspondence between the two. Then on the movie screen, how can Chinese martial arts be no match for American superheroes?
The reason is very simple, there is no "Xia" in the recent martial arts films. In the 1990s, Chinese kung fu actors, Hong Kong martial arts instructors, directors, editors, and the magnificent scenery of the mainland combined to produce a number of fine martial arts films, among which Jet Li and Tsui Hark collaborated. The first three works of the "Once Upon a Time" series are representative works. Huang Feihong, played by Jet Li, is full of heroic spirit, fierce kung fu, and extraordinary bearing. And the later series "Swordsman", although the kung fu is more fancy and the plot is more bizarre, but it is only more entertaining, and it does not have the mind of caring for the people of the world that "the great hero is for the country and the people". In terms of vision, it's a bit worse.
After Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the famous mainland directors have made one after another of ancient costume martial arts films (which can no longer be called martial arts, because there are only martial arts, no heroes in the film), and Zhang Yimou's "Heroes", "House of Flying Daggers", "Golden Armor in the City", Feng Xiaogang's "Night Banquet", and the one that cannot be missed is Chen Kaige's "The Promise". If you use one of Luo Dayou's lyrics to describe it, it is "color TVs are getting more and more fancy, and fewer and fewer people can distinguish between black and white". Taking "Hero" as an example, the hero "Wu Ming", after listening to Qin Wang Yingzheng's ambition of "the same book and the same track", actually held the Tai Ah and taught others to handle it, and finally ended up with a The death of the body, the end of the world's laughter, is not "nameless", but really "brainless"? Russell once said that the knowledge is uneven and polymorphic, which is the source of happiness. In order to unify the imperial power, he would not hesitate to suffer all the people in the world. No matter how high his martial arts are, he is still a slave after all.
It seems that every summer we can count on the superheroes to return again, while the kung fu heroes are dying and the scenery is gone. Maybe when Chinese filmmakers stop thinking about getting a yellow jacket, we can also wait for the day when the heroes return?
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