If we can't make big Chinese productions, we shouldn't learn this kind of movies, right?
This year's Lunar New Year, a large-scale production film "The Wandering Earth", known as "China's first hard science fiction", swept the theaters. While the film rocketed at the box office, it also sparked heated debates beyond the scope of the film's discussion. The people who slammed the film out of control because of Wu Jing's intervention and the bad reviews were curbed; the people who blew madly put hats such as "Muyang Dog" and "Pretending to be a Criminal" on the heads of dissenters...
In this series of scolding battles, I heard a voice:
"Why can't we Chinese do what "Peerless Tribulation" can do?"
I was surprised when I watched it, and I was immediately curious about what movie could become a reference for the rise of Chinese sci-fi movies, so I found a complete short time and watched this "Peerless Heavenly Tribulation". After watching it, I used such a messy movie to set off the progress of Chinese sci-fi movies. Is this praising domestic sci-fi movies, or black domestic sci-fi movies?
As a 1998 disaster film that has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, I don't need to say more about what "Peerless Catastrophe" is about and what its selling points are. But there is a concept in this film that cannot be justified at the time or now, and that is to force oil workers to go to space to blow up comets to save the earth. If it’s not too much of a sci-fi idea to drill a hole in a comet and release a nuclear bomb, then it’s simply wayward to let oil workers go into space. After all, this is a disaster film that takes place in a contemporary context. The technological level of the United States in the film is still the same as in reality. Even if astronauts can go to space for what seems to be a space walk of a few hours, it will take at least two and a half years. Time (usually three or four years) of training, and in just a few months before the comet hit the earth, it was expected to train a group of oil workers who had basically never piloted a plane to become astronauts, and the people of the world in the movie could Trust?
Not only I don't trust it, not only the famous film critic Roger Ebert (who gave the film one star), but even Ben Affleck, one of the co-stars. Big Ben later recalled that he had asked director Michael Bay: "Why is it easier to train drillers to be astronauts than to train astronauts to be drillers?" Michael Bay replied, "Shut up!" As expected of Michael Bay, who was a MV director of Locomotive Girl Control, he has a stubborn attitude and a stubborn temper, and is quite "long-faced" for the working class. But under the concept he insists on, more problems in character characterization cannot be washed away with "grassroots".
If the film portrays a group of model workers who are not rude and who are responsible and capable of carrying things, then Michael Bay is indeed making a face for the working class. But the only reliable worker character in the film—Harry, played by Bruce Willis—is limited to blaming the military for plagiarizing his patents and complaining that astronauts have no seeds. The rest of the worker roles include Ben A Including the little milk dog played by Fleck, either has no effect or is purely disruptive, especially the "pervert" played by "Uncle Tooth" Steve Buscemi... This kind of role is always out of place in the film. , and even tossing on the comet, disrupting the progress of the comet's drilling, and almost letting the co-workers and astronauts who went to space together receive a lunch in advance. Did Michael Bay set up a character like this to prove that bastards like this are qualified to be heroes who save the world? If so, isn't it the worst time the working class has been hacked? Don't tell me that this film can be viewed as a R-rated comedy. If this is an R-rated comedy, why did Harry's self-sacrifice in the end have to be such a tragic sense of ritual? As for Liv Tyler's vase role, her presence serves two purposes: to bring the audience to cry, and to bring "Dad" into the group (the Aerosmith Band sings the ending song of the film, and the lead singer is Liv Tyler's father).
In addition to these worker characters (and their relatives and friends), and excluding the dispensable official roles and the masses, the only role I identify with is the navigator played by "Mahon" William Fichtner. As an astronaut who was qualified to be proud in front of the gang of ruffian workers, he did not have too many conflicts with the working class. Even if there was a quarrel in the middle, it was to carry out the blasting plan smoothly and ensure the safety of the personnel. Few of the oil workers in space could cooperate seriously. Before blowing up the comet, they destroyed the Russian space station. In order to protect their safety, several astronauts were sacrificed, but the navigator did not fall out with the workers. , but in the end, under the entrustment of Harry who voluntarily sacrificed, he dutifully protects the surviving workers and returns to Earth. I was moved by such a role far more than Harry's banal generosity of dying at the end.
After Michael Bay got a gratifying box office with this film, he got out of control and began to be keen on playing audio-visual bombing, stuffing jokes, and embellishing cheap sensationalism in big-budget films. And these features and flaws of him were gradually enlarged in the "Transformers" series, until "Transformers 5: The Last Knight" dragged down his business leader status. Ironically, many of his film works were made to make the working class happy, and "Transformers 5: The Last Knight" was eager to pave the history of Transformers in one movie in order to open the Transformers universe, resulting in The story line is messy and the overall rhythm is procrastinated, not only the G point is greatly discounted, but also does not bring any thickness to the theme of "Transformers", which makes Michael Bay unflattering on both sides, it is really self-defeating.
Audiences who blow up "The Wandering Earth" will use this kind of film to set off the excellence of domestic sci-fi films. In fact, this cannot be simply characterized as the ignorance of the masses. It should be said that China's market opening degree is still very limited, which has caused a non-negligible impact on the vision of Chinese audiences and the creation of Chinese film practitioners. So I'm very worried that the so-called "First Year of Chinese Science Fiction" opened by "The Wandering Earth" might become an absolute sound. However, in addition to the need for policies to keep pace with the times, whether creators or audiences, it is best to improve their cultural awareness as much as possible, and to discover, support and learn from more excellent Chinese and foreign film and television works. After all, if we can't make big Chinese productions, we won't learn movies like "Peerless Heavenly Tribulation".
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