"Pacific Rim" is a fantasy movie with surprising effects (sci-fi, magic, fantasy), so its most accurate positioning should be an action-adventure mecha movie, while "Godzilla" is a fantasy movie with suspense effects. The whole film revolves around nature and ecology, making the film a disaster monster film. So, what's the difference between surprise and suspense? There is a classic situational inspiration, if there is a bomb in a movie that suddenly explodes under the table without warning, it will be surprising; but if the handling method is changed to have a character telling the audience that there is a bomb under the table, at any time. There is a possibility of an explosion, and this is the suspense of no compromise. And after the suspense is over, there is an instant surprise, so the biggest advantage of suspense over surprise is that it can convey an unknown sense of fear. This is the horror film in recent years, with thrillers, or some sci-fi films, the most missing, the audience is shocked by The habit of training only pays attention to the appearance of ghosts or scenes. Take "Pacific Rim" as an example, the audience will not feel the crisis and fear brought by monsters at all, but simply feel that it is very destructive and lethal, and then looks forward to the giant mecha fighting monsters, and finally the eyeballs are satisfied. Satisfied. Of course I'm not criticizing "Pacific Rim", which is still one of the coolest movies I saw in theaters last year.
I thought it would seem irresponsible for me at first to not explain the irresponsible transition before every fight in the film. Do you still remember how bittersweet the vigorous Hong Kong war in the middle of "Pacific Rim" was! ! ! It really shows the attack methods, structures and weapons of mechas and monsters incisively and vividly, resulting in the exhaustion of the final battle. It can be said that "Godzilla" has completely learned its lesson and put all the highlights in the ultimate battle to evaporate at one time. Because Godzilla is no better than a mecha, it can only rely on hand-to-hand combat and atomic breath. Mutola is not only flying but laying eggs. He already has a bottleneck in his movements, and at most it will only destroy buildings. Now, you are also likely to sleep high in the back.
And "Godzilla" uses suspense effects in both the plot and the control of the big scenes, which makes the film's gloomy atmosphere wrap the audience from beginning to end. Especially the indefinite delay of Godzilla's appearance, the control of the atmosphere is reminiscent of the classic "Jaws". But great white sharks can compete with humans, and Godzilla obviously cannot fight with human power, so as an original fantasy movie, it obviously has its own theoretical system as the starting point of the plot. Talking about whether the setting of the plot is reasonable or not depends on the starting point of the film's theme. The earliest Godzilla was born from the mutation of nuclear radiation, which represents Japan's fear and spiritual bad news brought by the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The writing of the film script began after the Japanese earthquake and nuclear leak. Naturally, the new version of "Godzilla" also continued the danger of nuclear energy and made a deeper warning, because the nuclear energy in the film could not help but create Godzilla and activate the villain monster Muto. the culprit. At the same time, based on the film, Godzilla was portrayed as the hunting god of nature. Human ignorance led to the growth of Muto. As Godzilla's natural enemy, Muto's reproduction will inevitably affect Godzilla's own survival, so he Had to fight for their own survival, and this battle also defended the harmony of nature and human society.
But the plot, which is the main line of human beings criticized by many people, focuses on two statements: 1. Human beings are too tasteless, and the performance is too extroverted; 2. Let an American soldier appear at the location of the Godzilla battle from beginning to end, and the last one (involving spoilers) has obvious heroism and theme colors. Let's take a closer look at these two statements, which are clearly contradictory! How can a human protagonist express personal heroism in a story, but is said to be tasteless? This is entirely due to the difference in the expectations of the two audiences who stand against the film. The contrast brought by this expectation focuses on the excessive expectations of Godzilla's visual scenes and the ignorance of Godzilla's justice position. . As for the acting, well, that's what I think the film deserves to improve the most.
In fact, the human part of the plot has two functions in general. First, the most basic one is to guide Godzilla as a clue, and to rationalize the core concept of the film about the ecological balance of the force of nature, and the means chosen by the director to depict scientists The family to show the disaster, and in this narrative time, the conspiracy theory is used to create suspense and position, and finally Godzilla is introduced. The second point is to appear in the film as a representative audience as an objective third party, enhancing the sense of presence of the film. I don’t know if you still remember that the poster in the camera in the male protagonist’s room when he was a child painted a movie that looks like a Godzilla monster. This detail corresponds to the fragment of the black and white photo at the beginning. In order to tell everyone that Godzilla really exists, The Japanese made Godzilla movies precisely because they had seen Godzilla in the real world, but it was concealed by the relevant government.
Another manifestation of the sense of presence is to let the male protagonist appear in the scene with Godzilla and Muto no matter what, from Muto's first appearance, including the encounter with the train, the final airborne and the battle, all important There must be a moment when the male protagonist lives and dies at the scene of the manager. This kind of setting is also understandable, because it is Godzilla and Muto who are fighting. You must know how boring it is to let the audience watch two big monsters without eyes, so the protagonist must be arranged at the scene of their battle. Some levels or missions. I'm sure if you've ever written a novel or written a screenplay, you'll feel the same way about this approach.
For the audience who did not understand the birth of Godzilla and its justification, and at the same time were looking forward to the high-intensity popcorn effect, it was expected that there would be errors in watching the movie, not to mention that the director was indeed a bit too much Be careful, but in the face of these shortcomings, you should feel that his control of the atmosphere is really top-notch. The consistency of the film from the beginning to my grasp, and the persistence of the suspense to the end are very rare among rookie directors. , looking forward to his "Star Wars" side movie.
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