We can take a look at the foreign blockbusters recently released in China, all of which are heroic blockbusters that rely on special effects. If DC's "Superman vs. Batman" story has a little surprise, then Marvel's "Captain 3" is really uncreative, relying solely on special effects to fight and kill, and forget it after leaving the cinema. After all, this kind of mediocre big production is increasingly impacting the innovative spirit of Hollywood.
The shortening of the production cycle of modern films, the increasing attention of the capital market to investment returns, and the assimilation of audience aesthetics towards sensory enjoyment have led to the inability of many young directors to obtain investment, and up-and-coming directors must submit to the capital market’s constraints if they want to continue to have films to make. Arrange the production of test water commercial blockbusters to prove their market profitability. All kinds of factors add up, making modern movies more and more lose their vitality and vitality, and it is more and more difficult for small-budget and serious movies to survive.
These things make filmmakers have to be innovative and change, the environment is there, it doesn't change because of your wishes. How to give full play to one's creative ability under the existing conditions, to shoot delicate but not mediocre, and even to a certain extent can make people scream, has become a test of whether a director has strong adaptability and multi-faceted talents. Important indicators.
From this perspective, "Now You See Me" is a success. It starts from an ancient field - magic, puts on ultra-modern technical special effects, and staged a mind game about solving puzzles with the audience, but it tells a story about love in secret and silently. This kind of commercial blockbuster with both spiritual core and excellent special effects not only meets people's needs for sensory enjoyment, but also subtly makes people feel hot. It is the most easy-to-operate and down-to-earth mode in the modern film context.
But Now You See Me 2 is really an unqualified sequel.
It ruined everything that made the first one so good: the fast-paced narrative, the great cast, and the cool magic.
"Now You See Me 2" takes over the plot of the first part, but unlike the first part's revenge, the second part is about reconciliation. Although the signal of revenge and anti-revenge was conveyed through Morgan Freeman's unusually solemn expression at the beginning, all the plot reversals and the complete shuffling of the so-called "villains" were completed at the last moment. Such a setting itself is not a problem, but it is not easy to say this "whitewashing" process.
I'm very sorry that the director really didn't say it well. All the "whitewashing" plots are not convincing, but they are all handed over to Morgan Freeman's invincible planning ability. He let the Four Horsemen be exposed, he let Dylan be thrown at the bottom of the sea and then reached a settlement with himself, he let the "villain" played by Michael Caine fail, and he let the Four Horsemen and Dylan finally come to Sky Eye headquarters to find out everything. It is equivalent that the director uses a "god" to complete the "god"'s defense of himself, so what else is there to play in this game? A boss who opens and hangs is too far away from us to be convincing.
In terms of rhythm control, the second part tries to use an extremely compact narrative method like the first part, with the help of special effects, to make the audience stunned when they are still addicted to the cool pictures created by magic, the magic has been completed and let the public Like the FBI officers in the movie, they fell into a trap and were played around. But the director seems to have forgotten that the core point of all this success is actually the keyword "magic". Without the mystery of "magic", without the fun of solving "magic" puzzles, without the superb skills of "magic", a highly rapid narrative cannot be performed. "Now You See Me" is dizzying with the almost seamless three magic scenes, which promotes the progressive development of the plot.
When it came to "Now You See Me 2", the director left the "magic" itself to tell the story, and only pulled it back in the last and most important scene. The previous scene in Macau turned out to be a Hong Kong police and gangster blockbuster: The chip is going to kill people, I want to steal the chip, and I will be slaughtered after stealing the chip. This non-magic content disguised by magic poker techniques is a betrayal of the most crucial essence of the film.
Although the hypnosis and poker scenes in the whole process made people enter the play at first, they could not bring people a greater sense of pleasure, and because of too many small skills, they lacked the depiction of the big scenes in the first part, and the audience could not. Get the same exhilarating hormonal surge as before. The imposed Chinese elements and Jay Chou can make people laugh, but they cannot save the fact that the quality of the content is declining. Those Cantonese-style soundtracks are a big failure. Their dissonance with the overall tone gives a sense of the absurdity of the play. These songs lead to a brief disappearance of the tense narrative rhythm, causing the overall rhythm to spin out of control while being enjoyable. The section "now you see me" sung by Jay Chou not only did not give people a surprise, but instead had a sense of imposed abruptness.
As for the actor's performance in this film, although the cast lineup is more luxurious than the first one. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Mark Ruffalo bring a bunch of fresh meat: "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe, "Batman v Superman" villain Jay West Eisenberg, Dave Franco and Jay Chou play together.
But the cast of this film is far from the first. If the first film was exceptionally brilliant when the stars performed their own roles independently, the second film actually has only two leading actors: Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo. Morgan Freeman's Whitewashing and Mark Ruffalo's Reconciliation with the World. This resulted in Michael Caine's non-existent character acting, Daniel Radcliffe's mentally retarded part, Liz Capan's garrulous setting for the new Horsewoman, and a relationship with Dave Radcliffe. Franco's nonsensical emotional drama, Jesse Eisenberg's presence caused by Mark Ruffalo's infinitely stealing the limelight is greatly diminished.
These flaws make the film waste so many superstars in vain. The director not only wanted to sell these stars comprehensively, but also wanted to tell the story of the two people with emphasis. As a result, no one performed well. This has to be said to be embarrassing.
All in all, Now You See Me 2 falls short of its impressive goal of breaking free from an increasingly mediocre tech commercial like the first. Flaws in the narrative and actors make it less refined; the dazzling performances and imposed Chinese elements that depart from the core essence of "magic" make it downright banal.
It's reluctant, but in all honesty, maybe it's time to end the series, before it's completely rotten.
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