Our newspaper’s special correspondent Dong Ming
The new version of "Girls of the Thunderbolt" (pictured on the left) was released globally on the 15th of this month. This "female action movie", which had attracted much attention from movie fans, unexpectedly suffered a cold box office-the North American premiere box office of 3.15 million The U.S. dollar is only 1/4 of the previous game, and the overseas box office performance is equally mediocre. The box office of the Chinese market, once given high expectations, was only 53.4 million yuan in the first weekend. The film’s director, Banks, said that the film’s unpopularity was due to Hollywood’s prejudice against female action films. However, the mediocrity of the film's plot itself is the "slot" recommended by the media and the Internet-"avoid high-tech products from falling into the hands of evil forces" is too old-fashioned. Some Chinese netizens said that they couldn't remember what the movie said after they walked out of the movie theater. The box office of
's new "Charlie Boy" was cold. After the release of the new version of "Charlie Boy", the box office was cold at home and abroad. At the same time, the film's word of mouth was not ideal. The freshness of rotten tomatoes was only 60%, and the professional film review website Metacritic score was only 51 points. Many foreign media believe that the plot of the film is mediocre. The British "Daily Screen" stated that the new version of "Charlie Boy" is "neither thrilling nor funny, and the spy scene is even more boring"; The New York Times criticized the director Banks I only know how to sell "feminism" and other clichés to girls.
In China, the Douban score of the new version of "Girls in the Thunderbolt" is only 6.0. Some viewers think this is barely a "sweet film", but some criticize the plot reversal as illogical, and the director specially added it in the film. Feminist slogans are particularly blunt. The director of the film, Banks, is an actor. Since she was not good at action scenes before, there are not many highlights in the martial arts action in the film, which is "not very enjoyable" for fans who are looking forward to exciting martial arts scenes. In addition, the film budget is only 48 million US dollars, which also limits the imagination of action directors.
, as a classic IP featuring female action elements, the TV series "Charlie Angels" has long been a "sexy memory" of a generation of Americans. Previously, Hollywood produced two movie versions in 2000 and 2003. The two films relied on wonderful martial arts actions and dazzling scenes, as well as the wonderful performances of three actresses Cameron Diaz, Liu Yuling and Drew Barrymore. Popular all over the world, even the female villain played by Demi Moore is impressive. In contrast, among the three leading actors in the new version of "Girls in the Thunderbolt", the most famous Stewart is transforming into a literary film, and is no longer the image of the "Twilight Girl" in "Twilight". Scott is not long. Previously, she became famous for her role as Princess Jasmine in "Aladdin". As for the new African-American star Balinska from the UK, many audiences don't know her. There is nothing new in the remake of
, and the master also "turned over."
's failure of "Girls in the Thunderbolt" is not only the lack of directorship and the low level of actor status, but the deeper reason lies in the bottleneck in the creation of traditional female action films in recent years. A mere remake of a classic is not enough to attract the audience. For example, the new work "Anna" by the famous French director Luc Besson this summer, the film shows the growth experience of a female killer. Even if the film has Besson's iconic action design and editing techniques, the final global box office was only 30 million US dollars, which directly led to the woman who created "Nikita", "This Killer Is Not So Cold" and "Super Body" The action movie master filed for bankruptcy.
Another classic IP "Tomb Raider" restarted in 2018 has received slightly better response, but the global box office is only 270 million US dollars, which is the same as the version starring Angelina Jolie more than a decade ago. "Alita" in the first half of this year, because the heroine is a product of CG special effects, it should be classified as a science fiction action film. In "Terminator: Dark Fate" released this month, Linda Hamilton, the "grandma" The performance of "level" action actresses also failed to point out the direction for the future development of female action movies.
The rise of super heroines
is different from traditional female action movies that have fallen into a bottleneck. Super British movies based on DC and Marvel Universe began to combine "female action" with "superhero" and achieved good results. In 2017, "Wonder Woman" was very popular and popular. With a global box office of 800 million US dollars, Gail Gadot (pictured on the right) who played Wonder Woman became the new goddess of the screen. The popularity once surpassed the Superman and the "Justice League". Male heroes such as Batman. Marvel also launched its first "Super Heroine Action Movie"-"Captain Marvel", with a global box office of 1.1 billion US dollars. This allows many film makers to see the huge market potential of this type. DC and Marvel respectively launched "Two women's premier action movies including Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow will be released next year.
It can be seen that the decline of traditional female action films such as "Charlie Girl", which rely on sexiness, drag racing and gunfights as their selling points, does not mean that this type of film is outdated, but that audiences prefer to have dazzling special effects, independent characters and an overhead world view. The super heroine action movie is also one of the future development directions of female action themes.
