space elevator, short-term hibernation, impulse propulsion, and Neptune’s settlement, these keywords that seem to be directly linked to the "Three-Body" novel are actually from a popular Hollywood science fiction movie.
Don't say it is touching porcelain "Three-Body", believe it or not, then the movie version of "Three-Body" will have to be used as a reference movie.
Interstellar Exploration
Director: James Gray
Screenplay: James Gray/ Ethan Gross
Starring: Brad Pitt/ Tommy Lee Jones/ Ruth Nega/ Donald Sutherland/ Lee Fu Taylor
Genre: Sci-Fi / Suspense / Adventure
Release date: 2019-12-05 (Mainland China) / 2019-08-29 (Venice Film Festival) / 2019-09-20 (U.S.)
Duration: 124 minutes
01 The story of the Odyssey myth
is set in the near future with an unknown age, but director James Gray's vision is forty or fifty years after the present, which is about 2070.
In the era of sci-fi movies that can easily travel through nebulae, explore black holes, and conduct interstellar communication, "Interstellar Exploration" sets the main line of the story as a messenger story from the earth to Neptune via the moon and Mars. A space version of the "Odyssey Myth." Director
wants to make it a "most authentic space travel" movie, but it also has the poetry of "Apocalypse Now" and the philosophical thinking of "2001 A Space Odyssey". Happily, he did it all. As a relatively down-to-earth science fiction movie, the film team invited senior engineers from NASA and SpaceX as the technical support for the movie. Experts accompany the director to complete all creations together. In the
movie, some audiences mentioned "not in line with common sense". The director team did not know it, but deliberately did it.
For example, the scene where Pete shed tears in space. Tears are a subsidiary result of Pete's unconsciousness during the performance. After the shooting, Pete said to the director: "You may need to do post-production (tears under 0 gravity)", but the director said: "No, I want to keep your performance intact."
emotions, director Gray thinks here Emphasizing the character's emotions in a romantic way, so he made a choice.
Anyone who knows Gray's movies understands that he is a person who emphasizes romanticism. For him, artistic expression is more important than disseminating scientific theory.
02 The New Space Order
"Interstellar Exploration" can satisfy all your viewing needs in visual wonders. Director
Gray established a new space order in the movie. At that time, a space station with a space elevator similar to that of a space elevator has been built, and moon travel has even become a commercialized space project. What remains unchanged is the never-ending exploration of extraterrestrial civilization. The
movie focuses on seeing the big from the small and starting from the individual family. It is more important for human beings to unlock a new map of the world, or to live in a warm doghouse. The
film essentially answers the discussion that "The Climber" triggered when it was released: Why climb?
Because "the mountain is there", the father of the protagonist of "Interstellar Exploration" has worked tirelessly to find the god of outer space in his heart at the expense of family.
He became the first person to explore extraterrestrially and became the spiritual leader of the younger generation of astronauts who wanted to be astronauts. And the exploration outside the land is often a one-way ticket, and choosing this line means giving up the family.
"Interstellar Exploration" gave a negative attitude: Interstellar exploration is a cancer.
"Humans are monsters that devour the world". The moon has become a "colonial planet" of the earth, and in order to snatch limited resources, humans will still breed new evils in the new utopia-lunar pirates.
Antarctica has become a place of war, and primates under study swallow humans in reverse. With the proliferation of science and technology, material life has been greatly improved. It seems that we have entered a new space order, but the spiritual level is still at the stage of primitive society.
's exploration of extraterrestrial civilization is no different from Magellan's voyage, and this desire of mankind is always dissatisfied.
Gray DirectorAn introspective attitude to express the theme of the movie: there is nothing outside, human beings are everything to us.
In the era of "surpassing Britain and catching up with the United States" in China's aerospace industry, why did the United States slow down? Maybe it's not that their technical conditions are behind, maybe they are tired. The
movie "Interstellar Exploration" provides such a layer of thinking.
03 The top audio-visual language
is very interesting. From Gray's last work "Lost Z City" to this "Interstellar Exploration", he has been "repeat himself".
is almost exactly the same motif, authorial expression, and peak audiovisual language. What's more advanced is that the background of the space story gives Gray a bigger stage to display his fists. The setting, lighting and photography of
"Interstellar Exploration" left a very profound impact on people. Gray said that he would consider the color scheme of the film like a painter. In order to create a stylized effect,
uses a color scheme called "color symbol". For example, if Mars is orange-yellow, the lights in the Mars room are arranged in orange-yellow. In the same way, the dark blue Neptune brings dark blue indoor lighting. When characters are anxious or facing unknowns and dangers, the environment with red tones is often a better symbol of their emotions at the moment. For example, the Red House in "2001: A Space Odyssey". There is also a red house in "Interstellar Exploration", when Pete's character is about to connect with his lost father.
These seem to be common sense practices, but not all movies dare to use such stylized lighting, because the negative effects it brings are unreal, just like Pete’s tears that ignore zero gravity. However, Gray believes that "imperfect photography appears real."
Once you accept Gray's romantic feelings of "three feet off the ground", his imperfection will become a perfect audiovisual language. The top audio-visual language like
culminates in the climax of Neptune.
Don't look at Neptune being very close to our planet (compared to interstellar travel movies), but "Interstellar Exploration" is the second film that has Neptune as an important star since "Black Hole Surface" in 1997.
For the first time, we saw the visual spectacle of astronauts crossing the Neptune Star Ring, not to mention that this feat was done in an almost bare-handed situation, and its spectacular degree is no less than that of "Interstellar" and "Gravity" Certain paragraphs. I believe that this paragraph will serve as a reference for the "Three-Body" movie that also involves Neptune in the story.
04 The intervening ending
The ending of "Interstellar Exploration" is not perfect. In fact, the ending we saw in the end was not the original intention of the director.
This is the movie that Gray received the most investment, and China's Bona Pictures is also one of the investors. Gray said: I don't have the final editing rights for a movie with such a big investment. The last 40 seconds of the movie are not mine, but my ending is in the movie. In the last 40 seconds of the
movie, the protagonist last saw his woman. The last part of the film returns to the earth and the overall style of the film is extremely unmatched. Not only does it seem loose, it is also a terrible ending that lists detailed steps to solve the problem for fear that you will not understand it.
I guess the film is the director's most desired way to end the film when the protagonist leaves Neptune by boat and returns to Earth.
Reasons: 1. Most sci-fi movies like to end at the moment they enter the return journey. This is a semi-open ending, which is unfinished. 2. Gray's story is complete at the moment of the return journey, the theme has been fully expressed, the character's heart knot has been untied, and it seems a very stupid practice to continue with a dog.
Of course, these small flaws do not prevent it from becoming one of the best works of the year.
05 The suppressed god work
However, such an almost god-level work has only 6.9 points on Douban, which is almost the same as the above-mentioned "Black Hole Surface" (6.8 points).
However, "Black Hole Surface" has extremely low scores (27%; 35 points) on the Rotten Tomatoes platform and the MTC platform. According to Douban's scoring system, it is only a work worth one star.
Why is the audience so demanding on "Interstellar Exploration"? It almost became a repressive gesture to "destroy" a highly rated movie by foreign media.
The reasons why many viewers give low scores can be roughly divided into two situations: one is that the movie does not conform to the laws of physics, and the other is that the plot is boring.
This reminds me of the "Space Traveler" that was suppressed by the "Three Improper Views" and many literary science fiction films that were suppressed by "weak plots."
and "2001: A Space Odyssey" was also criticized for being too bored and unintelligible for its authorial expression. Obviously "Interstellar Exploration" cannot be compared with "2001: A Space Odyssey", but the situation of the two is surprisingly similar.
"Interstellar Exploration" was defeated by its own artistic breakthrough and by stylized author expression. Its advantages have become a weapon used by opponents to counterattack themselves. Maybe, it is destined to only become a carnival for a few people, maybe only time can tell us the answer.
picture from the network
