Lao Zhou
Abstract: "Avatar 2: The Way of Water" was released in mainland China on December 16. Due to the great success of "Avatar 1", everyone is eagerly awaiting the second part after thirteen years Hope, but this time due to the impact of the epidemic, the box office is a bit bleak. From the point of view of the film itself, the plot is old-fashioned and has nothing new, relying on high-tech special effects to give the audience a visual impact. Isn't this a fork in the art of film?
"Avatar 2: The Way of Water" will be released in mainland China on December 16. Due to the great success of "Avatar 1", everyone is looking forward to the second part after 13 years, but this time due to Affected by the epidemic, the box office is a bit bleak. From the point of view of the film itself, the plot is old-fashioned and has nothing new, relying on high-tech special effects to give the audience a visual impact. Isn't this a fork in the art of film?
The director of "Avatar" Cameron is definitely the world's top director, his films "Titanic", "True Lies", "Terminator ", "Alien" are all well received and praised The popular blockbusters, starting from "Terminator", are basically sci-fi movies, and they have become professionals in sci-fi movies. In particular, "Avatar 1" in 2009 was a bit earth-shattering, and it made people sigh: it turns out that movies can be made like this!
The huge success of "Avatar 1" made Cameron a god in one fell swoop, and he has been known as the "God of Cards" ever since. It also makes people look forward to " Avatar 2". But this wait is a full thirteen years.
The plot of "Avatar 2" this time is very old-fashioned and nothing new. It is far worse than "True Lies" and "Terminator" back then. Basically, you know the end after reading the beginning. Although there are no major bugs in the plot, it is generally rough and has many flaws. For example, Jack has three children, an adopted daughter (it’s hard to say whether it’s male or female), and an orphan, so there are five children in total. Since five children are arranged, each child must have a corresponding story , because it is a sci-fi film, all the characters are set according to the needs of the plot, unnecessary characters can be left out at all, and if they are arranged but have no part in the role, it is a bit unreasonable. There is also the big villain Colonel Kwach, who obviously has a hostage in his hand, but completely forgot it at the beginning, and didn't remember it until the end. There are too many similar flaws, so I won't list them one by one.
For Cameron, the plot is secondary and unimportant. The highlight of the whole film is the special effects. This is undoubtedly what Cameron attaches great importance to. The special effects of the whole film have indeed reached an unprecedented peak, whether it is details, layers, or panoramas, they are all very visually impactful.
Special effects are the most suitable technical means for sci-fi films, but Lao Zhou has basically no sense of sci-fi films, probably because he has been engaged in military history research, and has an almost instinctive rejection of all illusory things. Although there are indeed some classic sci-fi films, such as "Star Wars", I always feel that a good film should be realistic, using the language of the film to express history and reality, which should be the true meaning of the film. Of course, this is just the opinion of a family, and only represents a little personal thought.
Cameron has obviously gone further and further on the road of over-emphasizing special effects. Obviously, this is a wrong road. The art of film is to express a theme through the language of the lens of the film, and express the thought that is expected to be conveyed to the audience in the language of the film. If, just to show off the special effects, even the basic plot can be ignored, in fact, it has deviated from the original intention of the movie. Then what kind of movie do you want to make? Wouldn’t it be better to directly shoot some underwater special effects, tropical jungle special effects, cosmic special effects, etc., so that the audience can completely get rid of the plot and focus more on the visual impact brought by the special effects?
Movies are visual art, so visual impact is naturally very important, but visual impact is to serve the plot and the theme of the movie. In the past, there was no difference between old Beijing Tianqiao Laying foreign films.
In fact, Cameron himself knows very well that this time "Avatar 2" and " Avatar 3" were filmed together, and he plans to shoot " Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5" in the future. But Cameron said, If "Avatar 2"'s box office is not ideal, then there will be another "Avatar 3" to end the entire Avatar series in a trilogy. If the box office of "Avatar 2" is relatively hot, then the fourth and fifth follow-up films will be filmed.
This shows that Cameron has no idea about the box office of "Avatar 2".
From the perspective of film technology, "Avatar 2" is very successful, and the special effects have indeed reached a peak.
But from the point of view of film art, "Avatar 2" is a failure. There is no emotion. No matter how gorgeous the scenes are, no matter how realistic the picture quality is, even if people can be substituted into the picture, it can't change the fatal flaw of pale plot.
After all, movies are for watching stories, not scenes.
Therefore, the response of "Avatar 2" must be far worse than that of "Avatar 1". Even if there is no epidemic, the box office will not be much better. It seems that the Avatar series will end with a trilogy. If it is going all the way on the branch road of special effects, it is better to end the curtain earlier.
(The picture in this article comes from the Internet)