On November 8th, the film "The Battle of Midway" directed by director Roland Emmerich of "Independence Day" and "The Day After Day" landed in theaters, bringing an audition feast to the majority of military fans.
However, according to the forecast of American media BOX, the box office of the film is only about 15 million U.S. dollars, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes is only 35%, which is a severely lower than expected movie. Below, I will talk about the pros and cons of the movie "The Battle of Midway".
01. Worthy of war
According to "Variety" media reports, the production cost of the film "The Battle of Midway Island" is as high as 100 million US dollars. Such investment of
seems to be nothing for the first-line Hollywood commercial film. However, as an independent film, the investment of 100 million US dollars makes it the most expensive independent film in history.
Since the battle of Midway Island was an air-sea battle, there were as many as 1,500 special effects shots in the light sea. In addition to the cost constraints, it was impossible to shoot in real scene. It all relied on CG technology, which also brought a lot of pressure on the production team.
Fortunately, director Roland Emmerich has a rich experience in the industry. From movies such as "The Day After" and "2012", it is not difficult to see that big scenes have always been his masterpiece.
Although the cost of the film is not too high, the director can still bring the audience a very rich hot scenes of aircraft and warships fighting each other and fierce bombing of torpedo missiles. Its action design and scene scheduling are also remarkable in the same type of film.
In addition, when portraying the Japanese army, the movie did not masquerade the enemy as bad guys like most war films. Director
proceeded from the perspective of God impartially, telling the battle of wits and courage between the two factions of heroes and the helplessness of each being the master. From this point of view, the film is a success.
In today's IP era, most commercial films are sequels or remakes. Even the five major Hollywood giants dare not easily try high-investment original films, especially war films that are highly profitable and unstable. As an independent studio,
is able to dare to challenge such a high-risk film. This spirit of bold experimentation deserves encouragement.
02. Sorry to myself
Most war films uphold humanism and often reflect humanity in the flames of war.
For example, in 2016, Mel Gibson's "Blood War Hacksaw Ridge" tells about a young man who was aspiring to serve the country during World War II. However, due to his religious beliefs, he only brought a medicine box without weapons after enlisting in the army. He did not kill an enemy but saved many The wounded soldier won the honor.
In this story, we can see the complexity, contradictions, kindness and lofty beliefs in human nature.
In 2011, "War Horse" directed by Spielberg, through the exile experience of a horse during the war, allows the audience to see the living conditions of all classes of society during the war, and reflects the warmth and coldness of human feelings from the innocent perspective.
What does "The Battle of Midway" bring to the audience? The
film involves a large number of historical figures, and the way of portraying these characters is to watch the flowers. The audience can only see a large number of characters Wuyang Wuyang entering and leaving, but none of them can keep the audience. Make an impression.
Regardless of "War Horse" or "Blood Battle of Hacksaw Ridge" or "Dunkirk", most war films focus on one or a few main characters and highlight the theme through those main characters.
There are too many characters in the film "The Battle of Midway", and everyone has very few roles. This makes the film lack a central role and the theme is not clear at all. From this point of view, the film failed again.
Although Roland Emmerich’s disaster films have always been known for their grand scenes, he is actually very well-versed in the film’s narrative rhythm, tension, and psychological control of the audience.
He is good at connecting the events of the exterior scene closely with the atmosphere of the interior scene. He often puts the characters in a space and expresses the tension of the characters in the space through events that occur outside the space. This is fully reflected in his masterpiece "Independence Day". The
movie "Independence Day" tells the story of aliens invading the earth and American troops sending troops to fight against it.
In this story, the picture is constantly switching between exterior and interior. It is often described in the first minute that the alien spacecraft outside the house fired laser missiles to blow up a large area of high-rise buildings. And someLie on the window to watch the excitement, some shivering and hiding in the house.
shows the influence of events outside the house on the characters inside the house particularly well. It is not difficult to see Emmerich’s superb scene management and psychological portrayal level.
In the movie "Decisive Battle Midway", the location was the exchange of fire between the United States and Japan. Although the lines mentioned that the Japanese equipment was better, it was just a line to mention. The
movie does not show a one-sided situation like the day after tomorrow and Independence Day, making the villains in the film lack the strong sense of oppression like the flood in the day after tomorrow and the aliens in Independence Day.
In addition, Emmerich’s sense of humor was not reflected in this film.
Speaking of humor, I couldn't help but think of Lin Zhengying. Lin Zhengying and Emmerich are a famous actor in a Hong Kong zombie film and a famous director in a Hollywood disaster film. What they have in common is that both will inject a certain degree of humor into their respective genres to make the film lively and interesting. Not boring and lengthy.
For example, films such as "Zombie Dao Chang" and "Zombie Family" starring Lin Zhengying, although they are called horror films in name, many people actually see them as comedies.
and Roland Emmerich also revealed in an interview, "If I shoot "The Day After Day" in a serious and preaching way, it is estimated that no one will invest in me.
So I gave this film a certain Entertaining". The movie "The Day After Tomorrow" has been in theaters for 15 years. I can't remember many of its fragments before revisiting the film. The only line I can think of is "Books have other uses besides burning".
takes the theme of disaster (or horror) as the main material and uses humor as the auxiliary material. This is the art of Lin Zhengying and the art of Emmerich.
But in the film "The Battle of Midway" Emmerich deviated from his artistic proposition, the film suddenly said that this suddenly jumped over, the main line and the branch line are extremely incoherent, coupled with the lack of humor elements, resulting in the film The style is tired and dull, and the narrative is chaotic. Maybe the director wanted to express the seriousness of the war, but the interest of the movie was greatly reduced.
As a result, the unique combination of interior and exterior scenes he is good at has not been shown in this film. Compared with previous works, the film "The Battle of Midway" has not made much progress.
03. Summary
is not a good year for imported films. Many blockbuster films or box office or word-of-mouth have suffered various degrees of setbacks. "The Battle of Midway" has also fallen into this quagmire.
Despite this, the completion of the film's script is relatively satisfactory, and the story can be justified. Although traces of special effects are visible, it also presents the most popular battle scene within a limited investment. As an independent film, its sincerity is still very rich.
It is reported that Emmerich’s next plan is still to shoot an independent film called "The Moon Fall".
The film will return to Emmerich's classic style, and add many philosophical thinking. I sincerely hope that Emmerich can re-examine the script and re-shoot the famous masterpieces like "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Independence Day" and return to his lofty status as a master of disaster films.
