"alien: death stranding": the correct way to open the sequel of the masterpiece
2024-09-14
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author: liu jian, member of the chinese writers association and director of the tianjin science writers association
recently, the new sequel of the "alien" series of films, "alien: romulus", which is a space science fiction thriller, was released. this film was originally established as a "web movie" project, directed by a new director, and without big stars. before its release, it was not favored by both senior fans and passers-by. many people think that this is just another water-injected film that uses the name of a big ip to cheat the box office. but the actual presentation of the film was beyond the expectations of most people. under the circumstances of many negative expectations, "alien: romulus" broke the box office of 100 million yuan in the mainland within two days of its release. the box office has now exceeded 700 million yuan, and the douban score is 7.7 points, which is higher than 89% of science fiction films and 92% of thrillers. such results are difficult to achieve in the mainland film market in recent years for many well-made hollywood superhero blockbusters with huge publicity and promotion investment. as an r-rated film "recommended for mature audiences only", how did "alien: reaper" take the road of counterattack? if you want to really figure out the answer to this question, you must go back to 1979 when the first film in the "alien" series was released.
alien: taken flight poster
in fact, before the mid-1970s, most of the science fiction themes in american commercial films were presented in the form of cheap monster b-level movies. even "2001: a space odyssey", which later became a classic in film history, was closer in form to the "epic film" popular in hollywood at the time. it was not until the release of "star wars" directed by james cameron in 1977 that the "science fiction blockbuster" with the typical characteristics of visual effects to create technical wonders was truly recognized by the commercial film market. the success of "star wars" also made 20th century fox (hereinafter referred to as "fox"), as a film distributor, see the amazing commercial potential of science fiction blockbusters. therefore, while developing the sequel to "star wars", it also began to look for new film ideas. at this time, dan o'bannon, the original author of the script of "alien", found fox with his script and declared that it would be a "space version of "jaws"". after many twists and turns, fox accepted the script. after repeated revisions, it was handed over to ripley scott, who had just emerged in the film industry at the time, to direct the film. the final result was the creation of the sci-fi thriller genre "alien". the film was released in north america on may 25, 1979. due to the rendering of the claustrophobic atmosphere inside the spacecraft and the successful creation of the terrifying image of the main villain "alien", the film released the audience's subconscious fear instinct, making countless audiences pay for this indescribable feeling, thus successfully continuing the craze for sci-fi blockbusters started by "star wars".
since then, the "alien" series has launched three sequels from 1986 to 1997. moreover, they were directed by three famous directors: "alien 2" was directed by james cameron, the legendary director of "star wars", "alien 3" was directed by david fincher, who later directed "seven deadly sins" and "fight club", and "alien 4" was directed by jean-pierre jeunet, a frenchman who later directed "amelie". in general, in "alien 2", cameron added more military and action elements, and the design of some plot segments was obviously influenced by the famous work "starship troopers" by the american science fiction master heinlein. "alien 3" continues "alien 2" in terms of the plot, but the main story scene shifts from space to a colonized planet used to imprison serious criminals. compared with the first two works, "alien 3" has obvious flaws in the drama, and is not outstanding in creating a sense of suspense and horror atmosphere, but relying on the word-of-mouth blessing of the first two works, "alien 3" still achieved profitability. alien 4 was a double failure in both word of mouth and box office. however, fox was obviously unwilling to give up the cash cow of the alien series. so, on the one hand, it linked the "alien" with another famous alien ip of its own, the predator, and launched "alien vs. predator". on the other hand, it invited back ripley scott, the director of the first "alien", and began to plan a new "alien" series of movies. as a result, there were two prequel films, "prometheus" released in 2012 and "alien: covenant" released in 2017.
objectively speaking, the core of the creation of "prometheus" and "alien: covenant" can be compared with the space science fiction historical film "2001: a space odyssey", which explores the ultimate questions of ontology and epistemology such as "where am i", "who is he", and "where to go", trying to guide the audience to think about life consciousness and individual existence. as a prequel to the series of films, the director team also tried to recover the various foreshadowings buried in the previous works of the entire "alien" series. however, it is obvious that both the producer and the director team have overlooked an obvious problem. more than 30 years have passed since the release of "alien" in 1979 and the launch of these two prequels. the main audience of hollywood science fiction blockbusters has expanded from europe, the united states, and japan to the global market. after experiencing the generational change, moviegoers are no longer interested in the many science fiction plots in the two prequels based on western cultural traditions and ethical concepts. therefore, "prometheus" and "alien: covenant" are basically in an embarrassing situation of being well-received but not popular in markets outside north america.
after reviewing the development of the entire "alien" series, the "secret to success" of "alien: taken" is about to emerge. in short, it is to return to the original intention. due to limited budget, the plot design of "alien: taken" is very simple-three pairs of men and women (two pairs of lovers and a pair of siblings) living on the mining planet, in order to escape the dark life of contract laborers, try to obtain hibernation capsules and coolants from the abandoned space station hovering in the planet's orbit, so that they can sneak to other planets and regain their freedom. but what they didn't expect was that this abandoned space station was previously a secret institution dedicated to cultivating and studying aliens, and a large number of living alien embryos were still preserved in the station. their arrival accidentally awakened these alien embryos. then, a classic horror hunting scene in the spaceship of the "alien" series arrived as scheduled.
in a sense, the relatively simple storyline of "alien: reaper" can actually be seen as a re-engraving of the first "alien" in 1979. on the one hand, there are a lot of plots or image designs in the film that pay tribute to the classic scenes in the entire series, which makes many loyal fans of the "alien" series very addicted; on the other hand, the relatively simple narrative structure is also very friendly to ordinary audiences - there is no need to do a lot of homework in advance, just sit in the cinema, and you can feel the same indescribable feeling as in 1979. as a result, "alien: reaper" eliminates cultural discounts to the greatest extent, allowing audiences around the world to more easily experience the type of experience from the science fiction thriller itself.
in hollywood, filming sequels for successful commercial blockbusters has almost become a standard procedure, and can also be seen as a typical feature of the mature industrialization of american commercial films. however, with the exception of a few exceptions such as the "007" series, sequels to commercial blockbusters almost all cannot escape the curse of getting worse and worse. fundamentally, the more successful the previous work is, the heavier the burden the sequel carries, and the more non-artistic interference factors there are in the creation. more importantly, commercial blockbusters involve extremely complex and lengthy planning and production processes from project establishment to release, which often takes a lot of time. if you cannot make forward-looking adjustments to changes in the market environment, but choose to rely on conservative paths, it will naturally be difficult to achieve the expected results.
today's chinese films have also entered the fast lane of commercialization. however, compared with the development history of hollywood over more than 100 years, our top film and television ips are not as many as hollywood, so the burden is not as heavy. however, with the development of chinese commercial films and the advancement of film industrialization, we will sooner or later encounter the problem of how to make sequels. in this regard, the success and failure of the "alien" series of films is an important case for us to learn from. (liu jian)
(source: guangming online - literature and art review channel)
