when shooting science fiction, please be serious - a review of "749 bureau"
2024-10-06
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
author: ma jisi
in the national day season, it is still unclear who has the most box office, but if you ask who has the most "drama", i'm afraid the champion has already been chosen - the science fiction movie "749 games" directed by lu chuan and starring wang junkai.
douban ratings show that the movie "749 bureau" has an opening score of 5.0, with more than 70,000 netizens rating it. as of 16:00 on october 3, the film's douban score dropped to 4.8 points. (the picture comes from the internet)
it achieved the highest box office on the first day of its release, weibo reviews quickly polarized, lu chuan posted on weibo, "come at me if you have anything," and douban gave a low score of 5.0... such a lively "off-screen drama" was released during the spring festival. this is rare in the domestic film market, which has been somewhat weak since then. the only thing comparable to this is the "account theft controversy" when "catch a baby" was released. by coincidence, the person involved in that controversy was also lu chuan.
in response to the word-of-mouth controversy surrounding the movie "749 bureau", the film's director lu chuan posted three consecutive blog posts on weibo on october 2 in response. (the picture comes from the internet)
for films whose box office and word-of-mouth trends do not match, i always recommend that ordinary audiences wait and see, but i will definitely buy tickets on the day of the premiere. although the quality of a movie is a highly subjective matter, managing audience expectations for commercial films is a technical job. after watching the movie, i can only say that the decline in reputation is not unjust.
in terms of settings, there are bright spots
let’s talk about the advantages first.
the setting of the "mysterious government agency bureau 749" in "bureau 749" is eye-catching.this kind of setting is actually not uncommon in science fiction movies, such as the mib organization in the old movie "men in black" of the last century, or the "senior background board" area 52 in hollywood movies. in recent years, starting from the "three-body" and "the wandering earth" series to be precise, similar settings have begun to appear frequently and generously in domestic science fiction films and television.
i welcome this opening of imaginative space with both hands.from a small perspective, it provides wider possibilities for science fiction creation, especially the convenience of directly combining the feelings of family and country with science fiction. broadly speaking, this is also a manifestation of institutional confidence and cultural confidence.in this respect, "749 games" can be said to have opened the door a little wider. the "749 bureau" organization he created has many chinese elements, including visual, cultural, and mechanical aspects, and there are even some small moments that make the workers in the system smile. this is good, and i hope there will be more of this element in chinese science fiction in the future.
with a good impression of this setting, i almost watched the first quarter of the film's "world view expansion" section with relish, which accommodated various problems in the film, and looked forward to the domestic "men in black" or the domestic " the follow-up of "x-men" and the domestic "x-files" will unfold.
——for the late-developing category of domestic science fiction, even if these mature science fiction films can be reproduced with a chinese accent, it is a good progress.
but i didn't expect that even though there was still more than an hour left for the film, the most enjoyable part was already over!
watching the plot is like a platter
now let’s talk about the plot.
the general plot framework is very simple: mysterious creatures (later revealed to be aliens) threaten the earth, and a mutant boy who is the chosen one saves the earth. this is a simple but effective framework that runs through many science fiction commercial films. i have no doubt that the creator of "749 bureau" has a lot of experience in watching such films, because the whole film brings together a lot of familiar elements and scenes: the archives of bureau 749 dream back to "men in black"; the setting of the mutant youth academy is full of the flavor of "x-men"; the subway has enlarged the elevator to go directly to the base to pay tribute to "neon genesis evangelion"; even the autistic young man played by wang junkai and the protagonist ma shan who has little interest in saving the world, it is exactly the same as the awkward protagonist shinji ikari in "neon genesis evangelion".
therefore, the "formula" is here: there must be an image of a scientific researcher who is willing to risk his life for scientific research, so a female scientist must observe the monster "creature zero" at an extremely close distance and die; the protagonist's family must be sacrificed to ignite the protagonist's fighting spirit. therefore, we arranged for ma shan’s uncle and aunt to sacrifice together; it is cooler to fight monsters with cold weapons than hot weapons, so there must be a performance of super warriors fighting monsters hand-to-hand...
obviously,the main creator thought about which plot points to use, but forgot to embed these plot points into a reasonable plot.therefore, the audience has to savor this plot:
when the female scientist was swallowed by the monster, many people in the theater exclaimed - "who is this?" in the following plot, the student named wu han was introduced in a hurry and was the uncle of the protagonist;
the protagonist's uncle and aunt, who had chemicals to restrain the monsters and were already being fired by planes and cannons outside, refused to use "long-range attacks" and instead used "physical self-destruction" to carry the chemicals to hit the monsters, and died tragically. the audience looked puzzled;
the superpower team, which has been played up since the beginning of the film, appears as the last trump card after 749 rounds of guns and ammunition are destroyed and ammunition and food are exhausted, but the fighting method is to simply slash the monsters with one knife...
let me say it again: it is okay for the backward chinese science fiction movies to imitate mature story patterns and even plots.but if you only want to recreate "famous scenes" in your mind, but don't want to put in the effort to present the "famous scenes" reasonably in the plot, what will be presented in the end can only be a sci-fi "joke platter" that will make familiar audiences laugh. it leaves unfamiliar viewers with questions.
before this, i had only heard that comedy movies were made into "joke movies." i never thought that science fiction movies could also be made using the idea of "joke movies." this is something i sincerely hope other movies don't imitate.
creating a character is very casual
the film also has big problems with its characterization.
the identity of scientist wu han, the motivations of the protagonist's uncle and aunt for self-sacrifice, and the character setting of the superpower team. these are the most basic elements in character creation that are not included in this film.when the characters become the background and foil in the "famous scenes", then the story will naturally not be able to advance.
here, we must especially mention the protagonist ma shan played by wang junkai.
the boy with the talent to save the world learned his mission early. but because he was bullied and suffered a lot as a mutant in his childhood, he had little interest in saving the world. it wasn't until his uncle and aunt died that he fought hard. this kind of plot setting is old-fashioned but mature, so there shouldn't be much problem.
the problem is that the eight words "suffering bullying and suffering", which are the most important eight words that determine the characters' motivations in the early and middle stages, are only used sparsely in the entire movie, and there are only a few minutes of flashes in total. let’s explain back to the camera. such thin writing makes it difficult for the audience to sympathize with the protagonist masan. especially after he was raised with love by his uncle and aunt for more than ten years, and was respectfully called "brother shan" by his friends in the local area, his evasive personality that is indifferent to worldly affairs and life seems even more groundless and inexplicable. , and even the subsequent changes were sudden and embarrassing. the development of the entire character arc is full of a sense of randomness of "acting wherever you go".
in addition, the few lines ma shan has in this film are also amazing. as the absolute protagonist who was focused on by the camera almost the whole time, i only have about ten or twenty lines that i can remember from ma shan, and every word he said "treasured words like gold". some of these few lines are psychological monologues, or the camera is pointed elsewhere when ma shan is talking. lines are not the only way to create characters, but they are definitely the most common and easiest to understand. even the use of lines is so stingy, no wonder the audience has difficulty buying into the character growth. even if ma shan is given a "non-talkative" character, it is just a clumsy excuse that cannot make up for the lack of information about the character.
speaking of the starring role, i would like to say a few more words. the audience actually has a basic psychological expectation for the acting skills of the new generation of actors. the focus is still on how the director can "learn from the strong points and make up for the weak points" of the actors and make use of their usefulness. but as far as the movie "749 bureau" is concerned, when the bones and muscles of the film can't support it, discussing acting skills doesn't seem to be a big deal.
playing gimmicks comes with a price
in addition to the above, there are many problems with "749 bureau". for example, as a science fiction movie, it is "not scientific at all" - the parrot breaks through the conservation of mass after inhaling poisonous gas and turns into a vulture monster as big as a helicopter, which is shocking. physics no longer exists. but compared with what was said before, these are really trivial issues. although director lu chuan said on weibo, "let the cast and crew go, come at me if you have any problems." however, these big-frame problems can only be directed at the director and screenwriter. as for the screenwriter...is it also lu chuan? that's okay.
looking at the film and television market in recent years, on the one hand, science fiction films have occupied a certain "theme high ground" in commercial films under the banner of "film industrialization"; on the other hand, low-cost, big-topic works have frequently achieved explosive box office . if you can combine the two, that would be great. but if i can't do it for the time being, i'll still i hope that science fiction movies can be more serious and serious, and not become a gimmick, especially to avoid slipping into "joke".
yes, visual effects are the selling point of science fiction, but not all of them, as evidenced by masterpieces like "the night the comet comes" with almost zero visual effects. the basic rules of film narrative still hold true in science fiction movies. if you violate it, you will have to bear the price of reputation. this kind of price is too high, and young chinese science fiction may not be able to afford it.
make science fiction, be serious, please. (ma jisi)
source: art criticism space
