老zhou
Summary: "Avatar 2: Path of Water" was released in mainland China on December 16. Due to the huge success of "Avatar 1", everyone can be said to be eagerly looking forward to the second part after 13 years. However, this time due to the impact of the epidemic, the box office was somewhat bleak. Judging from the film itself, the plot is old-fashioned and has no new ideas. It relies entirely on high-tech special effects to give the audience a visual impact. Isn't this a wrong path in film art?
"Avatar 2: Path of Water" was released in mainland China on December 16. Due to the huge success of "Avatar 1", everyone can be said to be eagerly looking forward to the second part after 13 years. However, this time due to the impact of the epidemic, the box office was somewhat bleak. Judging from the film itself, the plot is old-fashioned and has no new ideas. It relies entirely on high-tech special effects to give the audience a visual impact. Isn't this a wrong path in film art?
"Avatar" director Cameron is definitely the world's top director. His film works "Titanic", "True Lies", " Terminator " and "Alien" are all acclaimed and blockbusters. Starting from "Terminator", they are basically science fiction films, and he has become a professional in science fiction films. Especially 2009's "Avatar 1" was a bit groundbreaking, and it made people sigh: It turns out that movies can still 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 "Stuck God" ever since. It also makes people full of expectations for " Avatar 2". But this wait lasted for thirteen years.
The plot of "Avatar 2" this time is very old-fashioned and has nothing new. It is far worse than "True Lies" and "Terminator" back then. Basically, you know the ending after watching the beginning. Although there are no big 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 a boy or a girl), and an orphan, so there are five children in total. Since there are five children, each child must have a corresponding story. Because it is a science fiction film, all the characters are set up according to the needs of the plot. Unnecessary characters can be omitted. However, if they are arranged but there is no role, it is a bit unreasonable. There is also the villain Colonel Quachi, who clearly had a hostage in hand, but completely forgot about it at the beginning, and didn't remember it until the end. There are so many similar flaws that I won’t list them all.
For Cameron, the plot is secondary and not worth mentioning. The highlight of the whole film is the special effects. This is undoubtedly what Cameron attaches great importance to. The special effects of the entire film have indeed reached an unprecedented peak. Whether it is details, levels, or panoramic views, they are all very visually impactful.
special effects are the most suitable technical means for science fiction films, but Lao Zhou has basically no interest in science fiction films. Perhaps because he has been engaged in military history research, he has an almost instinctive rejection of all illusory things. Although there are indeed some classic science fiction films, such as "Star Wars", I always feel that a good film should be realistic and use the language of film to express history and reality. This should be the true meaning of film. Of course, this is just a family opinion and represents only a few personal thoughts.
And Cameron has obviously gone further and further on the road of over-emphasis on special effects. It is obvious that this is a wrong path. Film art is to express a theme through the lens language of the film, and to express the thoughts that are hoped to be conveyed to the audience in the language of the film. If it is just to show off the special effects and even the basic plot can be ignored, it has actually deviated from the original intention of the movie. Why else make a movie? 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, and visual impact is naturally very important, but visual impact must serve the plot and the theme of the movie. If you blindly emphasize visual impact and put visual impact first, then it will essentially be no different from the old Beijing flyover foreign movies in the past.
In fact, Cameron himself knows very well that this time "Avatar 2" and " Avatar 3" are filmed together, and he is also planning to film " Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5". However, Cameron said that if the box office of "Avatar 2" is not satisfactory, then there will be another "Avatar 3" to end the entire Avatar series in a trilogy. If "Avatar 2" is a hit at the box office, then the fourth and fifth installments 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 perspective of film art, "Avatar 2" is a huge failure, without any emotion. No matter how gorgeous the scenes are, how realistic the picture quality is, even if you can put people into the picture, it can't change the fatal flaw of the pale plot.
After all, movies are for watching stories, not for watching scenes.
Therefore, the response of "Avatar 2" must be far inferior to that of "Avatar 1". Even if there was no epidemic, the box office would not be much better. It seems that the Avatar series will end with a trilogy. If it is moving forward on the wrong path of special effects, it would be better to end it as soon as possible.
(the pictures in this article are from the Internet)
