Sean Connery died at the age of 90. From the original 007 James Bond swept the world, to the Oscar-winning "Iron Mask Selfless", and the popular commercial blockbusters such as "Robin Hood the Prince of Rogues", "Brave Island", "Sky-Stealing Trap" and so on, Sean Connery left countless classic screen images for the audience.
These works are very familiar to everyone, with the death of Sean Connery, I believe that the above works will be mentioned in recent times, but there is a work, more special, perhaps you have seen, but the extraction of the film is not very much. That was Sean Connery's last film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
What is special is not only because the film is the last work of the old man, but also because the film is not a glorious thing on another level: in a sense, it is because of this film that Sean Connery retired from the jianghu and stopped making movies.
Filmed in 2003, the film cost 78 million yuan, and eventually grossed 66 million in North America, and the cumulative box office in the world was only 179 million, ranking 28th in the whole year. The global 650 million of Pirates of the Caribbean is not the same as the global 650 million of the same period.
What's even more frightening is that the film's reputation has collapsed across the board, with a Freshness rating of only 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and a low audience reputation of 44%. Another MTC rating is also only 30/100.
After the film, Sean Connery claimed in an interview with The Times that it was the film's poor filming process and end result that made him permanently withdraw from filmmaking: "[Filming] was a nightmare, it affected me too much, I was going to leave the entertainment industry, I was fed up with these idiots!" ”
It can be seen that this "Skyfall" that Sean Connery called a "nightmare" not only suffered a double failure of box office reputation, but also dragged the old man into the water, naturally unwilling to mention it.
There are also many friends who have seen this movie, and I think you can also have your own evaluation. In my opinion, the film can be watched, the plot and character portrayal are average, but the fights and special effects are very exciting, associated with the film's 78 million is not too high cost, the effect presented by the film has been very good.
But the most noteworthy thing about this film is not just the special effects, but the background and human settings:
It's a fake superhero team-up movie that predates 2012's Avengers by 10 years.
So the gossip and secrets behind the scenes of this movie are worth mentioning.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > literary universe</h1>
The Original Translation of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) is based on the comic of the same name by the famous Alan Moore. Regarding this one, one of the greatest screenwriters in the American comic book industry, "Watchmen", "Fatal Joke", "V-Word Vendetta", DC's top five comic books are basically Alain. Moore's work, and the tearing between him and DC, are also talked about by melon fans.
In 1999, after leaving DC, Alain Moore founded his own company, America's Best Comics, or ABC for short. The goal is to sever his relationship with major comic book companies such as DC. The first comic he created under ABC's Alain Moore was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with comic bookist Kevin O'Neal).
Originally, Alain Moore's original intention was to create a set of "Victorian Justice League" superhero comics, so there was the story of the first volume of the comic, which was also the blueprint for the change of the film version, the comic was widely acclaimed after its release, and Alain Moore became more and more addicted to writing, and then expanded the worldview, the comic story was not limited to the Victorian era, but also included the 12th century, the 18th century, the 1910s all the way to the 21st century.
The biggest selling point of the story is the formation of characters in Western literature, just like Marvel's "cinematic universe", Alain Moore's pen, creating a set of "literary universe".
Take the film version of "Skyfall" as an example, the film is adapted from the first volume of the comic book, the story takes place in the Victorian era in 1899, and several characters appear in the film are:
★ Alan Courtman, the adventurer in the adventure novel The Treasure of King Solomon, is an elderly secluded man living in Africa, played by Sean Connery
★ Tom Sawyer, the protagonist of Mark Twain's famous book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, has grown up and become a detective;
★ Captain Nemo - Captain Nautilus in Verne's science fiction classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
★ Dr. Hyde – The scientist with split personalities in Stevenson's Doctor Who
★ Mina Hack – The female vampire in Bram Stoker's Dracula the Vampire
★ Skinner the Invisible Man – Dr. Stealth in H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man
★ Dorian Gray – The undead beautiful boy in Wilde's Portrait of Dowling Gray
★ Professor Moriarty, the main villain in Conan Doyle's Detective Sherlock Holmes, is also the film's villain.
★ Captain Ahab, the protagonist of Moby Dick, is Captain Nemo's first mate and has a line: "Call me Ishmael", which is the first line of the character in Moby Dick.
This is the biggest attraction of "Skyfall" and the original comic, integrating some familiar horns to make an undifferentiated cosmology. This is just a character who appears in the movie, and there are many other characters who do not appear in the comics: such as Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.
Don't forget to mention that the LXG Gentleman's League in the comics also involves other eras, so in the comics we can also see the "Three Musketeers" in the 12th-17th centuries or so, the knight of Cervantes, the knight OfgiCord, the Rogue Prince Robin Hood, and Gulliver's Travels. 20th-century characters: YasenRopin the Gentleman Thief, John Carter the Prince of Mars (the protagonist of Alien Battlefield), Phantom of the Opera (appearing in Moriarty's disguised form in this film), james Bond, among others.
PS, the role of the movie Tom Sawyer is original, because the role was originally James Bond in his youth, but unfortunately MGM did not give the copyright, and LXG are all British famous characters, worried that American audiences are not familiar, so they joined Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. In fact, there is no egg use, whether it is the United States or the United Kingdom, the audience is actually not very concerned.
In addition, because these characters are all well-known archetypes, if made into a movie, some of the characters will involve copyright, such as the invisible man did not get the copyright of H.G. Wells's descendants, so it was renamed Skinner from Holly Griffin. The other one, who can't appear because of copyright, is a name we don't want to hear—Fu *Manchu*.
In the movie, Moriarty's lair is set at the junction of Heilongjiang and Mongolia in China, and he also encountered a Siberian tiger, I don't know if it is related to this, I haven't read the comic and don't know much.
The audience's greatest pleasure in this kind of work is to "recognize people". The hero team up brings instant pleasure, which is vividly reflected in the work, coupled with the story of Alain Moore. Therefore, although "Extraordinary Gentleman League" is independent of Marvel and DC, its sales have always been high, and it has also won the monthly comic book sales champion, which is still in serialization in 2019, but whether it is finished remains to be examined.
However, for the movie version, the "recognition of people" is obviously going to be greatly discounted.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the limitations of hero teaming</h1>
As a Victorian science fiction film (1837-1901), the film is directly reminiscent of four words: steampunk.
Yes, in the background of the film at the end of the 19th century, elegance and luxury became the label of fashion for the classicism of the film, and under the brain-opening imagination, it was the technology of the times, such as the predecessor's super long car, the spectacular "Parrot" submarine, which was covered with intricate European court-style patterns, and did not forget its coal-fired power, steel-making furnace and other similar imprints of the Industrial Revolution. It achieves steampunk's most iconic "patchwork aesthetic of nostalgia and fantasy".
Steampunk is more common in the ACG field, such as Katsuyo Otomo's "Steam Boy", Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky", "Hal's Moving Castle", the game "Shame", "Bioshock", "Sakura Wars" and so on, are all popular. But the performance in the field of live-action films is dwarfed.
Live-action movies always have problems encountering steampunk, such as "StormTrooper" that won the box office and lost word of mouth, "Hugo" that won the word-of-mouth and lost the box office, "Golden Compass" and "Predator City" that lost both at the box office, and "Star Silver Island" that directly eliminated Disney's 2D animation... Too much...
It can be seen that steampunk is non-mainstream after all, although it can create a powerful visual spectacle, the biggest hidden danger is the deconstruction of the historical view and the mainstream audience to create a gap, to put it bluntly, the audience is not used to seeing. It can be seen that steampunk works still have relative limitations, which are vividly reflected in "Skyfall".
Bringing such a slightly gothic, late-industrial-age sci-fi story to the screen with a strong historical atmosphere is a sense of distance for the general audience, the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the evil Doctor who intends to control the world? Audiences more than 100 years later are clearly not very interested in this, and can only rely entirely on the character design and visual spectacle.
The action scenes in the film are very exciting, with Courtman's adventurous nature and marksmanship, Captain Nemo's "Parrot" and Oriental martial arts, Hyde's transformation potion, Mina's sharp vampire fangs, Schina's stealth, and Tom Sawyer's double gun. British director Stephen Norrington himself is a special effects background, in 1998's "Blade Warrior" we have learned, the action style is sharp, the fight is wonderful, and even can see the style of Fighting in Hong Kong movies.
And to say a piece of unpopular science, Stephen Norrington was one of the first directors to introduce "bullet time" based on TimeTrack technology into the film, which was shown in "Blade Warrior", and the effect presented by the film directly affected the following year's "The Matrix", which was carried forward by the latter. However, in "Skyfall", Steven Norrington did not continue to use this technique (presumably worried about being said to be plagiarized, after all, this effect was not hot in "Blade Runner"), but simply showed the ballistic in the scene where Sean Connery played Byc. Courtman and Tom Sawyer sniped the enemy at the end.
This is probably the reason why "Skyfall" chose this rookie director, after all, the cost of 78 million, throwing away the remuneration of the old man and others, the actual use is even lower, but Steven Norlington has done a very good job on this basis, especially the Battle of Venice City, the land long sports car gun battle, the Nautilus assist in the water, the air vampire queen cover, the sea, land and air stereoscopic combat, the visual effect is amazing. You know, that's just over half the cost of 150 million Pirates of the Caribbean.
However, the most deadly thing is that the film's rhythm is very slow, and Stephen Norrington's special effects and fights are well done, but the storytelling skills are almost non-existent. This movie has achieved the degree that as long as it is not an action scene, it is a urine point, and it also directly affects the audience's recognition of the character.
The success of 2012's "Avengers" is based on the establishment of audience awareness of the characters, and the individual hero movies led by Iron Man have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Taking a step back, at least it is also a model like "Justice League" where bats and super two acquaintances bring new people, which is the key to the success of the team movie, to put it bluntly, you have to understand who the character is, and "recognize people" to have fun.
But several of the characters in "Heavenly Soldiers", although they are from famous books, but it is not unpleasant to say, the roles in 19th century literary works, not to mention the Oriental audience, even foreigners may not be able to say it. This is not like our Journey to the West and the list of gods from the classical masterpieces into the mainstream culture, the film does not have popular culture as a support, and has a sense of distance from the audience, the effect of "recognizing people" is also greatly reduced.
Coupled with the problem of human settings and story rhythm, the film has a poor sense of substitution, in addition to the action scenes, the rest of the viewing points are limited, which has become a reason for the failure of the film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > reject Gandalf's chain reaction</h1>
Prior to starring in the film, Sean Connery was already in a semi-retired state, and did not take on the role for three years after "The Trap of Stealing Heaven" and "Visitor to the Mind", and "refused to triplet". The scenes rejected by the old man, including the prophet in "The Matrix" and Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings", are all fierce characters, especially Gandalf, and it is the most unfortunate, as for why the role was rejected, Sean Connery's answer was: "I can't read the script and can't read the book."
Of course, this is only an objective reason, and the subjective reason is that the film cannot meet the requirements of the old man: huge salary and as a producer.
But why did Sean Connery star in the commercial blockbuster "Skyfall"? Quite simply, the film directly paid the old man $17 million, and also allowed the old man to be a producer, and he could get extra dividends. Of course, for this reason, the cost of the film is not rich, and the film does not have any star roles except Sean Connery.
And the film was a disaster during the filming period.
Probably because the Scots looked at the English people unfavorably, from the first day of the boot, Sean Connery, who was the lead actor and producer, began to tear up with the British hometown director Stephen Norrington. The duo is said to have had a lot of disputes on set, and Stephen Norrington was bitter in an interview, saying that the film's producers always intervened in the creation, and the director, who had only made small and medium-budget films before, felt "very awkward" about leading such a large crew. And the director's "amateur" also made Connery quite angry, a prop error stopped shooting for a day, resulting in the old man almost quit halfway.
In addition, the production team of the film, including Sean Connery, intended to make the film appear in the fall of the same year, but the producer 20th Century Fox insisted on adjusting the film to the summer slot, and confronted Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" (July 9) on July 11.
Especially at the premiere of the film, the director did not attend, and when asked where the director went, Sean Connery replied: "Probably went back to my hometown to take refuge." It can be seen that at that time, the old man already had a premonition of the failure of this movie.
After the release of the film, it was criticized by all walks of life, even the original author could not sit still, first of all, the original comic artist Kevin O'Neill opened his mouth, saying that the failure of the film was the poor balance of the team, the captain of the original was the vampire Mina, the role in the movie was greatly weakened, fortunately, Sean Connery was very attractive to hold the audience: the film version of Alan Courtman was much better than in the comic.
The creator and most talented troll Alain Moore was in a state of spraying when the film was still a script: "The film script and the comic are two different things, and I don't know who the characters in it are." After the movie was released, this one did not watch: "I don't watch it, that gang of people who don't read comics want Lao Tzu to help them speak?" How naïve! ”
And Alain Moore also asked DC to apologize publicly, because dc executives had read the script of "Skyfall" early on and said that the script was "very good", which made Alain Moore very annoyed and hated DC even more.
In the tide of bad reviews of movies, Roger Albert, a film critic who has always been very harsh on action movies, gave a relatively medium rating, he believes that the film has a great team of heroes, but every time they team up, they don't know what to do, resulting in extreme confusion between the plot and motivation, and between words, with a lot of regret.
Therefore, "Skyfall" also has salvation, although the box office results are average, but in the subsequent DVD market, the film has shined, with rental and sales, accumulating more than 80 million US dollars, with a box office of 179 million, the filmmakers not only did not lose, but even earned.
Unfortunately, the film still did not meet expectations, and the shooting process was a mess. For the film, Sean Connery turned down the opportunity to play Gandalf, and in the same year that "Skyfall" was released, "Lord of the Rings 3" won the box office of the year, accumulating 1.1 billion worldwide. Connery didn't play Gandalf, and the trilogy went down, which also made him $450 million less.
After this, Sean Connery was physically and mentally exhausted and decided to retire.
Is it the old man who can't act? Of course not, people are in good health, because in the behind-the-scenes interview of the movie, there is an interesting point that when Allen teaches Tom Sawyer to shoot from a distance, Shane West, who plays Sawyer, is shaking his shoulders and arms. West said he was embarrassed because Sean Connery, who was 72 at the time, was so relaxed and steady in shooting that he was envious of his 20s.
In the film, when the Englishman Alan Courtman is dying of injury, he says to the American Tom Sawyer: "Young people, I hope you can lead the way in the new century, just like I did in the old century." Linked to the background of the times, it has a taste of innuendo.
Now that Sean Connery is dead and a legend has come to an end, let's bid farewell to the superstar at the end of the film: the adventurer who knows Africa best has returned to Africa, and in front of Alan Courtman's grave, a priest dances a witch dance, and the soil of the grave begins to stir at the last moment, and a lightning bolt hits his shotgun.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > PS, follow-up</h1>
"Skyfall" is not only The last film of Sean Connery, but also the last directorial film of director Stephen Norrington, the director who has done special effects, has only directed four films, the debut "Killing God Ten" is extremely low cost but the effect is good, Marvel Studios participated in the production of the first work "Blade Warrior" is also a small and medium-cost film, and then the gothic style film "Last Minute" is unknown, did not expect that the first major production of his career "Skyfall" became a director's masterpiece. He then returned to his old line of special effects, and after participating in the special effects work of "The Exorcist: Prequel", he disappeared.
Personally, I think that the action style of this brother is still very distinctive, if you can stick to it, take the science fiction, B-grade film route, the film made is definitely stronger than the "video game director" Paul Anderson.
Another character, comic book author Alain Moore, is actually a bit hilarious about the story surrounding the comic strip League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Didn't Alain Moore set up an ABC comics company to produce League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is owned by Jim Lee's Wild Storm Comics Studios (Wildstorm), a sub-label of IMAGE Comics, which has produced comics such as "Red Flame Battlefield", and Moore's establishment of ABC is also Jim Lee's.
But shortly after Alan Moore's ABC joined Wild Storm, Jim Lee didn't work with Alain. Moore discussed, and sold wild storm to DC, so Alan Moore teacher turned around and returned to DC, you can imagine how Moore's mood is, after half a day, "Extraordinary Gentleman League" finally became DC Comics.
Although DC promised not to interfere in ABC's creation, over time, some restrictions were added, and Alain Moore believed that DC's restrictions were all directed at him, and finally Alain Moore, who had endured for several years, broke out in 2005, stopped all ABC comic series, and issued a bold statement that he would never draw any comics for DC again.
Fortunately, ABC later found a new publisher, and the serialization of "Extraordinary Gentlemen's League" was able to continue.