Recently, Netflix made the most expensive movie ever made.
The investment exceeded US$200 million (about 1.35 billion yuan).
Starring three hollywood stars -
High Commander (Ryan Gosling), Team America (Chris Evans), Anna de Armas.
However, word of mouth is polarized.
Some people directly praise the cool film of the year.
Some people scolded, this is.
At present, the Douban score is only 6.6 points.
Uncle Yu will talk to you today.
Is this money worth it?
The Grey Shadow Man
The Gray Man
Throw money at it
"Gray Shadow Man" is a project that has been starving Hollywood for many years.
It is adapted from a best-selling spy novel and has been hailed by the industry as an enhanced version of "Spy Movies".
In 2011, the news came that Brad Pitt starred.
After the project was yellowed, Charlize Theron took over the baton and wanted to make a sex-changing version.
Unfortunately, none of them came to fruition.
Original author Mark Grigney
And this time Netflix shot, but also riveted enough.
The first thing to do is throw money.
Just look at the cast.
Commander Guangao alone is 20 million US dollars (about 135 million yuan).
The other two are also hollywood's top hits.
Anna de Armas, Chris Evans.
The plot of the movie is not complicated.
The High Commander plays a top agent, code-named "Number Six", who belongs to a secret organization of the CIA.
Members of the organization do not have files and are full-time performing the highest level of tasks for the CIA.
Come and go without a trace, wander around in the gray area.
Therefore, the jianghu people are called "gray shadow people".
On one mission, Shadow Man Six was sent to assassinate a traitor who had leaked the CIA's top secrets.
After the fight, it was found that the other party was also a member of the organization, gray shadow man four.
It turned out that the CIA was using them to kill each other and clean up the portal.
Number Four was hunted down because he had evidence of crimes by senior CIA officials.
He handed the evidence to Number Six, and asked him to take over his responsibility and bring down the culprit behind it.
So, Number Six also began a journey of desperation.
In the process, he is aided by a mysterious girl (Anna de Armas).
And what they have to face is the mad killer Lloyd.
For this image, the US team came to a complete subversion.
Transformed into a rustic spiritual boy.
A touch of Lu Xun's moustache was jokingly called "Shaoxing agent" by netizens.
It shows that the real money and silver, as well as the fight scene of this film.
Before filming began, several leading actors underwent rigorous training.
The crew invited professional Delta troops to guide them hand in hand.
The film also arranged nine action scenes, almost from the beginning to the end.
Each one has highlights.
For example, close combat under neon lights is simply fierce.
The melee combat next to the pyrotechnic injector is brilliant and exciting.
And grabbing parachutes on a plane that falls from a high altitude is dizzying.
Close combat alone is certainly not enough.
The pattern opens up, and a global hunt is staged.
Thailand, Azerbaijan, Turkey, China, Hungary...
Almost every scene has to be bombed indiscriminately in a country or region.
One of the most expensive scenes is the "Battle of Prague" in the middle of the film.
It is said that it cost 40 million DOLLARs!
You get what you pay for.
Who didn't look at it and exclaimed: It's good to have money!
Smash the pot
However, spending money may not be exchanged for a good movie.
Netflix understands this.
Last year's "Red Notice" flutter street is still vividly remembered.
So they brought in the Russo brothers, who started with Marvel movies.
Armed with a $200 million knife, the two brothers also used Marvel's tricks.
Wherever you go, blow up, destroy the world.
It's hard to make.
However, without the blessing of the super-British element, the shortcomings of the brothers were exposed.
Too much pursuit of showmanship, ignoring the plot itself.
The biggest problem that led to it was the waste of the card division.
Throughout the film, the characters are very thin.
Almost suffice it to say, full tool man.
In the original book, Gray Shadow Man Six is a charismatic guy.
Not only is the combat power amazing, but also the cold face is humorous, and from time to time it jumps out of the golden sentence.
At the same time, it is full of a sense of justice, pity xiangxiang and cherish jade, and will never kill innocents indiscriminately.
Enough to rival Bond 007.
More importantly, there is the loneliness of the lone killer.
This role is simply tailor-made for the High Commander.
In films such as "Outlaw Driving" and "Blade Runner 2049", he has accurately grasped this temperament.
However, under the lens of the Russo brothers, the character is portrayed incomparably stiffly.
After nine deaths, he obtained top-secret documents.
As a result, I actually sat in an Internet café at random and looked at it with a big swing.
As a top killer, he also has to entrust strangers with fake passports on the way to escape.
As a result, the kung fu of taking ID photos was set up.
Falling into a deep well became a turtle in an urn.
Fortunately, the cleverness of the protagonist depends on the villain.
Lloyd is exactly the kind of role that the US team wants to play the most.
Skinny polo shirt, cropped pants, beanie leather shoes.
Full of foul language and reckless behavior.
It can be seen that he is desperately trying to get rid of the "Wei Guangzheng" image of the US team and broaden the path of the play.
Therefore, what is wanted is a sense of contrast.
For example, the cynical male brother in "Sharp Blade Out of the Sheath".
The phrase "eat" made him taste the sweetness.
However, this villain cannot withstand a series of downscaling settings.
Lloyd is indeed a psychopathic madman killer.
But in order to hunt down the sixth, he did not hesitate to alarm the whole of Europe.
Dozens of passers-by and police were killed indiscriminately, and countless ancient buildings were blown up.
Even the characters themselves are self-deprecating.
"Is it so hard to kill someone?"
The final duel is even more old terrier than 20 years ago.
Something that can be solved with one shot has to turn into a one-on-one head-to-head combat.
If you can't win the fight, you take out a knife, and the little bastard compares and strokes.
The thorns are also insignificant parts, not into the neck or chest.
There is neither than the strength of Thanos, nor the mystery of the Joker.
The only thing that can make the audience happy is the "ass terrier".
However, the first two at least have room to play.
The worst was Anna de Armas.
In other secret agent movies, the heroine often only needs to be beautiful alone and can leave a glimpse.
And Anna, as the only heroine of this film, has shared most of the fight scenes.
He was thrown over the shoulder countless times, and he also had to clean up the mess for the male protagonist and do all the dirty work.
Let the heroine have been addicted.
And the shaping of the characters is almost zero.
"Blade Runner 2049" CP reorganization, originally happy big Pu Ben.
But from the meeting to the time the two fought side by side, there was no spark.
There is only plastic revolutionary friendship.
The audience watches the entire film and can't even remember the names of the characters.
It can be said that Anna's beauty does not stand out at all.
This is a waste of the hot stars of the moment.
As Global Screen criticized the film.
"Trying to cover up clichés with adrenaline."
If the film production lacks personality, for the sake of being big and big, then it will only make a tasteless cake that smells of grabbing money.
Is it worth it?
In "Gray Shadow Man", it can still be seen that Netflix's consistent strategy:
Make movies with big data.
Think of it as a big platter of many classic movies.
The audience wants to see a deep lone hero.
He referred to "Spy Heavy" and drew gourds like this, creating an invincible agent who was tragically framed.
Top: "Spy On"; Part 2: The Grey Shadow Man
The audience wants to see action movies.
Siren VI became a "replica of John Vic".
With a huge bounty overhead, you can meet the bounty killers who flock to you at any time.
Wielding the same move of "Rapid Pursuit", with one enemy and one hundred.
Top: "Fast And Furious"; Part 2: The Grey Shadow Man
The iron man is tender and tender, and can not be less.
A memory is forcibly inserted into the film.
Let the mission of Gray Shadow Man Six be one more heavy - to protect the cute little Lori.
This number six is not too cold.
Top: "This Killer Is Not Too Cold"; Part 2: The Grey Shadow Man
Even escaping from prison is not willing to let go of imitating "The Shawshank Redemption".
Top: The Shawshank Redemption; Part 2: The Grey Shadow Man
This way of creating is doomed to a fragmentation in the perception of the film.
There are good sentences, no good chapters.
However, these elements do attract different types of enthusiasts.
Since it is difficult to adjust the heavy mouth, let's cast a wide net and win by quantity.
This is why the film still rushed to the hit list.
The popcorn index is also as high as 90%.
For Netflix, there is a more realistic problem - making money.
Netflix also had an era of vanity in the pursuit of film artistry.
At one time, it established the image of Party A that "only gives money and does not interfere with creation".
He invested in Alfonso Cuarón's "Roma", Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman", Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" and other major works.
They are the top representatives of the great artist track, rare and unique.
It can be said that these investments have always been loss-making transactions.
It did change a few resounding trophies.
Alfonso Cuarón
Bong Joon-ho
However, in recent years, Netflix has been greatly impacted.
With giants such as Disney, HBO, Apple, and Amazon joining the streaming media market, Netflix's dominant position has long ceased to exist.
According to statistics, Disney's bundled streaming media platform has 205 million subscribers, which is almost the same as Netflix's 221 million.
The white-hot competition has led to multiple crises for Netflix.
For example, the lag in subscriber growth, stock prices plummeting, layoffs, etc.
For them, the era of attracting creative talent at any cost is over.
What they need more is a movie that can appeal to the more popular, that is, an all-star mashup blockbuster like "Gray Shadow Man".
Movies, after all, are a lucrative business.
However, film is also a cultural product.
Creativity is its most important value.
Uncle Yu misses more, or the previous Netflix era -
Not heavy card division, only quality of the era.
After all, constantly surprising the audience is the true king's way.