Compared with the hunger in the first half of the year, in the second half of this year, science fiction fans finally ate a "full meal".
The Netflix German drama "Diablo" completely climbed to the top of the philosophical mountain in the final season, "almost the way";
"Black Picket 2" uses an "anti-super-British" setting to frantically mock the American New Left;
Nolan's "Interstellar", "Inception", "Creed" of "cinema triple hair", so that many audiences are addicted;
Ridley Scott's "Alien Catastrophe" is even more humane thinking and philosophical arguments, poking at the weakness of science fiction films.
The most unexpected thing is that the "main course" is one after another. On October 30, Mandalorian 2 was released.
As a housekeeper of Disney+, the show continued the level of "debut is the peak" in the first season.
Whether it is the story text or the visual spectacle, this work already has a theatrical posture. Rotten Tomatoes' 93% positive rating, IMDb's single episode score of 9.1, and Douban's score of 9.6 are the best compliments for it.
As a "corner" of the Star Wars universe, although "Mandalorian" still continues the "space opera" style of "Star Wars", it also cuts off the useless branches of the original IP. This "independent prequel" is a different story. Surprisingly, by this season, the cut parts were picked up again. In Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine, familiar creatures emerge one after another.
Looking back, though, perhaps no one thought that The Mandalorian would achieve such an outstanding result. After all, this live-action science fiction drama derived from the "first IP in North America" "Star Wars" was born with a lot of pressure.
First, the "Star Wars Master Universe" has long been "getting worse and worse", and the final chapter, Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker, is regarded as the worst one. Second, it is obviously difficult to put commercial films suitable for the big screen on the small screen.
Fortunately, "The Mandalorian" is enough to be contentious. At the 72nd Emmy Awards, it won 7 awards, including "Best Visual Effects", and the audience reputation exceeded all star Wars movies since the new century. This achievement not only broadens the text thickness of the "Star Wars Universe", but also gives Disney+ the strength to truly fight with Netflix.
The timeline of The Mandalorian is set shortly after the fall of the Empire, when the First Order had not yet taken shape and the universe was in chaos. The story of this drama begins with the lone ranger Mandalorian, who is far away from the galactic fringe star belt controlled by the New Republic.
At the beginning of the second season, the taste of "breaking through the level" of "Mandalorian" became stronger and stronger. Readers who are familiar with online novels probably know that "upgrading" stream novels are often linked to small white texts. This is also the reason for the frequent failures after the film and television of male frequency IP. Of course, there are exceptions to such film and television dramas, such as the well-known "Journey to the West".
"The Mandalorian" follows the path of "Journey to the West". On the way west, the four masters and apprentices crossed one checkpoint after another and asked for the True Scriptures from the Western Spirit Mountain. Fighting monsters is only a process, and learning from the scriptures is the purpose. The lack of purpose is precisely the biggest problem in upgrading the flow of small white text. At the end of the day, getting stronger is never the goal, it's just the added bonus you get as you keep moving forward to achieve your goal.
Nor are the Mandalorians campaigning to get stronger. Or rather, he originally appeared as a mercenary.
In order to have a mouthful of food and soup to drink, he became a bounty hunter who worked for the union. This fits the mandalorian setting, and even though the new government that advocated peace expelled militarism, the war was still rooted in their blood. Therefore, compared with engaging in consignment and delivery of takeaways, the job of a mercenary is suitable for this ethnic group that advocates force. Of course, there is more money.
The world is not peaceful, and the life of a bounty hunter is not good. Fortunately, he received a big job, capturing Yoda's baby alive. This is the motivational event in "The Mandalorian", and it is also the key node for the Mandalorian from the "money-making machine" to the "nagging daddy". In fact, the story of the entire first season can be described in five words: "Daddy with Baby History". The story of the second season also unfolds.
In "The Mandalorian", it is the protagonist Mandalorian who fights the monster, but it is the Yoda baby who is upgraded. In the middle of the first season, it was still a "bear child" who tried to eat a frog; by this season, it had grown into a small adult who could help "Daddy". This "child" who is only 50 years old makes the story of breaking through the level no longer boring, and also touches the hearts of the audience.
The combination of bounty hunters and force pets forms a fascinating narrative thread in The Mandalorian. When the indifferent killer incarnates as a nagging dad, saying that I am just a bounty hunter, but everywhere to protect the "cubs" from harm, who can refuse this "macho with baby" difference cute point? You see, this is a Star Wars version of "The Wolf with the Belt" set in space.
Interestingly, Lucas's filming of Star Wars was influenced by the Japanese samurai film Seven Samurai. In the anime series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the words "This episode pays homage to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai". Jon Feiru made The Mandalorian to pay homage to traditional Japanese samurai films.
Of course, despite the similarity of settings, "The Mandalorian" runs through the Western style of common Hollywood genre films.
Such is the case with the film version of Star Wars. It's like Keith As M. Johnston put it in Introduction to Science Fiction Cinema, "It portrays the 'imaginary future picture' as an unpleasant, perennially used, and very human world." "To put it bluntly, the vast deserts and dilapidated mines on the planet Tatooine, the home of Skywalker, are not just alternative variants of the Western environment."
Star Wars appeared as a challenger. As film critic Robin Wood put it, George Lucas' Star Wars challenges what American cinema claims to be a sense of just-found maturity. This challenging stance is presented in a purely commercial perspective of "new Hollywood": linear narrative, lots of action, flat characters, and elaborate special effects.
Hollywood blockbuster special effects
This is also a common way to play in today's super British popcorn movies. Whether it is Marvel's "Avengers" or DC's "Justice League", you can watch it without a brain. In fact, for an audience member walking into a movie theater with popcorn in his arms, watching Star Wars and watching The Avengers feel the same. Perhaps, the latter can be a little cooler.
But dramas and movies are different. As mentioned earlier, it is more difficult to put a big-screen commercial film on the small screen. After all, TV series need to be longer and the text thicker. This is also the innovation of super-British/anti-super-British dramas in the past two years. "Watchmen" or "Black Pickets" are more philosophical and more realistic. But The Mandalorian is not the usual one.
Complex has a complex look, simple and simple fun. While other science fiction dramas desperately inject philosophical values, social issues, and human thoughts, The Mandalorian chooses "Avenue to Simplicity." The marksmanship of "Birds and Phoenixes" is full of beauty, but the straight-forward assassination is also quite threatening. Besides, it's too hard for today's science fiction dramas to tell a complex story.
The ending of "Alien Catastrophe", which started surprisingly, is still cheesy; the third season of "Westworld" is even more chaotic; "Diablo" has never entered the field of vision of ordinary audiences; "Black Pickets" is a pure drama, and the connotation of "Mandalorian" is much richer than it. Since this is the case, it is better to follow the "daddy" to raise children. This is the way – this is the right way.
【Text/Feng Yi】