Whatever, it just looks good

Last week's hottest theatrical film, it must be "Spider-Man: Across the Universe".

After the release of the film, the box office performance in North America also went all the way up, and the box office in North America exceeded 120 million US dollars in the first weekend. And the film's performance in North America is second only to this year's phenomenal films such as "Super Mario Brothers Movie".

In short, this will be a very noteworthy hit film this summer.

At the same time, the response of the film in China is also very good.

Although, the box office may still be the same (basically any imported film is the same in recent months).

However, the rating of the film is really high!

Although it has decreased slightly from the previous score, it still maintains a Douban score of 8.8 points, which is still very powerful as a new film in theaters.

In fact, the original "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" basically made me confused, which can be said to be a favorite Marvel superhero work in recent years.

The reason why I am confused is because the film tries to open up a new world that truly belongs to animated films.

To this day, I still remember the visual shock that the first one brought me, that is, a strong sense of comics, a wild imagination, and a more unrestrained degree of freedom belonging to animation.

Such a film tries to re-tell you that mainstream theatrical animation can not only be like the assembly line on the set, but also like Spider-Man.

And now the new "Spider-Man: Across the Universe", not only did not stop at the matter of change, but played more crazy and more ahead.

And how can you not like it?

Still like that, in recent years, my overall view of the film is relatively pessimistic.

It is undeniable that the charm of the film is shrinking. Whether it is mainstream films or various art films, newly produced films are further reduced in attractiveness and originality.

In other words, what you see is basically what you can think of. Surprises and surprises are becoming less and less, and both the film side and the creators are playing the safety card.

The movie is in a bottleneck period, and everyone's enthusiasm for movies is gradually not as good as it used to be.

Back to the realm of cartoons, it's actually the same thing.

Due to the gradual improvement of animation production technology, it is easy to produce smooth, smooth, and more realistic animation images on large sets.

But this also creates a problem: the current mainstream Hollywood cartoons are actually very homogeneous in terms of image, their shapes and actions are generally similar (realistic), and the characters presented by animation are probably similar.

After watching more, it is already difficult to distinguish these animated characters.

However, animation has never been the same as live-action movies!

Why does it have to be more real, why does it have to be more like the real world, do you have to engage in those realistic things?

It's as if when we evaluate domestic animation, we will always say that the old cartoons are good. The so-called good looking, in fact, there is another reason, that is, the animation at that time, the expression is really varied.

I remember when I was a child, I really watched various forms of cartoons, including animations made of paper cuts, animations made of felt cloth, puppet animations, ink animations...

Today's mainstream animation is basically the same.

It seems that only in the annual Oscar animated short film nomination section can we see a variety of animation forms full of personality. Therefore, the Oscar animated short film unit has always been a unit that I love.

However, "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" is not like this.

I saw that on the Douban short review, some comments called it "artwork".

Of course, I think this statement is still debatable. However, it also points out the biggest feature of the film. The so-called "artwork" is to distinguish it from mainstream works and show more individuality and uniqueness.

And its personality, not only in content, but also in the form itself.

The biggest charm of a movie like "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" is its originality.

Before, in the field of mainstream animation, it was really difficult to see. People are indeed the first to dare to play like this, especially crazy, especially free, it is a visual explosion.

In fact, in the first Spider-Man animation, this change was already being attempted. For example, the integration of a variety of painting styles, the increase in the sense of comics in the look and feel, and many small visual tricks.

But in this one, it's even more daring. For example, several major Spider-Man characters, in their universe, will have corresponding painting styles and visual styles to distinguish.

What everyone discussed a lot was the watercolor painting style of the opening spider Gwen, including the color changes of watercolor paintings to show the changes in the characters' personalities and the changes in the characters' relationships.

Including the equally popular punk Spider-Man, when dealing with this role, he also uses a more avant-garde visual style to highlight the rebellious nature of the character.

Yes, the film is completely uninformal. It is to highlight the characteristics of the multiverse, to give each universe a different visual style, so that the film achieves a mixture of visual styles.

That alone is exciting enough.

For example, in the poster below, you can also find that the three Spider-Men have their own style and era characteristics, and you can easily distinguish them.

But isn't that cool enough that they're in the same world at the moment?

Let's put it this way, animation is animation, it is not a live-action movie, which means that animation does not need to continue to be made in the way of live-action movies, it can obviously be more liberate and more cartoonish.

Including the film's treatment of action scenes, it is also a completely animated way, the degree of freedom is very high, and the visual effects presented are particularly good.

I've rarely been seen in cartoon action scenes, but this time, I was a little excited.

It's like at the beginning, the scene between Spider-Man and Blob Wars, in fact, is difficult to shoot in a live-action movie. However, cartoons can, really play with space and perspective.

And this should be what a cartoon looks like!

As an aside, I remember watching a documentary about Ima Toshi before, in which I also interviewed the two directors of the first part of the Spider-Man animation (in fact, they are also the masterminds behind the second part), and they mentioned the visual shock that "Red Hot Chili Peppers" brought to them.

"Red Hot Chili Peppers"

In fact, from this point, it is not difficult to understand that they can make cartoons like Spider-Man later. Because "Red Hot Chili Peppers" is a particularly free and self-animated film, the various visual changes and tricks of the film are derived from the freedom and flexibility of the characteristics of the animation itself. Those unexpected actions and transitions are actually difficult to imitate in live-action movies.

This is an animation work exclusive to animation and is regarded as a classic by many people.

From this, you can also understand the mentality of Spider-Man creators.

What they want to do, in fact, is the same.

I want to say goodbye to tradition and routines and create a real, animated film that belongs to the form of animation.

From the current situation, this kind of exploration will not affect the prospects of this film, but may form a certain trend, allowing more subsequent works to learn and imitate.

Of course, I'm not saying that it's good that future animations become like this.

Rather, it is good to try to change and try to be different.

Change, change, change again, stay new, try to be different.

is what we want to see.

And for those who complain about the plot and other aspects of the Spider-Man animated version, I don't even bother to think about it.

Because at this moment, I don't want to discuss good or bad things.

Because, when faced with such a work, there is still a mood to think about it.

When I looked at it, I actually only had one thought, that is:

It's so cool!!!!!