Movies that are regarded as "fragrant" by capital can't be sold? Political correctness is ruining Hollywood

In 2018, the G1-form Optimus Prime appeared in "Bumblebee", making us look forward to the new work of the "Transformers" series of movies.

Unexpectedly, this wait was 5 years, until June 9 this year, "Transformers: The Rise of Super Warriors" (hereinafter referred to as "Change 7") was finally released, and we were able to introduce it simultaneously in the mainland, which made fans overjoyed.

In the past few days, the topic of "Change 7" has quickly been on the hot search.

In terms of word of mouth, the freshness score on Rotten Tomatoes was 71%, but it has now fallen back to 52%, while the popcorn index has reached 90%, which shows that film critics feel that it is not very good.

Our mainland Douban score is 6.4, although lower than the 7.0 score of "Bumblebee", but much higher than the worst "Change 5" (4.9 points) in the series.

In terms of box office trends, the global box office has reached 122 million US dollars, of which the North American box office has exceeded 61.04 million US dollars, and the mainland has a cumulative box office of 302 million yuan (equivalent to more than 43 million US dollars).

It can be seen that our mainland is the second largest box office of "Change 7", and the box office revenue in the mainland directly affects the success or failure of the film, but the current trend is not very optimistic.

Many mainland media predict that the final box office of the film will be between 600 million and 1.1 billion.

This result will be similar to "Bumblebee" and much lower than "Change 5" (1.551 billion yuan), which has the worst reputation in the series.

This year is the year of Hollywood movie blowouts, and several classic big IPs, including "Transformers", have ushered in new works.

But since the beginning of the year, several confident special effects blockbusters have been broken one after another, and the defeat of "Change 7" seems inevitable.

Is it the reason for the movie itself, or is it affected by objective factors that causes the market to be sluggish?

Today let's talk about the movie "Transformers 7".

One

Three "surprises"

"Bumblebee" 5 years ago allowed us to see the possibility of a reboot of the "Transformers" series, and Paramount finally decided to introduce Big Mac and Dire Beast after careful consideration to expand the new territory of this IP.

The movie still revolves around the fight for something rare, formerly the Autobots and Decepticons fighting for the fire, now the Autobots, Big Macs and Dire Beasts, fighting for the keys to the hyperwarp.

In the 1996 anime "Power Warriors", after the Autobots led by Optimus Prime left Cybertron, the remaining Cybertronians fought and spawned two factions, Big Mac and Dread Beast.

The Big Mac is a descendant of the Autobots, and its leader, Optimus Primal, is also derived from Optimus Prime.

In the movie, the original leader of the Big Mac, Saint Ape, led Optimus Saint and others to flee to Earth, in order to protect the Super Warp Key, he was killed by the Fear Beast Pioneer Catastrophe, and handed over the key and captain authority to Optimus Saint before dying.

The Super Warp Key is the key to travel through time and space, and the leader of the fear beast, the "Emperor of the Universe", who lives by devouring planets, wants to use this to call the door of time and space to descend on Earth.

In order to protect the key, the Optimus Saint divided it into two halves and hid it in two places.

In 1994, Elena Wallace (Dominic Fishback), an intern at the Archaeological Museum of New York, accidentally activates one of the keys, resulting in a key battle between Autobots, Big Macs and Dire Beasts, which begins.

Optimus Prime leads the Autobots into exile on Earth for 7 years, hoping to return to Cybertron with the help of the Hyperwarp Key, and in order to crush the conspiracy of the Cosmic Emperor, the Autobots form an alliance with the Big Mac.

And finding the key also requires human help, so the male protagonists Noah Diaz (played by Anthony Ramos) and Elena, who are proficient in electronic devices, also join the faction.

The main story line of the film is very simple, can be summarized in three words, director Stephen Kapoor Jr. does not want to tell a complex story, preferring to leave time for action scenes and special effects.

Although the story is simple, in terms of character shaping, compared with the previous "Transformers" series of movies, "Change 7" has made a greater breakthrough.

This is also the first surprise that this movie gives the audience.

For example, the Autobot Phantom, whose original setting is that it can transform into a variety of vehicle forms such as F1 cars, Ligier and JS11.

The movie not only gives Phantom funny and chattering personality characteristics, but also is a good partner with heavy feelings, he promised the male protagonist Noah's brother Chris to take care of Noah, and at the end of the film, he was willing to sacrifice to protect Noah.

The Phantom can transform into multiple doppelgangers, can also change into a variety of vehicle forms such as Porsche and Ferrari racing cars at will, and can also turn into armor to wear on Noah's body, and its unpredictable and complaining characteristics are all likeable.

And the character of morality and keeping promises is also very grounded, which impressed Pico deeply.

Unlike previous works, there are also many portrayals of Optimus Prime in the movie, and he has undergone a process of growth.

In the previous Michael Bay's "Transformers" series of movies, Optimus Prime was portrayed as a tall and majestic perfect big brother who was ready to fight and had no weaknesses, but in this film, Optimus Prime is a "growth" leader.

At first, Optimus Prime refuses to cooperate with humans and only wants to return to Cybertron.

Later, after contact with the Optimus Saint and many encounters with the Heavenly Tribulation, he gradually became close to the people, no longer resisted human partners, and finally destroyed the Super Warp Key with his own hands in order to prevent the Universe Emperor from descending to Earth.

The second surprise of the movie is the return to the G1-style Transformers design, which makes the CG characters more textured and allows old fans of "Transformers" to find the nostalgic emotions of G1 animation.

Looking back at the first 5 works in the series, several works directed by Michael Bay, the image of the Transformers has been redesigned, changing the classic image of the G1 style.

Its fragmented complex deformation design makes the classic characters of the two major lineups of Autobots and Decepticons lose their souls, which is not only unrecognizable, but also increases the difficulty of designing toys around the movie, which makes old fans very dissatisfied.

In the 2018 reboot of Bumblebee, Paramount tried to create a cybertron star war with additional budget, so that many characters, including Optimus Prime, appeared in G1-style images.

This move surprised old fans and received a lot of praise, and the G1-image Optimus Prime toy is still selling so far, which has also strengthened Paramount and Hasbro's confidence in creating a G1-style series of movies.

The Optimus Prime image in this film continues the image of the Flaim FL86 truck in "Bumblebee", but with minor changes in the window design and lacquer.

There are many close-ups showing the transformation process of Optimus Prime in the film, allowing the mighty image of the eldest brother to reappear, and the deformation of "180 degrees turning the waist" will definitely remind old fans of the MP10 pillar toys treasured in their homes.

The addition of the popular female Autobot in the anime Alsie is also surprising, in the previous "Transformers 2", Alsie also appeared, but the image has changed greatly, just a dragon set character that failed to impress the audience.

This time, Alsie appeared in the classic pink + white color scheme and G1 image, which is very recognizable, and the image of stepping on Hot Wheels is also very eye-catching.

The popular king Bumblebee's role in this film has been weakened somewhat, and he once experienced a "sadistic fan" sacrifice in the middle, and was cut through the heart by a natural disaster and went offline early.

But after the resurrection at the end of the film, the domineering return, with classic hip-hop music airborne from a military transport plane, and then gliding on the ground deformation + Thomas full rotation shot, bringing the audience's excitement to the top.

In addition, the domineering Big Mac Legion, the black and hard Optimus Saint, the dark and violent natural disaster, and the slow-moving veteran stratosphere all left a deep impression on Pigo.

Long-time fans of G1 animation should love these sincere G1-style characters.

The third surprise of the movie is the Transformers battlefield created with heavy gold.

The ultimate battle between the three lineups of Autobots, Big Macs and Dire Beasts takes place on the plains of Peru, South America, and this battle lasts for 20 minutes, and each classic character shows a different fighting style, reminiscent of the classic battle in "Avengers 4".

Phantom finally turned into a wearable mecha, combined with the male protagonist Noah, and the creativity of improving the combat power of the human protagonist surprised the audience.

Some netizens jokingly said that this is Hasbro's copy of Marvel's Iron Man, although controversial, it is also a bold attempt, and Pico thinks it is also very thoughtful.

Two

Three "regrets"

The above are the three highlights of "Change 7" that Pico prefers, and Pico feels that these are enough to see the determination of the creator of the "Transformers" series to try to change.

But these highlights alone are not enough to support the entire movie, and the shortcomings visible to the naked eye in the film also make the audience dissatisfied, which is an aspect that affects the box office results.

The biggest controversy is the choice of male and female protagonists, due to the influence of Hollywood's sense of equality, all the protagonists in the film have chosen to be played by black characters.

Among them, the male protagonist Anthony Ramos was complained by netizens that the American version of Huang Zhengming, the mixed-race complexion is not very dark, but the image is "unremarkable".

Netizens are most dissatisfied with the heroine Dominic Fishback, whose "aunt" image is also a passerby on the street.

Comparing the previous heroines of the series, from the popular Megan Fox, to Guoda's wife Rosie Hunderton-Wheatley, Nicola Peltz, Laura Harddock and Hailey Stanfield, Dominic's appearance is really difficult to compare with these beauties.

What's more, although the film spends a lot of ink to tell the male protagonist Noah's mental journey, and the embarrassing situation of the heroine Elena not being valued by her superiors.

But these plots don't have any bright spots, they don't help show the growth of the characters, they don't have much to do with the main story, and they slow down the pace of the movie, making it feel lengthy and tedious.

The second controversial point of the movie is that human scenes take up a large part of the space, and the "super warriors" that appear under the subtitle "Rise of the Super Warriors" have not received enough attention.

At the beginning of the movie, the giant leader Saint Ape passed incense to the Optimus Saint, but Optimus Saint has very few scenes, only appearing as a symbolic supporting role.

The Big Mac Legion includes the Yellow Panther Warrior, the Rhino Warrior and the Flying Arrow Warrior, all of which are classic characters from the Super Warriors anime that are loved by old fans.

But this film makes the old mistake of the "Transformers" series of movies, and there is not enough space to present the personality characteristics of these characters, making them all a background board.

In particular, the Arrow Warrior voiced by Michelle Yeoh, due to Michelle Yeoh's smooth development in Hollywood in recent years, our mainland audiences have more expectations for it.

However, the flying arrow warriors in the film only appeared in the early stages of the story, and due to the fatal blow of the natural disaster, they were offline in advance before the final decisive battle, and they didn't even have time to show their deformed humanoid form.

The third controversial point of the movie is the cliché of the plot.

For audiences who want to see "brainless special effects movies", the special effects and scenes of this film can meet expectations;

But for audiences who want to see new content and new stories, the storyline of this film is still the old routine of Hollywood flow works, which is really lackluster and lacks novelty.

The "Transformers" series IP, born in the 80s of the 20th century, has a low starting point itself.

In order to open sales, Hasbro of the United States cooperated with the Japanese company TAKARA to launch transformable robot toys, and in order to open sales, it cooperated with Marvel to develop the "Transformers" series of comics, and soon launched the animation of the same name.

And the story of the "Transformers" series is also extremely simple, that is, divide the characters into two major lineups, Autobots and Decepticons, and then let them "fight the immortals".

So far, this IP has gone through 40 years and has launched 7 works, but its main story line is still inseparable from the story framework of this "immortal fight", which will inevitably cause people to have aesthetic fatigue.

Therefore, now our mainland audiences have long lowered their expectations for the "Transformers" series, and they all feel that as long as they can watch it lively.

But an old IP that only pays attention to special effects and scenes, and does not "go to the heart", is destined to become more and more niche, and can only meet the needs of some emotional old fans, and this part of the people will eventually become rarer, and if they can't absorb new fans, they will definitely die slowly.

This is also the 3 regrets left by "Change 7".

Three

Hollywood movies, are ruining themselves?

At this point, we return to the topic of "Hollywood movies are no longer good", which can be hotly discussed at any time.

Pico has also said in previous articles that Hollywood movies have created a mature model of industrial production.

Since opening the mainland market in the 90s of the 20th century, it has cultivated a fixed audience in the mainland, making China the second largest box office for Hollywood blockbusters.

Compared with domestic films of the same period, Hollywood film special effects technology is more mature, and the level of screenwriting and production is also higher, which is its unique innate advantage and the reason why it once "ran amok" in the mainland.

But after entering 2000, with the exhaustion of film creativity, Hollywood entered the era of "mass production series of movies", and film production became more streamlined.

In particular, the launch of superhero movies from Marvel and DC.

On the one hand, it harvested a large number of box offices around the world in the mode of "serial movies";

On the one hand, it has also monopolized the market for more than ten years, affecting the launch of films of other genres and themes, and planting incalculable consequences.

Over the years, with the decline of Marvel movies and the collapse of DC movies, we found that the "Fast and Furious" series has actually been filmed for the 10th; The "007" series has been discontinued after the release of its 25th work;

And the "Jurassic Park" series and the "Terminator" series have 6, and the "Star Wars" series of movies and TV series are still "blooming".

These ancient IPs, which are more than ten years or decades, are "gold mines" that large Hollywood companies are unwilling to give up, and it is worth digging again and again until the last drop of residual value is squeezed dry.

However, for the audience, especially those in the mainland, there is really no need to have a special preference for Hollywood films at a time when domestic films have reached or are close to the level of Hollywood production.

This is the fundamental reason why Hollywood movies are "not working" in our hinterland.

Another reason that cannot be ignored is the collective aesthetic degradation of Hollywood movies already mentioned.

We all understand the principle of "all men are created equal", but as audiences, we first enter the cinema to enjoy the movie, not to prepare for an education.

In the past, we all felt that to be a big star, the initial conditions were of course to be good-looking.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie "The Last Action Hero" also complained: the shopping mall in the movie is full of beautiful women, which does not exist in reality.

It can be seen that the aesthetics of Hollywood movies at that time were very normal, following the tacit rule of "high appearance".

But now in Hollywood movies, not only are there more black actors, but the audience is forced to accept those extremely mediocre-looking actors, which makes the audience unacceptable.

Disney's heavily funded "The Little Mermaid" only achieved a box office result of 26.23 million yuan in 18 days of release in the mainland, which has already shown the audience's dissatisfaction, and "Change 7" still repeats the mistakes of the past.

If Hollywood companies blindly pursue "political correctness" and deliberately ignore or completely ignore the audience's dissatisfaction, they will one day lose our Chinese market, which no one wants to see.

Four

For old fans of post-80s "Transformers" like Pigo, "Change 7" is well worth watching, and its action scenes and G1 Optimus Prime are satisfactory.

But if it is a young audience without much feelings, "Change 7" is just another bad movie with assembly line work, only suitable for passing the time.

In the final Easter egg of the movie, the male protagonist Noah was adopted by the government, and the business card of the special forces appeared, indicating that Hasbro's "Transformers" and "Special Forces" are about to usher in linkage.

I believe that old fans who have feelings for these two IPs will be excited about it, and they will have an extra layer of expectations for subsequent works.

However, the "Special Forces" series is much more niche than the "Transformers" series, and 3 film works have been launched before, and the market response is very flat, and it is difficult to advance the interest of fans by linking these two "problem IPs".

I only hope that Paramount can focus on the polishing of the script and make the subsequent movies well, so that these two IPs can find a new way of development.

Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Blood Dan Xin

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