◎ Li Qinyu
From the increasingly large Marvel Universe, to the animated film "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" that dazzled the audience, to the recent hit "The Flash", Hollywood commercial movies seem to fall in love with the setting of "parallel universes". In recent years, there have been many domestic film and television works playing "parallel universes", such as "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Charlotte Troubles" featuring "crossing", and "The Beginning" and "Want to See You" that portray "reincarnation". Whether you like it or not, the ideas they use are in fact variations of "parallel universes."
"Parallel universe" is originally an astronomical concept, which refers to other universes that are both similar and different from a certain universe and exist parallel to the original universe, and then borrowed into film and television - "Spider-Man: Parallel Universe" produced in 2018 directly uses "parallel universe" in the title, and is also widely praised for its fresh concept of "parallel universe".
However, if the "parallel universe" used to be an innovation that jumped out of the homogenization and stereotyping of superhero movies, then the "parallel universe" that is now popular and flooded shows irreparable fatigue and decline - the more you want to dig out your mind to pocket the endless fantasy world, the more it shows the poverty and dryness of its spiritual core.
To say that "parallel universes" are popular to the end, first of all, it is manifested in the increasing number of films borrowing this concept. "Spider-Man: Homeless" realizes "three spiders in the same frame", "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" gathers Spider-Man with a full screen, and "The Flash" does not show weakness, summoning Batman of different eras, and even Nicolas Cage's version of Superman who really lives in the "parallel universe".
To say that "parallel universes" are popular to the point of proliferation, followed by the increasing number of fields they are related to. The planning of the Marvel Universe from the fourth to the fifth stage first promises the audience "many" - from the Tarot secret realm in "Shang Qi" to the Wakanda in "Black Panther" to the quantum realm in "Ant-Man", the attempt and ambition to expand the territory with all its strength have been revealed; "Ready Player One" even associates various classic movies, game levels, pop music and even cultural labels with "parallel universes", and then crams them into a movie.
To say that "parallel universes" are popular to the point of proliferation is also manifested in their increasingly "patterning". There is often a "tram problem" in movies related to "parallel universes": choosing to save the people around you may disrupt the normal operation of the entire world; Choose to save the real world, you can only watch the people around you die and die - such as whether Miles in "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" should save his father, and Barry Allen in "The Flash" should not save his mother.
All of this seems to send a signal that what matters is no longer the depth of fantasy, but the number and volume of fantasy, the field of fantasy collusion. It seems that only "more" can meet the expectations of the market and promote the reproduction of consumerism.
Such a "parallel universe" brings not only an increasingly repetitive fantasy world, but also an ancient era in the Marvel universe where dinosaurs are rampant, and a sci-fi world with dense spaceships; There is African culture with song and dance, and there is also mysterious American culture. These worlds seem to be vastly different from real life, but on closer examination, they are just the product of a hybrid of various stereotypes, and the inherent homogenization and repetition have reached the point of incomparably - as if the quantum natives in "Ant-Man" are no different from any alien civilization in "Guardians of the Galaxy".
Such a "parallel world" brings more and more highly patterned and process-like superheroes - like Supergirl in the "parallel universe" of "The Flash", Supergirl is the one who replaces, but she is completely reduced to a tool man in the movie; Marvel's "Eternals" has launched more than a dozen new heroes in one go, almost twice as many as the original "Avengers", but how many can audiences remember?
"Many" does not mean "good". Gold is precious not because it is abundant, but because it is scarce. For the "parallel world" that Hollywood films are still racking their brains to provide audiences with lacking novelty and imagination, mainland film and television creators should take caution.
The "parallel universe" lacking novelty and imagination is only a copy of the symbolization and flattening of the real world, and the real "parallel universe" should be the imagination of another world's operating mechanism and daily life picture, and it is a care and reflection on the real world.
"The Beginning" and "Want to See You" under the sci-fi coat package point the finger at the harm caused by online violence and school bullying, and tell us with the protagonist's adventure story: the way to prevent tragedy is always an expression of goodwill; The only way to end the endless vicious circle is introspection, understanding and tolerance. This is the essence of the "parallel universe" - the future is not predetermined, and we can completely rely on our own efforts to change unreasonable and unjust things.
"Parallel universes" can also provide a reference for human growth, allowing us to find ways to fix our "self" identity in the uncertainty of the world. "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Charlotte Troubles" use a laughing and tearful plot to tell the simple life philosophy that we should know how to cherish family affection and love, which meets the most urgent psychological needs of contemporary people - we all hope to get rid of the chaos and confusion of reality and regain the positioning of life.
The popularity of "parallel universes" in Hollywood movies is closely related to people's longing for fantasy experiences and their love of fictional worlds. But the "parallel universes" piled up with consumerism have no real imagination at all – mostly just naked marketplace/consumer relationships, and the audience's naïve trust in the fantasy world dissolves into fleeting sensory stimuli and profits from them. Similarly, many domestic fairy tales and fantasy film and television dramas that regard "crossing" and "reincarnation" as routines and magic weapons but lack a deep spiritual core are also difficult to gain the recognition and love of the audience, which will only make aesthetic fatigue more violent.
To this end, we should be wary of the "parallel universe" born from commodity society and consumerism: on the one hand, its abuse may "naturalize" unnatural cultural products, leaving the audience addicted to self-reproducing and reproducing commercial products; On the other hand, it may also strengthen the stickiness and inertia of the audience with the typical symbolic order, making people lose the ability to think.
The truly valuable setting of the "parallel universe" should be to encourage the audience to pay attention to social and life issues that may have been ignored before - this is also the meaning of continuous exploration and innovation in literary and artistic creation.