"The 93 International Train Robbery: Moscow Operation", which was released on this year's National Day, as the third film to be named the name of the national "operation" after "Operation Mekong" and "Operation Red Sea", faced with the strong encirclement and suppression of "Solid as a Rock", "Predecessor 3: Early Marriage", "Volunteers: Heroes Attack" and other strong encirclement and suppression in the same period, did not occupy much of a film scheduling advantage, and finally ranked fourth at the box office among the 12 films in the same schedule.
As of October 27, the film was released for 29 days, with a cumulative box office of 627 million yuan, and Maoyan Professional Edition predicted that the final box office of the film would be about 684 million yuan.
Compared with the good reputation and good box office of the first two films, the 2016 National Day file "Mekong Action" had a box office of 1.186 billion yuan, ranking 6th in the 2016 box office list, and the 2018 Spring Festival file "Red Sea Operation" had a box office of 3.65 billion yuan, ranking first in the 2018 box office list and 12th in the overall box office list of Chinese films. The box office results of "Operation Moscow" were indeed somewhat mediocre.
In all fairness, "Moscow Action" is indeed a good quality cop action movie. The film is based on real events, based on the 1993 Sino-Russian train robbery, showing a thrilling transnational pursuit, and the legend of the case itself has provided the best foundation for the film adaptation.
The plot of the film is full of ups and downs, the case is confusing, and the conspiracies are interlocking. The cast is strong, Andy Lau , Huang Xuan , Zhang Hanyu , Wen Yongshan and many other stars gathered together to give wonderful and delicate performances. The film is made with care, the visual effects are shocking, the picture is exquisite and detailed, and the sound effects are realistic and cracked, making the audience feel as if they are in the scene, and it deserves to be the best cop action movie of the year.
"Moscow Action" is a police and bandit action film, and the director's shooting skills and scene scheduling of a large number of action scenes are all perfect. Drag racing in the one-to-one restoration of Moscow's underground pipelines, driving a jeep into a Su-27 fighter jet, and the train chaos at the beginning and end of the film are no less than the "Fast and Furious" series.
In the portrayal of the characters, the film does not have a simple opposition between good and evil, but uses a black, white and gray configuration. The smuggler (played by Andy Lau) under the pseudonym Vasily is gray, the leader of the robbers, Miao Qingshan (played by Huang Xuan), is black, and the Chinese policeman Cui Zhenhai (played by Zhang Hanyu) is white. Adopting the perspective of a fringe figure with a large number of Vasily, although he committed smuggling and breaking the law, he did not participate in the murder of money, and he was also polite when negotiating the sale. The wicked also have a weak side of human nature, and the good guy also has his own weaknesses, and the characters are full and three-dimensional, which also reflects the screenwriter's good intentions.
However, in terms of the plot, "Moscow Action" has a slow rhythm, loopholes in logic, a little lack of polishing in the literary drama, and obvious traces of forced patchwork in order to cater to the play, which makes the film not smooth enough, and it is also the place where the audience complains the most.
If you just look at every action scene, it is a wonderful and intense scene, but now the audience's IQ is online, not only paying attention to a single action scene, but also caring about the logic and smoothness of the film, the ingenious and reasonable plot, and the rich character development of the characters in the play. Therefore, the film as a whole is still a bit thin, and the patterned action scenes make the audience have aesthetic fatigue.
"Moscow Action" is the fourth film to be released this year by director Qiu Litao, who is known as the "explosive maniac". The first three "Jedi Pursuit", "Assassination Storm", and "Sweeping Drugs 3: The End of the World" are all full of gunfights, explosions and action scenes, all of which are typical "Qiu-style movies", all of which were released in the summer of July and August, with box offices of 29.24 million yuan, 80.65 million yuan and 285 million yuan respectively, all of which did not meet expectations.
Although "Moscow Action" has a better quality and reputation among these four films, and the box office has also reached a higher level, it has not been qualitatively far from the first three films overall. Director Qiu's four movies this year seem to be stuck in the same template, although the quality of each one is not bad, it does not make the audience feel refreshed.
With the development of film art, the audience's aesthetics are becoming more and more picky. The audience has seen a lot of large-scale action scenes in Hollywood movies, and what the audience needs most is new ideas, exquisite plots, emotional resonance, and three-dimensional characters. Looking forward to the emergence of more excellent cop action movies that will make people shine.