Text/Nanke Documentary
Editor/Nan Ke Documentary
<<——Preamble——>>
"The film successfully blends a lot of CGI technology with a father-son relationship plot to create a captivating entertainment effect, sometimes warm, sometimes deafening with metal!"
After the release of the film "Iron Fist", "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a very big evaluation, although the name "Iron Fist" gives people the first feeling that this film will most likely be a thrilling action movie.
However, what I didn't expect was that although the content of this film is related to machines and fists, the main tone is the relationship between father and son.
So, in this sci-fi film that is supposed to be about machines and steel fists, how did the "steel fist" turn into tenderness between father and son?
<< - the story of the machine, the human emotion - >>
"Iron Fist" tells the story of a typical Hollywood commercialization, in a futuristic world where human boxing is outlawed because it is too dangerous and replaced by robot boxing as a competitive sport.
The main character, Charlie, is a former boxer who has been fighting robots for a living since retiring from boxing, but he is unlucky, and he not only loses the fight, but also owes a lot of money.
As he fled and destitute, his 11-year-old son, Max, was left behind by his ex-girlfriend after the death of his ex-girlfriend.
But Charlie "sold" his son to his ex-girlfriend's sister in order to be able to buy a robot again to participate in the competition, and bought a new robot with the money advanced by his son's aunt.
But the problem is that Charlie's ex-girlfriend's sister and Max's aunt have to travel for a while, so Max has to wander around with his father and robots to play games.
However, soon after, the newly purchased robot was kicked into a pile of scrap metal by his father's stubbornness, much to Charlie's chagrin.
Fortunately, Max inadvertently found a second-generation sparring robot in the abandoned garbage dump, and this sparring robot is also the robot protagonist of the film, "Adam".
Although for such a robot that has been thrown into the garbage dump for scrapping, the male protagonist Charlie was very disgusted at the first time, but because he had no money to buy a new robot, the male protagonist had to work hard to repair this scrapped robot.
And in the stumbling repairs and training of the father and son, Adam has become a new miracle in the robot boxing world with his amazing striking ability and Max's incredible understanding.
On the last night of separation, the father and son took Adam to a decisive battle with Zeus, known as the most powerful robot in history, "Zeus who never fell", although there was a huge gap between Adam's strength and Zeus.
But with the combined efforts of the veteran boxer Charlie and the clever ghost Max, Adam gradually gained the upper hand in extremely unfavorable circumstances.
However, as Adam prepares to deliver the final blow to Zeus, the power in the ring "unexpectedly" goes out, causing Adam to lose the match due to points.
But the spirit that Adam showed in this duel with Zeus deeply shocked everyone who watched this pinnacle duel, and they gave Adam a new title - "Civilian Champion".
Produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed by Disney Studios, each robot model is real, with its own shape, spray paint and even character, weighing more than 2,000 pounds and reaching more than 2 meters tall.
The robot is silent when stationary, but once activated, it emits imaginative sounds from all parts of its body, and its huge body rushes left and right in the ring.
What's even more surprising is that "Iron Fist" even uses the same motion capture technology used in "Avatar", which makes everything in the film so realistic and visually impactful.
At the same time, the plot of the film is simple and clear, there is not much suspense, and it hardly brings the audience any suspicion and hesitation, whether it is the separation and reversal of family affection, or the failure and victory of the fight, the audience can easily return to the usual trajectory of enjoying Hollywood blockbusters.
However, the biggest attraction of this commercial film may not be the robot fights in science fiction, but the deep father-son relationship it tells about, as well as the special struggles and fates of the three little people, including the second-generation sparring robot Adam.
In fact, any literary work, including movies and TV series, cannot abandon emotion, the biggest attraction factor.
Because of all the weapons that can touch the reader or viewer and make him willingly become a consumer, only emotion is the most lethal and persistent.
Therefore, the science fiction films of Haocaiwu are no exception, from "Avatar" to "Iron Man" and "Transformers", or love or friendship, or family or human affection, all have obvious emotional routines.
However, the most different from other scientific works such as "Transformers" is that the emotions in "Iron Fist" are not put into the film like materials, but always use the relationship between father and son as the core clue to unfold the story.
Therefore, when "Transformers" and others still have to use dazzling stunts to attract attention, Charlie and Max father and son have taken us to let go of the burden of technology and metal, and run a long way on the road to moving together.
Almost seventy percent of the weight in "Iron Fist" is placed on the rendering of father-son emotions, which is also a winning weapon for Hollywood films, just like we have already deeply experienced in "Titanic".
However, a tragedy that takes place in the Atlantic Ocean can bring us the most sadness, but a comedy of small people in the future can also deeply move us.
And a pair of little people father and son who have never met, in the journey of wandering and struggling together, with a dream with a different starting point but the same end point, from being like a passerby to being inseparable, from ignoring to not abandoning and never leaving, from unconsciously to true love.
The viewer may not be able to carefully identify which emotional details are the most touching, but all emotions and emotions are always mobilized and enhanced.
So after the audience has seen too many robot wars, the emotional tension between the father and son has become the biggest attraction and the most touching highlight of the film.
In fact, a director's greatest talent and ability lies in his ability to understand the audience and do his best to give the audience what it needs.
So in the film, we don't see the robot becoming the protagonist or dominant like "Transformers", but always focusing on the communication and change of father and son emotions.
Viewers who like to watch action or stunts may find that the robot fight scenes in the film, which only exist in five segments, are not enjoyable enough. But in fact, this is also the director's good intentions for not wanting the robot to dominate, because he wants people to see the "emotional" elements that are fully displayed in the film.
<< ——Cultural Thinking Behind the Movie——·>>
Hollywood films have always had an excellent tradition, that is, commercial stories always contain a realistic ideal or future responsibility that is not commercial.
Just like the concern for the future of the world that we can see in films like "Star Wars" and "The Matrix", as well as the hidden concerns about the development of science and technology, "Iron Fist" is no exception.
It's just that its emotional line is too clear, and sometimes it may obscure these thoughts and their metaphorical narratives, but in fact, the film can provide us with more thoughts than the director's own intentional metaphorical narrative.
The robots in the story become a tool for human entertainment, and at the same time, the machines in the story become a prop for emotional narratives, which makes films such as "Iron Fist" and "Transformers" fundamentally different.
If the latter has always been about the harmony between humans and machines in the future, then the former is about still placing human beings at the center of the world and making them the eternal dominators and even dominators.
That's why we see in the film that in the end, it was not Adam who defeated Zeus, but Charlie who defeated the control of the computer program with a human attack on the sidelines.
The narrative ability of this robot shape and structure with meta-narrative function is so huge that all the robot shapes, actions, and even the fate of victory or defeat are actually guided by a main line, that is, the emotions of father and son.
So after we watch the film, almost no one will have the same deep impression and memory of robots as watching "Transformers", but will always be immersed in the deep emotional whirlpool of father-son love and can't let go.
Therefore, this narrative of the film constructs a huge allegory:
Although we can see more and more machines in the human world, we can even make machines a very important existence in our own world.
But in the end, it is only the world of man who really belongs to man, that is, the world where a person still retains his emotions, the world where he still does not forget who he is, and the world where he still discovers and affirms himself.
Therefore, the film does not just use the form of action to make the robot a tool for human emotional catharsis, but also makes the ultimate value and meaning of the existence of the machine reflected in the emotional level of human beings.
It provides a deeper reflection on the relationship between people and things that has always plagued us.
<<·——Conclusion——·>>
Although the movie "Iron Fist" seems to be just a Hollywood popcorn blockbuster that relies on special effects technology and gimmicks of the future world to attract audiences.
But when some sci-fi films enter the cinema because of the title, the content of the movie "Iron Fist" is a bit boring, because most of his elements are the relationship between father and son.
However, when the audience was really addicted to this movie, the father-son relationship between father Charlie and son Max in the film deeply touched the audience.
It is this kind of father-son relationship that makes "Iron Armor and Steel Fist", which should be full of steel passion, extremely tender and touching.