#影视杂谈 #
Recently, The Matrix 4: Matrix Rebirth released its first trailer, which caused a carnival of movie fans around the world. Twenty-two years after the release of The Matrix, Neo and Trinity are back on the big screen.
That's right, the director resurrected the two protagonists in the sequel.
In the new trailer, Neo uses his mind to stop the bullet from coming, Trinity runs crazy through the streets, and various high-energy famous scenes are recreated in different ways in the new film.
What a wave of "memory killing"! Today, Time Jun also wants to take this opportunity to talk about one of the most classic science fiction series in the history of film.
The Matrix
Released in 1999, "The Matrix", wrapped in the shell of a commercial blockbuster, advanced the expression of the virtual and real relationship between humans and the Internet, is definitely a science fiction work ahead of the times.
The cool fights, special effects and character shapes in the film, as well as strange world settings and rich philosophical metaphors, have become classics that fans enjoy.
At the same time, the young directors who directed the film, the Wachowski brothers (who later became sisters), also began to become familiar to more audiences.
In The Matrix, humans live in an illusory world controlled by a subject and still believe that what is in front of them is real.
The protagonist Neo is rescued from the Matrix by Morpheus, and is faced with the choice of two pills, red and blue, swallowing the blue pill can return to the matrix world and forget all the truth in front of him; Swallow the red pill to enter the real world.
Today, Time Jun has also prepared two small pills for everyone, let's return to the world of "The Matrix" together.
"Bullet Time"
At the 72nd Academy Awards, The Matrix won four technical awards: Best Visual Effects, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound.
If you choose the most impressive plot for it, I think many viewers will think of the classic "bullet time".
Bullet time, which is named after The Matrix.
This is a special visual effect that requires slowing down the speed of the image while changing the angle of the camera to move around the scene, thereby changing the viewer's perspective.
In "The Matrix", the crew precisely placed 120 cameras, filmed in the scheduled time and order of the program, and then entered into the computer for post-processing, and then integrated with the background, to get 360 degrees of smooth action, and in the process, motion capture and virtual photography were also used.
As computer technology has evolved, hardcore shooting like the Wachowski brothers has been upgraded.
In recent years, more and more similar bullet time shots have been synthesized with pure CG effects.
Live-action Ghost in the Shell?
The Wachowski brothers' obsession with the second dimension influenced their filming of The Matrix, and the second dimension even saved the Wachowski brothers and The Matrix.
In order to shoot the Wachowski brothers' dream effect, they asked Warner to pay $80 million for the shooting, but Warner was only willing to pay $10 million.
The two brothers were satisfied to accept the shooting funds, and only 10 minutes of footage were filmed for the Warner executives.
Of course, even if Wachowski was more confident, he could not joke with so much money.
During the film's prelude, the brothers recruited two cartoonists, Joff Dalo and Steve Scott, as left and right helpers.
Joff collaborated with comic book magnate Frank Miller (original to Sin City and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) on the critically acclaimed comic strip Hard Boiled.
Steve is Wachowski's old friend who has worked together for many years, and his comic debut is "Ectokid" written by the two brothers.
Joff Darrow also doubles as a concept designer.
Neo's mechanical sleep capsules that awaken from the virtual world, the protagonists carrying flying ships, mechanical city Zion, APU single-soldier combat armored robots, and the mother's squid sentry, all in the hands of Joff Darrow.
With the brushes in the hands of two cartoonists, The Matrix produced a six-hundred-page, detailed, split-shot script.
This story version, comparable to a comic book masterpiece, transforms the ideas in the minds of the Wachowski brothers into lifelike portraits on paper.
In addition, the final cause of "The Matrix" began filming was the animated film "Ghost in the Shell" directed by Oshii Mori in 1995.
Remember the mansion shootout between Neo and Trinity at the end of the movie?
Legend has it that the Wachowski brothers approached Warner's producers and showed him the footage of "Ghost in the Shell" with Suiko Kusanagi and robot wars, and then the brothers told each other, "We're going to shoot it out, with real people."
Tidbits, storyboard scripts, and Ghost in the Shell triple Amway led Warner to invest more, allowing The Matrix to become what it is now.
Eastern Kung Fu + Western Stunts
After the release of "The Matrix", it also led a wave of action movies in Hollywood.
The Wachowski brothers were inspired by a question, why do most action movies always lack creativity, and creative movies lack action?
So, early in the process, they conceived of an appalling, bizarre kung fu film in which the male protagonist could both fly and stop bullets, and occasionally interpreted Hegelian dialectics.
The former was perfectly realized by the Wachowski brothers with special effects, and full of speculative philosophical content, the two chose a broad and profound Chinese kung fu.
Finally, he found the famous Action Director Yuan Heping in Hong Kong, responsible for the martial arts scenes in the film.
After entering the group, Baye asked all actors to undergo 4 months of action training, and took a lot of time to learn kung fu and tightrope hanging skills.
He believes that some action designs do not need special effects, and in the case of hanging tightropes, the actors can shoot the action scenes more naturally.
In the end, the results of the film are very outstanding, Neo and Morpheus, two typical American big men, wearing kung fu training clothes to show their fists and feet, and the offensive and defensive conversions of you and me bring a fresh wind to Hollywood melee action movies.
Keanu Reeves was promoted to an action movie star with this film.
Since then, "Eastern Kung Fu + Western Stunts" has led to a boom in Hollywood. Blockbusters such as "Thunderbolt Jiaowa", "Blade Warrior 2", "Super Daredevil" and so on have chosen the martial arts guidance of the Chinese people, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has reached a new realm that perfectly combines action and aesthetics.
Philosophical elements
The Wachowski brothers once said, "Our films are not for passive, brainless audiences. This also shows that "The Matrix" is not a simple audio-visual action film, and the theme ideas explored in the film have clear philosophical connotations and cultural values.
The embodiment of its theme is mainly philosophical, in the film, the cave fable and the dual consciousness are the flesh of the story, and the speculation full of religious elements is the soul of the film.
The amount of philosophical information contained in the film is so vast and profound, which is also an important factor that has stood the test of time.
The Matrix can be called an adult version of Alice in Wonderland. In the film, Neo is introduced to Morpheus by a mysterious woman tattooed with a small white rabbit in the Matrix World, and Morpheus's words subvert Neo's understanding of the world in which he lives. He wakes up from the Matrix sue to the "real desert", like Alice falling into a tree hole, from the sleep capsule to the rebel ship, and begins the adventure of finding the true self.
Alice and the Rabbit Hole (stills from the movie Alice in Wonderland)
Here people cannot know the whole picture of the existing world and the world beyond it, but their life and death in this process is related to their true life.
The thinking that The Matrix offers viewers is a form of "psychotherapy."
Not only does the virtual identity provide a place for self-catharsis, but more importantly, it provides a secret environment for oneself to interact and dialogue with the ideal self, and to clarify the direction of the self in reality.
The cover of "Simulation and Imitation" that appears in the film
Neo is a nine-to-five office worker Thomas Anderson in the Matrix World during the day and an omnipotent hacker on the web at night. Morpheus's prophecy once again aroused his deep consciousness, and Neo became the savior. Just as living between the real and the virtual, the film also prompts people to think about the virtual and the real everywhere.
In addition, the film also contains a lot of Buddhist Zen. In the Prophet's house, Neo saw that the little monk could bend the spoon at will without the help of external forces.
The little monk said to Neo, "Don't try to bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, try to know the truth... The spoon does not exist. Then you will find that it is not the spoon that bends, but yourself. Neo then realized that the scene in front of him was virtual, and this revelation eventually made him break through the shackles of the image.
Among them, "the spoon does not exist" is the same as the classic "I think, therefore I am" by Descartes, one of the founders of modern European philosophy.
Finally, the Wachowskis' evaluation of The Matrix ends:
After making enough "noisy, stupid, too obvious" action movies, we are willing to present the audience with something else, something that makes them think and even talk. We sincerely hope that this film will bring out some Socratic reactions, not just "Remember that scene?" It's so cool. ”
Perhaps, this is the secret that "The Matrix" is still classic more than two decades later.