Millennium director

Is Zhang Yimou's new version of "The Great Wall" good?

Wu Yuan, who has already seen the finished film in the Light and Shadow Era, thinks it is still quite good.

As a commercial blockbuster, it is definitely qualified and more worthy of the word "blockbuster" than "Man Jiang Hong".

It is also more in line with the appetite of Chinese movie fans than the version co-produced with Legendary Pictures.

Apart from anything else, just changing the main story from a group of mercenaries who came from Rome to steal gunpowder and were inspired by the Chinese army guarding the Great Wall, and in turn led them to fight against the Taotie army to protect mankind, Wu Yuan is enough to give a thumbs up.

It is not okay to make such a movie in China, even if the male lead is Matt Damon. Only Japanese and Koreans can accept this!

For Chinese people, watching the original "The Great Wall" always gives them an indescribable weird emotion, which feels very inconsistent.

Even if these foreigners were removed without changing other parts, the filmed "The Great Wall" would be more pleasing to Chinese fans.

It's not that Chinese fans are all extreme racists, but a story that takes place on Chinese soil, with a few foreigners playing the leading role, is indeed difficult for Chinese fans to adapt to.

Just like North American audiences are unlikely to accept a commercial blockbuster where a superhero from China saves the world.

They can accept watching a story that takes place in China and is saved by Chinese people, because it is a "foreign story".

Similarly, Chinese fans can also accept watching a story like "Iron Man" where an American superhero saves America and even the world, because the story background originally takes place abroad.

But if the entire story background is in China, and a few foreigners, even mercenaries who stole gunpowder, are moved and inspired in various ways, and then stay to save China regardless of the danger to their lives, that would be really weird!

This time, there was no Legendary Pictures to interfere. Zhang Yimou studied the script from beginning to end and made "The Great Wall" by himself. That is the authentic Chinese flavor.

At the beginning of the story, there was a grand battle to defend the Great Wall. The Great Wall, which was comparable to Transformers in the original movie, was still preserved and became the top priority of the opening scene.

The Great Wall Corps guarding the Great Wall relied on this very "steampunk" Great Wall fortress. After a dazzling and exciting battle, they protected the Great Wall and wiped out all the invading monsters.

Then, several protagonists appeared one after another, explaining the background of the story and introducing the magical world in the movie.

It turns out that China in this world has always been threatened by the monster Taotie who feeds on humans. Taotie organizes its monsters to attack the Great Wall every year, trying to break into the human world to grab blood food.

The purpose of the human army to cast the Great Wall is also to resist the invasion of monsters.

Humans have relied on the Great Wall to fight against Taotie for thousands of years, and every sixty years, Taotie will have a big fight. Not only is the scale of the monsters several times larger than that of ordinary years, but Taotie will also fight personally!

In the year of the last big fight, a pass on the Great Wall was breached, resulting in nearly one million people in Shangjun being plundered by Taotie as blood food.

Next year will be another year of the big fight that happens every sixty years. The Great Wall Corps is facing a very serious crisis. The soldiers of the Great Wall Corps who experienced the last big fight have almost died. The current Great Wall Corps is a new generation and has not experienced such a big crisis.

In the middle of the movie, some stories about the big fight sixty years ago will also be interspersed. The marshal of this generation of the Great Wall Corps (played by Liu Dehua) is the grandson of the marshal of the previous generation. Because they have been in the army for three generations, the court is very vigilant about them, fearing that the Great Wall Corps will become the marshal's private army and in turn overthrow the rule of the royal family.

The main plot of the story revolves around how the Great Wall Corps tries every means to strengthen its defense, train elite soldiers, and improve the lethality of the Great Wall fortress, and finally meet this once-in-sixty-year war.

At the same time, Liu Dehua, the protagonist, has to withstand the pressure from the court, the various open and secret arrows of the court dignitaries, and the great pressure from the front and rear.

In the end, the Great Wall Corps still withstood the pressure of internal and external troubles. After an extremely tragic battle, countless touching sacrifices, and even the marshal died in battle, they finally protected the Great Wall and ushered in the dawn.

The story is actually very simple, and it is also a very classic Hollywood commercial movie routine. It is nothing more than that mankind is facing a crisis of extinction, and then someone or a team stands up and finally protects the world.

There are at least 80 Hollywood movies with this routine, but this routine is still enduring and still works well!

Even in mainland China, this routine can still be considered fresh, because before this, China did not have such commercial blockbusters that saved the world. Most Chinese commercial blockbusters usually choose to adapt myths and legends.

For example, "Havoc in Heaven", "Three Strikes on the White Bone Demon", and "Conquering the Demons".

"The Great Wall" is indeed the first "world-saving" movie in China. Since December, the promotion of "The Great Wall" has appeared on a large scale online and offline, from posters to trailers to various short video creations, almost filling the Internet.

Guangying Times is also willing to spend money on publicity, and has spent a full 100 million on publicity and promotion, and has also encouraged many movie big Vs to cheer for it.

At least the gimmick of "China's first doomsday crisis movie" has been hyped up, and even took advantage of the popularity of "Pacific Rim".

After all, in a sense, the story of "The Great Wall" is similar to that of "Pacific Rim". Both of them build "high walls" to resist the great crisis of human extinction caused by monster invasion.

It's just that the background of "Pacific Rim" is modern, while the background of "The Great Wall" is ancient.

The monsters in "Pacific Rim" come from the sea, while the monsters in "The Great Wall" come from the land.

The monsters in "Pacific Rim" come one by one, while in "The Great Wall", a large army of monsters comes at once.

It can only be said that although Legendary Pictures did not intervene, there is indeed a shadow of Legendary Pictures everywhere in the production of "The Great Wall", but it is only the shadow of a monster movie. Light and Shadow Era can openly promote itself as a monster movie, and no one stipulates that only Legendary Pictures can make monster movies!

Taotie is still a monster in China's own "Classic of Mountains and Seas". In terms of the time of origin, isn't it much earlier than Godzilla, Mothra, etc.?

Doomsday crisis + monsters, the light and shadow era grasped these two points, promoted them vigorously on the Internet, and really quickly made "The Great Wall" a well-known movie.

Coupled with Zhang Yimou's own popularity and the gimmick of his first special effects blockbuster, it can be said that "The Great Wall" has become the focus of attention from all parties before it was released, and the elements couldn't be more full!

It was also in such a hot atmosphere that just after the New Year's Eve, the vast majority of people had not yet come out of the complaints of the Spring Festival Gala. On the first day of the New Year, "The Great Wall" was released on a large scale with five other equally popular movies!

On the day of the release, "The Great Wall" won 16.8% of the screening volume, laughing at the crowd! (End of this chapter)