"The King's Bodyguard": a standard popcorn movie

"The King's Bodyguard" was released in mainland China in September 2017. The director is American Patrick Hughes, starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. It tells the story of a private bodyguard escorting a The story of a professional killer who testified before an international court.

My overall evaluation of this film is that it is good, but not good enough. This article attempts to analyze this standard popcorn movie from the perspectives of standards and popcorn.

From a story perspective, it is a standard good story.

What are the necessary principles for a good story?

The main character of this film is the personal bodyguard Michael played by Ryan Reynolds, and the secondary character is the professional killer Kincaid played by Samuel L. Jackson.

The target requirement is for bodyguards to escort the killer to the international court.

The difficult scenario is that there are internal and external troubles, the journey is long, and because the whereabouts are leaked again and again due to informants from within the police, he has been hunted and hunted by the police.

Opponent, dictator villain, former President of Belarus Dukhovich.

A terrible crisis, if there is not enough time, the dictator will be released.

Wonderful ending, the professional killer as a witness arrives at the court at the last moment.

None of the six elements are missing. As for the last element, whether the ending is unexpected or not, it may not be surprising to viewers who are accustomed to routines, but for the story itself, despite so many surprises, it has to be said that it is an unexpected surprise to still arrive at the scene on time. ending.

This film has three story lines: the main story line is about a private bodyguard escorting a professional killer; there are two sub-story lines, one is the emotional line between the bodyguard Michael and the police girlfriend Amelia, and the other is the relationship between the killer and the policeman. The emotional line of a wife in prison.

The story line has its main and secondary lines. Each line is clearly explained and has a beginning and an end. It can be regarded as a standard movie model.

The film is divided into three acts, the first act is establishment, the second act is confrontation, and the third act is the ending. The subtitles are clear and complete.

The triggering incident at the beginning was that Michael, a professional bodyguard, failed to escort a Japanese businessman. The key event was that the police decided to escort the professional killer Kincaid to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to testify.

At the first incident, almost all the police escort team was wiped out. Only Amelia and Kincaid survived, so Amelia asked her ex-boyfriend and professional personal bodyguard Michael to complete the escort task. ; Event point two, the chase scene in Amsterdam, where cars, motorcycles, and yachts started a life-and-death chase along the canals of Amsterdam.

The beginning and end are also standard combinations. At the beginning, Michael escorted a Japanese arms dealer, which was a perfect move. Unexpectedly, the client was shot in the head after entering the private jet. The mission failed, and Michael was demoted from the three-star ranking. At the end, Kincaid revealed that he killed the Japanese businessman and that it was a "treasure" he accidentally encountered. This action made him move up many places on the killer list.

This film has outstanding parts, including the actors, photography, sound effects, and the opening part of the film.

Several major casts gathered together and burst into laughter.

Deadpool talkative Ryan Reynolds plays a triple-A bodyguard in this film. From the elite arrogance at the beginning of the film, he quietly enters the scene with a headshot, and his style suddenly changes to a full-faced one. Full of decadence. The main talker in this film is not the talkative one in "Deadpool". When faced with a tough opponent like Kincaid, he probably has no choice but to give in. Being ridiculed by the gang boss all the way to the point of driving him crazy, a scholar meets a soldier, a gentle man meets a gang boss, all he can do is shut up and let him talk, and lose his temper all the way, the most he can do is stare.

Samuel L. Jackson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., plays the role of the professional assassin, the gangster Kincaid, in this film. He is an actor from head to toe. He can intimidate anyone with his round eyes and is full of aura. I still remember the seriousness and caution on his face when he played Cyclops, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. In this film, his style changed drastically. He got into a fight with bodyguard Michael when they met, completely ignoring that he was still lame and receiving a blood transfusion, and the fight was not over yet. , fainted and fell to the ground with a plop. Needless to say, the sarcastic jokes he made to the bodyguards along the way, and the joyful singing he did while riding in the car with the nuns were quite convincing. Looking at the nuns' reluctance to leave him when they got off the bus, I felt that the style of the painting was not at all disharmonious.

Even more amazing is the tender scene between Kincaid and his wife. This wife is the biggest highlight of the whole film. A good actor can also play with his back. When she appeared, there was only one figure from behind, doing yoga facing the window. When she turned around, she saw a beautiful and unique woman. She had a calm face and cursed with a strong accent. She had her own aura. She was pitiful for the fat girl in the same cell. Dare to keep facing the corner and stand obediently. When the female boss is happy, she will say "take a break", which is a great liberation.

Let’s take a look at the profile of Salke Hayek, who plays the wife. She is Mexican and 158 centimeters tall. She is not short at all in the film, which shows that her photography skills are also great. She starred in "Teresa" and became "a TV star that Mexicans are crazy about". Her character is "willful, unrestrained and passionate".

Kincaid, played by Samuel L. Jackson, and his wife, played by Salke Hayek, meet unexpectedly and develop tenderness and romance. Kincaid risks his life to send flowers and puts them on the The wife can look out of the high-rise building through the prison window. The scene when the two met for the first time was also bizarre. The girl was working in a bar and was teased by several men. Kincaid was about to fight against the injustice. Unexpectedly, the girl flipped her hands and kicked and knocked down several of them in an instant, and their eyes met instantly. In the midst of the chaos, the two of them hugged each other and danced, loving and tender, as if the outside world didn't exist. Probably the director also thought this scene was too good, so there was another dance after being released from prison at the end, echoing the previous one.

The big villain, the dictator Dukhovich, played by Gary Oldman, is chilling with his brutality when he kills villagers. He speaks plausibly and spits in court, showing the end-of-life state of a hero, which is similar to Kincaid's. The final confrontation is the final struggle. We hope to make a comeback, but our strength is always weak. Gary doesn't appear much in this film, but it's memorable.

In addition to several excellent actors, this film is also outstanding in its photography. The chase scene in Amsterdam looks smooth and dangerous, and stimulates the audience's adrenaline. This is different from the photography, The editing and sound effects are inseparable.

The opening part of the film is also well performed. An elite man completes all his equipment piece by piece, kisses his girlfriend goodbye, goes out, and escorts, all with precision and perfect style. Until, after a gunshot, blood sprayed on the window of the plane, the expression on the bodyguard's face changed, and then he was dead. There aren't many movies where the main character is manipulated like this at the beginning. I have to say that this is a surprising and unexpected move.

The relationship between popcorn and movies has always been inseparable.

But when a movie is defined as a popcorn movie, it is really not a good term. Popcorn is puffed up with a little bit of real food, and added with butter. It is sweet and fragrant. Once you eat it, you won't want to let it go. However, when it comes to nutrition, it is almost non-existent. Long-term consumption is harmful to health.

This film is said to be a popcorn movie because it has pleasure but no connotation, the story is rough, and the characters are flat.

Some netizens joked that this is a popcorn movie that forgets to eat popcorn. The visual and sound effects, the excitement of the plot, and the actors' banter really make people feel happy, just like the appearance of puffed up popcorn. But if you are looking for the connotation in this film, you are undoubtedly looking in the wrong place, like The essence of popcorn is just a small corn. The core is too small, no matter how fancy it is, it can't be enough.

According to the analysis in the first section of this article, the story elements of this film are all present, but it has a skeleton and little flesh and blood. If the story is divided into many small plots, a good story should be interlocking, both accidental and inevitable, and have to lead to an ending, rather than being all accidents in this film. Too few ambushes and insufficient acting are the biggest shortcomings of this film, which is also the usual style of popcorn movies.

Of course, the characters in such a story can only be two-dimensional, neither rich nor three-dimensional. When I think back to these characters, I know that they are people in the movie. They do not exist in reality. There is a long distance between them and the audience, and there is no sense of emotional empathy.

Regarding the background description of the characters, most of them are spoken by one character to another character. For movies, pictures are the main form of storytelling, not language. This film uses too much language instead of pictures, and its appeal is naturally much inferior.

You can watch popcorn movies occasionally, but if you watch too much, it will be harmful to your health, just like eating too much popcorn.