Review of Earthshaking.

I have always paid little attention to domestic disaster films, because not only the technology and theme, but also the habit of watching European and American actors. The earthquake a year and a half ago will still be the plot in the dream. It's hard to forget such a disaster. It's a bit thankless to make a film on this subject in such a short time. Because people remember it clearly, it is easy to question the details of the film, because this scene has been seen many times in front of TV cameras and on the spot. I remember that just after the earthquake, any group of live shots on TV can make people cry, because they are real and inexperienced. With the passage of time, all kinds of reports are gradually packaged and rendered, and what they see is no longer the first-hand lens, and there are gradually fewer active ones. The same applies to movies. You don't have to exaggerate, you don't have to be artificial, and you can impress people by shooting the truth. The rhythm of this film is a bit like that just described. The first half of the film is just an earthquake, and the sky is falling, which is the most precious moment to save people. The PLA overcame difficulties and climbed mountains on foot. These fairly compact shots can resonate with people and naturally impress the audience. In the second half, the rescue phase gradually passed, and there were deliberate traces everywhere, so I didn't care. For the main melody film, the evaluation is just so. After all, the film itself has many restrictions, and it is impossible to act more. However, if we want to shoot this theme again in the future, we still have to look at the ordinary things of ordinary people and be moved by it. Earth-shattering, a domestic disaster film, saw several movies with different themes this year, thinking that this one would be different. But in fact, this film follows the previous main melody style from content to form, and there is basically no innovation and improvement. .

At the beginning of the film, the most traditional full-screen subtitle method is adopted, with white characters on a black background and nearly 200 words. The content is not only to explain the background of the story, but to describe the whole movie from a political perspective. Generally speaking, the creators of movies always don't want the audience to guess the ending too early. Even if there is a clear conclusion, the audience will usually experience it through the plot, characters and so on. I'm afraid it's rare to publish standard answers from the beginning like this, except for textbooks. Therefore, as soon as the film came up, it gave the audience a strong hint that it was not a commercial film or an art film, but a propaganda film and an educational film. The audience is not enjoying and entertaining, but being educated. I think the disadvantages of doing so are obvious. It is not only easy for people to have rebellious psychology, but also easy for people to doubt the authenticity of the follow-up story of the film. After all, propaganda films can be understood as something similar to advertisements in a sense, but one is ideology and the other is commercial material. Moreover, the beauty in the advertisement promises that she can have a devil figure like her with her weight loss products, which is not easy to believe.

In addition to the title, other aspects of the film are also full of clear goals or tasks. For example, in character design, the mother of Ren Yue, secretary of the county party Committee, occupies many scenes, and the task attributes of each bridge section are obvious: First, it is necessary to show the noble quality of the people in the disaster area and leave the hope of life to others; The second is to show Ren Yue's concern for everyone's sentiment. The third is to show the affection between mother and daughter and avoid the role becoming a political symbol and empty. These themes are not fake, but very touching. However, they are too old-fashioned (for example, I didn't forget to say cherry before I died), too marked (for example, Ren Yue's deputy and glasses cadre spent 1/2 of playing time to remind Ren Yue that she hasn't found her mother yet), and too unresponsive (for example, Ren Yue didn't go back to see her family until the end, and didn't take the initiative to ask about her family, which made the previous sensationalism empty and unfriendly. The reason for this is that the design of the film is too utilitarian. The appearance of this character is not because of the need of plot development and narrative, but to complete the theme that the director wants to take care of. So although things are very touching, the film is not touching.

In addition, the performance techniques of this film are generally old-fashioned and the tasks are too obvious. For example, a soon-to-be-married female teacher and a soldier on vacation meet unexpectedly in the disaster area, and they are still using the slow motion of "two people face to face, run to each other with open arms, and then hug". In my impression, there are few such lucky mirrors except spoof and tribute now. Another example is the scene of 100 soldiers singing a birthday song for the little girl to wake her up. Although I know this is a real prototype (20-year-old Jia Zhengjiao), I still think it looks fake in the movie. Because it is hard to imagine that in the tense environment where every second counts, the soldiers will stop their work, just like holding a concert, standing there singing, shaking their flashlights and beating the beat ... So this sensational means still stays in the stage of "artistic life" or domestic movies many years ago, and it is even worse to watch TV news touching. Interested viewers can compare the original live video, and the real and vivid lines and scenes are far from what the current movies can compare.

The main content of this film can be summarized into three aspects. First, the PLA and armed police soldiers are brave and fearless. There are a lot of scenes of climbing mountains and wading, risking their lives to rush to the disaster area and carrying out rescue. This is what our main melody movies are good at. Although it is not technically excellent, the overall atmosphere and feeling come out, which is also the most successful place of the whole movie. Second, the military and civilian fish and water situation and the affection, love and friendship when the disaster comes. This film has spent a lot of pen and ink on this aspect, but personally, it is very unsuccessful. As mentioned earlier, Ren Yue's mother, the birthday girl and her soon-to-be-married lover are all figures and bridges to show this meaning. These bridges are typical and touching, but they feel bad, too deliberate and too emotional. The third is the scene of the disaster brought by the earthquake. Although this movie is not a typical disaster movie in Hollywood, it is still a necessary and extremely important movie task to perfectly show the disaster scene. It seems that the special effects in this film were completed by Bayi Studio itself, and it is said that the number has set a historical record. Because the picture quality of the version I watched is very poor, I can't draw the conclusion that the level of special effects is poor. But I don't feel very good overall, especially the panoramic scene during the earthquake, which has a strong sense of model. But I don't care much about it, at least I don't think it's a big problem in this movie. Because on the one hand, Bayi Studio has a lot of real-life shooting from the beginning, and many shots of this film are also shot on real ruins; On the other hand, there are some places in this film that still capture the feeling of danger, especially the rescue of a chemical factory later.

Generally speaking, there are many touching things in this film, but most of them come from the power of the real events themselves, from our unforgettable days and heartfelt feelings in 2008, rather than from the expressive force of the film. Wenchuan earthquake is a very good and important movie theme in my opinion. No matter whether you take the emotional humanity route or the main theme route, there is no trouble of policy review and practical significance, and the materials are everywhere. The problem with this film is not that it is the main theme (it is estimated that no one will sing naysayers to praise the rescue fighters), but that it is not well shot and its appeal is far less than that of the original TV news and some successful photography works. In the final analysis, the problem lies in not learning from some successful experiences of genre films, not considering the appreciation needs of the current audience, not keeping pace with the times, and not trying to make it a film that satisfies both the propaganda department and the audience, and even has international influence. I sincerely hope that a first-line director can produce an excellent film about the Wenchuan earthquake, which can be recommended by China as the candidate for the best foreign language film and show the world a positive contemporary China.