Six days after its release, the sci-fi film "Tomorrow's War" supervised and starred by Gu Tianle exceeded 241 million yuan at the box office, second only to "Lone on the Moon" at the single-day box office.
At present, Maoyan Professional Edition predicts that the total mainland box office of "Tomorrow's War" will be 500 million yuan, but it is rumored that the total investment of the film is as high as 450 million Hong Kong dollars.
"Tomorrow's War" is known as "China's first hard sci-fi mecha cool film", and the filming and special effects of the film are led by the Hong Kong team.
The pre-set work of the film began in 2014. After a long period of shooting and production, it will finally meet the audience in 2022.
In the past eight years, Marvel, a Hollywood sci-fi giant, has harvested box office and fans around the world with the Marvel Universe series of movies, and the benchmark work "The Wandering Earth" has also been born in mainland China.
Can audiences with bad tastes still accept "Tomorrow's War"?
Judging from the current feedback, the advantages and disadvantages of "Tomorrow's War" are very obvious.
The visual effects of the film are worthy of praise, but the world view settings such as mecha warriors, alien plants, and earth pollution are outdated; the plot continues the routine of Hong Kong-style police and bandit films and becomes a story of "catching the ghost".
The main event is remarkable, but unfortunately the scene is relatively simple
Mechas are the biggest selling point of Tomorrow Wars.
In the film, the two protagonists, Tai Lai (played by Gu Tianle) and Zheng Chongsheng (played by Liu Qingyun), wore full-body mechas most of the time. The camera also completely showed the process of Zheng Zhongsheng wearing the mecha, and the mecha was automatically spliced on him. Assembly, the effect is quite smooth.
In addition to human mecha warriors, there are also several original robots in different shapes, such as Xingtian, Qiongqi, giant whale, and flying fish.
Action scenes are one of the highlights of "Tomorrow's War".
The climax of the film is the fierce battle between human mecha warriors and various robots. The characteristics and skills of each robot are displayed one by one.
In addition, the encounter between humans and mysterious worm-shaped creatures in the hospital creates an atmosphere like "Alien": Tyler moves forward in the gloomy hospital, and from time to time, worm-shaped creatures suddenly pop out, and the special effects create its hard scales, sharp Its fangs and unique shape make the fight scenes quite tense and exciting.
Director Wu Xuanhui revealed that the crew converted a stadium into an operational base in the film, and built a temporary apron in the center of the stadium to create a "future castle".
Gu Tianle revealed that in order to create a sense of reality, the crew built a large gimbal to shoot fighter jets and armored vehicles, and props planes and vehicles can be rotated 360 degrees on it to meet the needs of the entire shooting.
"Tomorrow's War" has worked hard in special effects, and the effect presented is also remarkable.
Unfortunately, due to technical and financial problems, the movie scenes are relatively simple, and most of the key scenes in the film are one-on-one battles, with very few group battles.
It is reported that the film has a total of more than 1,700 special effects shots. Just the two scenes of the opening air battle and the robot war near the end add up to more than 800 special effects shots.
The scheduling and special effects of these two main scenes are quite good. For example, the air force threw a potion to the alien creature Pandora, but was blocked by the robot, causing a giant whale ship to crash into an abandoned industrial building, and the fighter jet driven by Taylor Rapid fall due to damaged fuel tank.
But apart from these two scenes, the special effects in other places are a bit tasteless: for example, the scene where Tai Lai and Zheng Zhongsheng are looking for gene bullets in the ruins that are about to be dumped, most of the time, they are used as a gag, and they do not show The characteristics of the mecha; the command headquarters that has appeared many times does not involve special effects at all, and basically only relies on the dialogue of the actors to promote the plot, and the scene is quite monotonous.
The surface is hardcore sci-fi, and the Hong Kong-style "catch the ghost" is the inside
"Tomorrow's War" tells a story: In the future world, the environment is extremely deteriorated, and the air pollution is very serious.
Military high-level officials maintain air quality in human living areas by building "sky curtains".
Due to the impact of the meteorite, there was a gap in the sky, and the alien creature Pandora invaded the earth.
The giant plant form of Pandora is extremely aggressive, but it can purify the earth's air.
The army decided to genetically modify Pandora to remove its aggressiveness and make it available to humans.
This task is handed over to the air force soldiers Tai Lai and Zheng Zhongsheng...
For the audience, the doomsday setting of "Tomorrow's Victory" is no longer new. Alien plants that will attack people, strange-shaped alien creatures, robot legions, etc. are also common elements in science fiction movies.
The main line of the story follows the usual routine of Hong Kong-style police and gangster films - catching the inner ghost.
Commander Tan Bing (played by Carina Lau) found someone deliberately sabotaged the operation, so he asked his subordinates to investigate secretly, and the inner ghost caught turned out to be high-level Li Jiasheng (played by Zhang Jiahui). He's going to sabotage the renovation plan.
In fact, the film did not focus on creating suspense. As soon as he appeared, Li Jiasheng's attention to the sky was beyond words.
The plot is too simple and direct, which also detracts from the audience's viewing pleasure.
In an interview with the media, Gu Tianle admitted that many different types of science fiction films have been filmed abroad, and the creators consciously avoid the film becoming "pseudo-Hollywood" when creating: "We try to think of some different stories with the director and screenwriter. Before this draft, I actually thought about two different versions. This drama takes the most time, one is stunts, and the other is story creation.”
"Tomorrow's War" wraps the core of Hong Kong-style police and gangster films in a sci-fi coat. Although the story structure of "catching the inner ghost" is a bit tricky, the film also retains the essence of Hong Kong-style police and gangster films - brotherhood.
In the film, Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Jiang Haowen are the "iron triangle" on the battlefield, and the interaction between the three is quite lifelike.
For example, Gu Tianle and Liu Qingyun usually quarrel and hurt each other, but on the battlefield they can give their backs to each other with peace of mind.
After the war, Gu Tianle worked hard to scrub the armored car, while Jiang Haowen was sunbathing on the roof of the car in a leather coat.
The sense of everyday life brought by these actors makes the fictional sci-fi film "Tomorrow's War" grounded.
Gu Tianle's personal interpretation of "Tomorrow's War"
Although "War of Tomorrow" has mixed reviews after its release, it is undoubtedly another new attempt of Chinese original hard science fiction.
Gu Tianle described this film as his dream: "I have always liked science fiction films since I was a child. It has been my ten-year dream to use my own team to complete a Chinese science fiction film." Production, before "Tomorrow's War", the company has already made post-production for "Anti-drug 2", "Unparalleled", "Operation Red Sea" and "Bomb Disposal Expert" series.
Although "Tomorrow's War" still has many flaws in the story structure and plot settings, its special effects and post-production have indeed reached a good standard.
After reading Gu Tianle's analysis of "Tomorrow's War", you may be able to know more about this film.
Special effects must come first in science fiction films
When starting to conceive a sci-fi film, the most basic thing is not to conceive the story, but to prepare all the "infrastructure" about the play.
A sci-fi movie needs a lot of special effects shots. We first need to understand whether the existing Hong Kong companies can afford such a large number of special effects.
This is the first question we need to face when making sci-fi films.
There are three reasons for choosing Wu Xuanhui, who had a background in post-production special effects, as the director.
First, although he has not officially been a director, he is present in every film he has participated in, and he is very clear about all the process of shooting a film, so I don't think he is a novice director.
Second, he knows the drama and each character well.
Third, we have to trust him because he knows best how all the special effects scenes should be shot.
I think he did a really good job this time.
When we were shooting, even though we had a dozen or twenty drafts before, we still made adjustments every day.
He has been in the field of special effects for a long time, so he knows how to deal with it technically, which many directors may not be able to do.
Follow the animation frame by frame
Every scene of this play takes a lot of time to shoot, frame by frame.
I think Asian movies are rarely shot like this.
For example, we played against a large robot named Xing Tian at the end, and we played against alien creatures in the middle. It was very difficult to shoot.
But instead of hitting the air, we drew a storyboard in advance, made an animation for the actors to see, and followed the animation.
The power armor we were wearing weighed over 33 pounds at the time of filming.
At first, it was difficult to get used to wearing the armor. It took more than half an hour each time to put it on. The shoulders, neck and waist were very uncomfortable, and it was very hard to hang and run.
Liu Qingyun is a very professional actor, I have worked with him for so long, I have never seen him take off his costume.
Only in this play, he couldn't take it off, he said he couldn't even breathe.
Me too, because the armor is very hard, breathing is sometimes difficult, but I slowly got used to it.
Shots of aerial combat and armored vehicles are also difficult to capture.
We built a gimbal that can rotate 360 degrees, and it looks fun, but when people sit on it, they shake.
For example, when taking pictures of aerial combat, I may have to do five or six reactions in a row in a shot, and it is very uncomfortable to shake it all the time.
The same goes for the armored vehicle, which keeps turning, leaning forward and backward.
However, the shot of the armored vehicle is more comfortable than the air combat shot, because the armored vehicle has a larger space for movement, and the air combat scene has to sit on the fighter and cannot move, and it is even more difficult to wear seat belts.
But we want to make it real.
Spread the environmental message of loving the earth
I hope to convey an idea through "Tomorrow's War": to cherish the earth.
In this play, we will live under the sky in the future because the air is too bad.
After the arrival of alien creatures, we are faced with a contradiction: on the one hand, alien creatures can purify the air, on the other hand, they will cover the entire earth and cause the destruction of mankind.
In the end is to kill the alien life, or continue to live in the harsh air?
The people in the movie can only try to change the alien creatures.
I hope you will cherish and care for the environment more after watching the movie: We are living in a very good world now, with abundant supplies and breathing air, but if we don’t cherish the existing environment, we may even have the most basic clean water, fresh water in the future. Air will be lost.
I believe that everyone is very resilient.
In the play, I am a warrior, and even if I reach a dead end, I can find a way to survive.
But is this necessary?
We can take one more step now, and we may not need to face that extremely harsh environment in the future, and the next generation can survive in a good environment.
Many viewers may have seen many sci-fi movies like "Alien" and "Independence Day", but this time we hope to really make a serious sci-fi movie. We will be meticulous about every scene, every design, and every thing. well done.
Hope you all like Tomorrow Wars.
Audience comments
Pegasus: Summarize the film in two sentences.
"There is a ghost inside, terminate the transaction" "Stop it! Azu!"
Chaomuxue: When watching a movie: Hong Kong movies are promising, and they all start to fight aliens (plants).
After watching it: Hong Kong films can even turn into a ghost in the end when they shoot aliens.
Robin: Throwing away the filter, the movie is worth 3 stars, the plot is too simple, you can guess the ending after reading the beginning.
The special effects are definitely above the passing line. It can be seen that they are very attentive. The advantage is that the director dares to touch the sci-fi theme of mecha, which is very worthy of praise. If there are more such movies, Chinese sci-fi movies can move forward stride!
Chai Dream: The rare mecha fighting in Chinese films has a Hollywood-style sci-fi coolness, and it is worth the expectation of many years.
The brotherhood of Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun, and Jiang Haowen is also simple and direct, and they can trust each other's backs with a glance at each other.
Goddess's long johns: It's very mecha-like, the special effects are set to pass the level, the action scenes are brilliant, and the quality and effect of the bridge car chase scenes are good and refreshing.
However, most of the special effects pictures are edited quickly, the footage is short, and it is difficult to see clearly, and the technology or funding may not keep up.
The mandarin dubbing is very dramatic, they are all reading the lines, and there is no sense of substitution.
Because the literary drama and emotional drama could not hold up, the final climax could not be hilarious.
As a whole, I have a conscience and try my best, but "trying your best does not mean doing well".
Kevin Spaceon: It's right to delete the literary drama to the point where only the frame is left, otherwise the two ends will be unflattering, and the special effects that have been painstakingly done will be in vain.
The current theatrical version is too wise to be reduced to a brainless cool movie.
The hardest thing about sci-fi is not the special effects, but the text, step by step.
Clark: Three-and-a-half stars, the special effects are indeed the highest level in China, and the lines will inevitably be criticized.
The fighting scenes are quite handsome, but there are fewer big scenes. I hope the box office will have good results and the second part will be more funded.
(audience comments come from Douban)
Reporter Hu Guangxin