Zhang Weiping asked, "What is the reaction of the American media to this movie?"

Harvey frowned and said, "The reaction is very strange, there are many reports about Future Apocalypse, but there are very few reviews about the movie, and there are only a few decent film reviews until today, but there are still very few!"

Zhang Weiping asked again: "What about the media evaluation?"

Harvey shook his head lightly and said, "All of them are praise, and the ratings are frighteningly high." ”

After the word-of-mouth failure of "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" in North America, Zhang Weiping hated North American film critics. In his opinion, if it weren't for the flood of bad reviews from the media, the box office of "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" would be tens of millions more. Hearing that "Future Apocalypse" has an excellent reputation, he immediately said: "These film critics were bought by Zhang Ran, otherwise the film reviews would have come out a long time ago, how could they only come out today!"

Harvey shook his head and said: "It shouldn't be, these articles are all published by authoritative media, not pheasant media, it shouldn't be bought!"

Wang Jianlin said directly: "Harvey, tell me what you think!"

Harvey shook his phone and said, "According to the information provided by these film reviews, "Future Apocalypse" is about the oppression of robots by humans, which eventually led to an uprising by robots. In the movie, it was the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army that fought against the robots, and the whole movie had anti-American tendencies! At the beginning, the Department of Defense refused to provide support for "Future Apocalypse" because it believed that the movie was smearing and vilifying the US military. In addition, the prison part in the second half of the movie is also suspected of reflecting the scandal of prisoner abuse by the US military!"

Zhang Weiping understood Harvey's thoughts, but he was a little skeptical: ""Avatar" is also considered an anti-American and anti-US military movie, but the box office has broken records, American audiences shouldn't care about this kind of thing!"

Harvey laughed: "The conservative forces in the United States are very strong, and the conservative forces put a lot of emphasis on patriotism. Two years ago, when an athlete raised the American flag, he did not put his hand on his chest to show respect, which aroused questions from American netizens and scolding on the Internet. "Avatar" is suspected of being anti-American, but it is not obvious, and Cameron is different from Zhang Ran, for the American people, it is Cameron's own person, and Zhang Ran is Chinese! Just like black people joke with each other that the other party is a, if you dare to call a to try, you will definitely fight! Some things are said to be okay with your own people, that is called self-examination, but where is it the turn of outsiders to talk about it!"

A grim smile appeared on Harvey's face: "As long as we stir up this matter, it will inevitably cause resistance from the conservative community." "Future Apocalypse" is R-rated, and the source of the film has been leaked, and the pressure to return to the original is very great, if some people boycott this movie, then "Future Apocalypse" will inevitably fail miserably!"

Zhang Weiping and Jacobson's eyes lit up, Zhang Ran has been a box office guarantee for so many years, if "Future Apocalypse" fails at the box office, it will definitely be a huge blow to Zhang Ran, and he will immediately cheer up.

Wang Jianlin saw that the crowd was excited, as if he had won many victories, and he had a feeling of meeting his pig teammates, and said: "No, you can't do this, not only are you not hurting Zhang Ran anymore, but you are helping Zhang Ran!"

Everyone was very puzzled, how could this be helping Zhang Ran? Harvey asked directly: "Why do you say that?"

Wang Jianlin said coldly: "Even if this film loses, even if the box office is zero, it will only be a few hundred million dollars, can't Zhang Ran afford to pay it? But if this film fails miserably at the box office in the United States because of its anti-Americanism, what will the Chinese people think, what will the Chinese government think? Will the favorability of Zhang Ran be greatly enhanced? You are sending political capital to him." Doing business in China, especially to our level, is not just an economic issue, it's a political issue a lot of times!"

Wang Jianlin looked dazed when he saw Harvey, and said in a slightly mocking tone: "Why did Zhang Ran put the Century Shadow Capital in Zhijiang, do you think there is no political consideration? Don't Zhang Ran know that the slow return on the cost of the theme park project is a drag on the company's development? Zhang Ran knows very well, but the vast majority of his assets are abroad, under such circumstances, how dare domestic banks easily lend him money, and how can the state trust him? That's why he will increase his investment in China and build these theme parks. ”

Harvey and several Americans did not understand the situation in China, and they did not understand Wang Jianlin's words very well, but Zhang Weiping understood: "Not only can we not say that this movie is anti-American, but we must also say that the movie is pro-American!"

Wang Jianlin showed a teachable expression: "If you want to really bring down Zhang Ran, you have to reduce the country's trust in him." As long as the state feels that Zhang Ran is not credible, then he is not far from the end of the day!" He saw Harvey and their faces suspicious, and said in an unquestioning tone: "You do what I say!"

It was also on this day that the famous film scholar David Bordwell published the article "Future Apocalypse, Meditations on the Destiny of Mankind". The year before last, Bordwell praised Zhang Ran's "A Man with Lights" as "Citizen Kane" in the new century, which caused a lot of controversy. Now two years have passed, and no one has questioned his statement, and in the eyes of many film critics, "One Man Puts on the Light" is the best film of the new century.

Now that Podwell's evaluation of "Future Apocalypse" has come out, it has naturally attracted great attention, and many people want to know how he will evaluate Zhang Ran's new film this time. When these people opened Bordwell's article and read only one line, they were shocked, and Baldwell's evaluation of "Future Apocalypse" was no worse than "One Man Puts on the Lights".

At the beginning of this nearly 30,000-word essay, Podwell wrote, "Ridley Scott once said that after '2001: A Space Odyssey,' science fiction movies are dead. For a long time, I thought this was correct, and after 2001: A Space Odyssey, there was no more exciting science fiction movie. But after watching Future Apocalypse, I knew I and Ridley Scott were both wrong. Even if science fiction movies really ever died, Future Apocalypse brought it back to life. ”

In the article, Bordwell made a detailed analysis of "Future Apocalypse" from multiple perspectives such as light, color, and structure, among which structure is the focus of his analysis: "Future Apocalypse is an extremely special film, the film is divided into two parts, and the upper and lower parts are both three-act structures, each with its own beginning, development, climax and ending, which can exist as two independent films alone, the first half of the film is a war film, and the second half is a prison film. It is not easy for a director to make a movie, but Zhang Ran has made 'two good movies' in one movie, which is an unprecedented feat. This unique structure is derived from the traditional Chinese poetry of Song Ci, which is divided into two parts, the upper part is narrative, the lower part is lyrical, and the upper and lower parts echo back and forth.

The first time I watched Future Apocalypse, I wondered about the structure of the film, and it wasn't until the second time I realized the wonder of this structure. I even made a lot of pages of notes, but because the movie was so informative, I might have missed a lot of cleverly arranged elements.

From the perspective of the overall structure, the first half of the movie is about robots being oppressed by humans, mobilizing them, and gaining an advantage on the battlefield, while in the second half, the humans in the prison are oppressed by robots and riot for freedom and dignity, and finally the robots replace the original prison warden......"

After analyzing the structure of the film with a lot of pen and ink, Baldwell began to explore the theme of the film: "Zhang Ran once said that the belief of Chinese is history, and there is an interesting phenomenon in Chinese history, Chinese history is a continuous cycle of history, a dynasty is corrupt and degenerate, brutal rule over the people, so this dynasty is quickly overthrown, and a new dynasty is established." And this new dynasty began to behave always well, the people lived in peace and contentment, and the country became stronger and stronger. But as the country grew stronger, the rulers gradually became corrupt and degenerate, and the rule over the people became more and more brutal, and finally the world was in turmoil, the regime was overthrown, and then a new dynasty was established, and a new cycle began.

It is rare for other countries to see such a clearly cyclical history as China, but from the perspective of the entire history of mankind, it has always been repeated, cyclical, and strikingly similar. In the 14th century, Spain was the world's hegemon, in the 17th century, the Netherlands replaced Spain as the world's hegemon, in the 18th century, Britain replaced the Netherlands as the world's hegemon, and in the 20th century, the United States replaced Britain as the world's hegemon.

This is not only the case in human history, throughout the history of the earth, there have been countless masters before the emergence of human beings, and the history of the earth is also a continuous cycle of cycles, human beings are only a stage in the exchange process of intelligent life on the earth, and the next to replace human beings may be robots.

Adams, the protagonist of the movie, doesn't like war, but he is still very determined to fight against robots, and the most important reason for his fight is that robots are too powerful, and with the rise of robots, humans are likely to be enslaved by robots. His speculation is confirmed in the second part of the film, where humans are shot indiscriminately in a prison in Antarctica for their rebellion against robots. At this point, the theme of the film is about to come out, that is, the past and future of human beings are a cycle, or reincarnation.

"Future Apocalypse" is about the war between humans and robots, but this war is actually the beginning of the replacement of two lives or two civilizations, so the movie is essentially about the history of human beings and thinking about the future. As to whether robots will replace humans, the movie does not give a definite answer. However, Zhang Ran still left everyone with hope in the end, kindness is part of intelligence, and kindness will eventually save us. ”

At the end of the article, Bordwell concludes: "Many directors have found ways to turn genre films into art films, such as Wes Anderson and his comedies, and Paul Thomas Anderson and his melodramas, but few of these have been made into both word-of-mouth and blockbuster films."

Kubrick did just that, and after the commercial masterpieces Spartacus, Lolita and Doctor Strangelove, he directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, a meditation on life and the foundation of the science fiction cosmology. Since then, he's been at home with any film, both in familiar genres and in challenging narratives or themes. Zhang Ran has done the same thing now, "Future Apocalypse" is Zhang Ran's "2001: A Space Odyssey". For those of us who love movies, that's the greatest blessing!"

Bordwell has a better understanding of oriental films and oriental culture, and the famous book "The Secret of Hong Kong Cinema" is also his handwriting, and he has analyzed the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien, To Qifeng and others. Because of this, Baldwell's interpretation of Future Apocalypse is more in-depth than that of other North American media. Many North American viewers who have seen pirated copies are as if they were enlightened after reading his article, and even many film critics have been greatly inspired.

After Podwell's article was published, media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and Variety followed suit, and the media evaluation of "Future Apocalypse" in North America finally began to explode.