The opening of the 2010 North American summer movie season was far less lively than last year.
Although there are still several big productions throughout the summer, the most anticipated movies, such as "Inception" and "The Avengers", are basically scheduled for June and July.
However, there are also some big productions in May, and what's more interesting is that these movies are basically related to epic films.
For example, Disney's "Prince of Persia: Blades of the Sands" was released on May 7; Universal's "Robin Hood" was released on May 14; and Fox's epic "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 3D", which was produced with a $150 million investment, was released on May 28.
This magical epic film is called the successor to "The Lord of the Rings" by Fox, and they indicate that "Legend of the Sword" is just the beginning of a great story.
Five sequels are already in the works after this film.
They will begin with King Arthur's accession to the throne and end with the Battle of Camlan.
The legendary life of King Arthur is told in a magnificent story.
It's just that this King Arthur is not a rough man with disheveled hair and a big beard; he is a majestic woman.
However, if we count back 10 years, the most successful King Arthur in Hollywood was played by a woman, so this small problem was subconsciously ignored.
King Arthur must be a woman!
If not, then you are a male chauvinist and suspected of discrimination!!
Thus, under a massive publicity campaign, "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword", produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Charlize Theron, entered the North American film market.
Under the cover of night, the city of Los Angeles is full of lights and music, much more lively than during the day.
As the most prosperous commercial district in Los Angeles, Century City's lights at night are naturally brighter than the stars in the night sky.
A black business car had just parked in the parking lot of the Westfield Shopping Center in Century City.
Lily couldn't wait to pull Nanaya out of the car.
"Sister, hurry up!"
While dragging Nanaya towards the elevator, Lily turned back and shouted at the car.
"You are too impatient."
Ryan shook her head helplessly, and she quickly stepped forward and hugged Nanaya's other arm.
The three of them took the elevator directly to the cinema on the top floor.
Because they had asked Sera to buy the tickets long ago, the three of them did not go to the ticket office to queue up, but went straight to check their tickets and enter.
In order not to attract attention, Nanaya took the two ladies to choose seats at the back of the theater.
Nanaya was asked by the two sisters to sit in the middle, while Lily and Ryan sat on both sides of him like left and right protectors.
This is the theater where "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" is screened.
Thanks to the great reputation of two filmmakers, director Guy Ritchie and Charlize Theron.
Coupled with Fox's overwhelming publicity and the fact that today is the weekend.
Nanaya discovered that there were quite a few audience members in the theater, at least about ten people.
Nanaya pushed the paper tube in his hand towards the two beauties and asked, "Would you like some popcorn?"
Ryan took one look at the cream and syrup covering it and shook his head without hesitation.
"Forget it. I'm trying to keep in shape now. This thing is a woman's natural enemy."
Lily grabbed a handful of popcorn and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Um...Brother-in-law, you are so mean. You actually tempted me with something like this! You know that this kind of thing is the easiest to make you fat."
That being said, Lily is no slow user of her hands or mouth.
After a while, the top layer of popcorn was all in Lily's stomach.
[If you are afraid of getting fat, just eat less...]
The corners of Nanaya's mouth twitched slightly.
Lily's exaggerated way of eating made Ryan frown slightly.
"Lily, that's enough. Eating too much of this is not good for you. You're an actress, you have to stay in shape!"
"knew."
Lily heeded her sister's warning and with regret stopped grabbing the popcorn.
Nanaya took the popcorn back and handed Ryan a bottle of water.
"You can actually indulge yourself once in a while."
Ryan took the mineral water and replied, "You can indulge yourself, but it will be troublesome if you get fat."
Nanaya glanced at his woman's slender waist.
He actually wanted to say that a slightly fleshy touch was actually quite nice, but with Lily sitting next to him, he gave up on his flirting behavior.
Ryan opened the bottle, took a sip, and then asked.
"Why should we increase the box office of Fox's movie? Moreover, I thought this movie was supposed to be made by us, why did it become a 20th Century Fox project?"
Nanaya threw a piece of popcorn into his mouth, crossed his legs and said comfortably: "There is no copyright issue with the story of King Arthur, anyone can adapt it. When Fate first became popular, there were more than one narrative movie made about the servants in it."
Lily tilted her head: "Why did I hear that the script for this project was bought by Fox?"
"Because someone in Hollywood was selling a King Arthur movie project at the time, I thought I could try to adapt it, so I asked Shion to buy it back. But Fox got there first."
It should have been a very frustrating thing, but Nanaya's face was full of smiles.
Ryan and Lily, who were familiar with his character, immediately knew that this guy was up to no good again.
"So, you let Fox buy it on purpose?"
A phrase immediately popped up in Ryan's mind: "playing hard to get."
But the problem is that Ryan doesn't know why Nanaya is so pessimistic about this project.
After all, if Nanaya really thought that the character of King Arthur had no commercial value, he should not have created Artoria.
As it turned out, this decision was very correct.
So Ryan asked Nanaya this question.
And Nanaya also answered her.
"It is indeed difficult to tell the success or failure of a project before it is formed." Nanaya explained, "After all, different people running the project may lead to completely different results."
"In the same way, if people are allowed to make all kinds of wrong decisions during operation, it can lead to the failure of a film project."
"But brother-in-law, how did you influence Fox's judgment?" Lily's eyes were full of confusion.
Nanaya blinked mysteriously: "If you understand the other person's character, you only need to mislead him a little at the critical moment."
In fact, I only know from the future vision that this is a flop movie.
But Nanaya won't say it out loud.
"You are worthy of being my brother-in-law!"
Lily didn't doubt him and looked at Nanaya with admiration.
Ryan glanced at the theater and said, "It seems you succeeded. The movie attendance is average."
Nanaya nodded slightly.
Although there were more people than he expected.
But for a big-budget summer movie, there were only a dozen or so viewers in a theater on the weekend night of its first week.
This is certainly not a good sign for Legend of the Holy Sword.
After all, the number of commercial movie audiences these days is only getting smaller day by day.
If this movie can have the same reputation as "Titanic" or "Madoka Magica", maybe it can make a comeback.
But Nanaya didn't think the other party had this ability.
"It's time to start watching the movie."
At this time, the classic opening credits of Century Fox lit up on the screen in the theater, and Ryan put on 3D glasses and said.
Now that she is an industry insider, she watches and analyzes every movie carefully.
Even Lily is the same. No matter what the performance of the movie is, she will watch it to the end.
For Lily, this is the most basic respect for the achievements of others.
Nanaya watched it very seriously.
However, he watched the movie as a joke.
Although the protagonist has changed to a female one, the plot of the movie is not much different from the one that Nanaya remembers.
The only change is the change of the protagonist's gender, so the place where Arthur is taken in is changed from a brothel to a hotel where all kinds of people mix.
Apart from this small change, the film is exactly the same as the one Nanaya remembered.
This made Nanaya basically feel at ease about "King Arthur: Legend of the Holy Sword".
No matter how hard it struggles, this movie is doomed to fail.
Frankly speaking, as a capable and experienced genius director, Guy Ritchie's film is not bad.
In particular, his characteristic fast-cut shots bring a sense of freshness to this epic film.
But that's all.
The atmosphere of the whole movie is very weird and lifeless, and many scenes and plots that the audience hopes to see are basically not filmed.
This makes the whole movie feel dull.
Of course, this movie is the prologue to a great series, and the subsequent stories will surely be more magnificent and majestic.
It's a pity that no one will see it anymore.
This movie is destined to be like other flops, becoming a small grain of sand in the vast history of film, unable to make any waves.
As for the so-called 3D gimmick, it is really superfluous.
The 3D effect of this movie is on the same level as "Alice in Wonderland", which was released by Disney in March - only the subtitles have a three-dimensional effect.
The problem is, the version that North American audiences see doesn't even have subtitles, so it's really no different from a 2D movie.
No, there is a difference. The picture becomes darker.
Guy Ritchie's movies are particularly fond of dark tones. This kind of gray and black tones, coupled with the dimming of 3D glasses, is really a mess.
In the middle of the movie, Nanaya took off his 3D glasses.
He discovered that the film's post-production crew had deliberately increased the brightness of the image, presumably in an attempt to correct the dimming buff of the 3D glasses.
But the actual effect is not ideal.
On the other hand, Nanaya actually thinks that the audience should be grateful that the 3D stereoscopic effect of "Legend of the Holy Sword" is not strong.
You have to know that Guy Ritchie's movies are full of shaky shots.
If the three-dimensional effect was stronger, most of the audience would probably go straight to the toilet before finishing the movie.
It had nothing to do with the movie being boring or drinking too much water, it was purely because I was shaken and vomited.