Zodiac: A blunt comedy tribute film (Source: China Newsweek)

10 1 is a wonderful number. According to the traditional way of thinking of China people, it is customary to take 100 as the node. As a filmmaker, 10 1 film is nothing more than a kind of transcendence and commemoration. At the end of 20 12, Jackie Chan and his movie 10 1 Zodiac crowded into the New Year film market which was suppressed by tigers and famine. The big banner of Jackie Chan's works played by the film seemed to indicate the change from actor to creator. And is this transformation successful?

Subjectively speaking, Zodiac is a standard "Jackie Chan's work", with simple plot, positive characters, simple humor and fights that can't touch the skin, adding some small skills and big challenges to the side details, and finally definitely returning to mainstream values. Perhaps, after experiencing "Jackie Chan's works" such as "Pink Zone", "Who am I" and "Never admit defeat", fans' expectations for Jackie Chan have gone beyond the film itself, and more is a new challenge to Jackie Chan's human limit. Therefore, after the film entered the publicity period, we saw more publicity about Jackie Chan playing extreme sports, falling from the sky, bleeding and being injured, and avoiding talking about the plot and artistic creation. What's more, the release schedule of Zodiac coincides with the battle between Pi and 1942, and I'm afraid even Jackie Chan himself will feel ashamed in front of the two great directors.

Facts have proved that Jackie Chan's "Zodiac" is like kneading the heads of these 12 animals, which is somewhat neither fish nor fowl, after leaving Tang Jili's fierce fighting and Chen Musheng's love affair with police and bandits. Humorous fighting scenes have become the only bright spot to attract the audience in the whole situation. Jackie Chan still has a lot to learn in the overall plot setting and rhythm control. The first third of the film is full of suspense and adventure of the eagle plan. However, as a bounty thief, the transformation of human nature from greed to justice is blunt and hasty, so that the inaction plot in the second half is slack and procrastinating. The most puzzling thing is the story of "the jungle won the gold", which is like a tumor "spreading" in the whole film. It is rough and impetuous, and both the content and the picture are extremely uncoordinated with the whole film. The ridicule and banter about pirates are full of shanzhai feeling, and the humor of race and language has become a big failure after dubbing in the later period. From this failed story, we can clearly see that Jackie Chan inherited the essence of Hong Kong film directors, but this essence is not Tang Jili or Chen Musheng, but Jing Wong and Huang Baiming. Draw a gourd ladle, Jackie Chan just chose a bunch of crooked melons and cracked dates.

The film Zodiac brings together stars from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Europe and other countries. However, in 122 minutes, more viewers only saw a Jackie Chan from this Jackie Chan Works. According to the concept of previous works, in Jackie Chan's films, the heroine usually exists only as a vase. Whether in Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Gao Yuanyuan or Yang Caini, Jackie Chan's heroines are nothing more than crying, screaming, misunderstanding, being kidnapped and being rescued. Apart from the weakness of the heroine, it is usually easier for the hero or villain to play a role in Jackie Chan's works, such as Nicholas Tse, Wang Leehom, Daniel Wu and Louis Koo. , at least in line with the turning point of the plot. However, in this "Zodiac", except Jackie Chan, a group of supporting actors and actresses all float in front of the screen like Facebook, waving their hands can't take away a cloud. It can be seen that Jackie Chan has a serious imbalance in controlling the proportion of the plot in the process of directing and supervising the film. The editing technique is immature and the logic is vague. Excessive contrast between the protagonists may not be the embodiment of personal utilitarianism, but there is no doubt that a large number of supporting roles have become victims of the new director's approach.

As mentioned above, the lack of art and experience has made the film "Chinese Zodiac" play the "limit card" and "technology card" all the time in the early publicity process, and the frequency of these two cards in the film has reached the level of showing off. In the downhill part of roller skating at the beginning of the film, the clips are frequently bruised and the rhythm is chaotic, which makes it difficult to give people a sense of exciting speed. The special effects of the jungle adventure part are terrible, and it is full of cottage atmosphere. Even the high-altitude scuffle at the end of the film is the highlight, full of loopholes and messy editing. These plots, which are regarded as the highlights, are really far less exciting than the fighting scenes of Canon cameras in the cottage factory.

Be optimistic. In fact, Zodiac is a movie full of strategies. Strategy refers not to the subtlety of plot arrangement, but to the slogan of "national justice" in the film, which distinguishes Jackie Chan from Huang Baiming-style commercial comedies and thus rises to a new height as a comedy tribute film. Maybe in the near future, we can see not only comedian Jackie Chan, but also Hong Kong Chief Executive who walks off the screen like Schwarzenegger or Reagan. As for director Jackie Chan ... different people have different opinions.