外国人如何评价《流浪地球》?每个角色都是英雄,不再是一个角色成为地球的救世主

作者:Karen Han 来源:polygon.com 编译:篝火营地/枚尧

编者按:夺得全球非英语电影总票房第二的《流浪地球(The Wandering Earth)》近日登陆美国知名视频网站 Netflix,其「中文原音,英文字幕」的待遇令不少国外观众表示跟不上影片节奏,但本片出彩的质量依旧赢得了不少观众的青睐。本文是Polygon编辑对《流浪地球》作出的点评。

网飞上线的《流量地球》,是一部融合了《2001太空漫游》、《世界末日》和《地心引力》的精彩影片

——这部创造纪录的中国大片,化平凡为神奇

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  如果一场电影事关两起太空灾难、无数视死如归的牺牲、以及一位军人举起机枪,对着硕大无朋的木星天象开火嘶吼,发泄心中悲愤 ……这些描述听起来正对你胃口的话,那我有一部合适的电影想要推荐给你。

  今年早些时候,中国首部史诗级太空灾难片《流浪地球》正式上映,并很快成为中国有史以来总票房第二高的电影,同时也在所有非英语影片的全球票房中居于第二。这部潜力非凡的电影因此被Netflix 看中,在获得全球放映权后,5 月 6 号在自己视频平台上进行投放。而你离这部大作只有一次鼠标点击的距离,千万不要错过。

  根据「雨果奖」得主刘慈欣的同名小说改编,由龚格尔担任编剧兼制片,影版《流浪地球》的成功绝非徒有虚名。它有着票房大作的共同特质,集通俗与愉悦大众于一体,而震撼眼球的CGI特效也让电影的表现力更加惊人,叹为观止。

  在这部电影的设定中,太阳急速衰老膨胀,即将把整个太阳系吞没,地球与人类的命运危在旦夕。这一事件催生了地球联合政府的成立,「流浪地球」计划也随之启动,通过在地表建设大量巨型发动机,将整个地球当作一艘行星飞船,推出原有轨道,向临近的半人马座阿尔法星进发。与此同时,由于地球停止自转,加上远离太阳导致温度骤跌,地表不再适宜居住,人类被迫迁移至庞大的地下城继续生活。

  主角刘启憧憬着地表生活。他的父亲刘培强离家17年,前往国际空间站为地球的轨道引航,这让从小缺少父爱的他内心充满了叛逆,并策划了一次离家出走。他带上了自己的妹妹,偷开姥爷的运输车,前往地表旅行。这起平日里微不足道的叛逆出逃,却不幸赶上了最错误的时间与地点,他们被迫参与到拯救地球的拼死一搏中来。

  「流浪地球」计划中必经的一道险关,在于跟木星轨道的牵扯。木星巨大的引力捕获了地球,导致大规模地震,星球面临解体风险,地表发动机也接连失效。刘启偷开的运输车被几名军人征用,用于运输点火器到临近的行星发动机,他与自己的姥爷和妹妹也被卷入到这次至关重要的行动中。

  《流浪地球》包含许多科幻题材作品中常见的元素,故障的A.I.、父子间的心结、为了大我牺牲小我、无重力环境下的动作场景、以及至暗时挣扎闪烁的人性光芒与未来希望。如此多的内容,共同构成了未必好用,但从来不缺亮点的情节片段,让偶尔平淡的剧情再起波澜。

  相对单调的人设通过演员们的精彩演出得到了调和,一些创新之处也让表演不至于成为照本宣科的念台词。龚格尔所描绘的未来中,包含一种手雷状的微型设备,危急时刻能够变形成一个巨型仓鼠球般的防护载具,而且影片全程几乎看不到美国的掺和(终于?),这两者都颇有新意。虽然影片中随处可见美国流行文化的影响,但几乎都是中国角色,只有少数俄罗斯宇航员例外,而且每个角色都有危急时刻的英雄表现,不再是某个角色成为整颗星球的孤胆救世主。

  《流浪地球》的配乐感觉有点跟同类型电影大同小异,但很好地烘托了关键时刻的动人氛围。一些地方的剧情显得有些智商下线,但和朋友抱着爆米花在屏幕前度过两个小时再合适不过了。尤其是到了影片的后半段,高潮迭起的剧情时而让你屏息揪心,时而又让你惊叹出声,足以让人心满意足。


原文:

Netflix’s The Wandering Earth is a thrilling mix of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Armageddon, and Gravity

——The record-breaking Chinese blockbuster turns the familiar into the fantastic

if a movie that features two imminent space disasters, several stoic sacrifices, and a man screaming and shooting his monstrously large machine gun into the air and screaming, “SCREW YOU, DAMN JUPITER!” sounds like your idea of a good time, have I got the movie for you.

When The Wandering Earth hit theaters earlier this year, touted as the first Chinese space epic, the blockbuster quickly rose to become China’s second highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the second highest-grossing non-English language film of all time. It’s a bona fide hit, which makes it a coup for Netflix, which snapped up the global streaming rights, then dropped it on the platform with little fanfare on May 6. One of the biggest movies in recent history is now just a click away, without you realizing it.

Directed by Frant Gwo and adapted from a novella by Hugo Award-winner Liu Cixin, The Wandering Earth more than earns its reputation as a smash. It’s exactly the mix of cheesy and crowd-pleasing that you’d expect from a blockbuster, with eye-popping CGI sci-fi set dressing to give it a little extra oomph.

In the world of the film, the impending death of the Sun leads to the creation of the United Earth Government, a single global government, and the initiation of the Wandering Earth Project. Earth will be propelled out of the Solar System via giant thrusters, turning the planet into a living spaceship en route to the Alpha Centauri system. In the meantime, humanity retreats to vast underground cities (of limited capacity, and filled by lottery), as the surface of the planet is made uninhabitable by the effects of the cessation of Earth’s rotation as well as the drop in temperature caused by the increasing distance from the Sun.

Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) dreams of a life on the surface. In the 17 years since his father, Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing), left him to take a position on the space station that guides Earth on its new course, Liu Qi has developed something of a rebellious streak. In an attempt to escape the quotidian, he steals his grandfather’s (Ng Man-tat) vehicle license, barters for two illegal thermal suits, and takes his adopted little sister (Zhao Jinmai) along with him for a joyride on the surface. These petty crimes, however, put him in the wrong place at the wrong time — or maybe the right place at the right time.

As it turns out, the plan to save Earth requires a second plan to save Earth. The current trajectory puts it on a collision course with Jupiter, and earthquakes caused by Jupiter’s gravitational spike have put some of Earth’s engines out of commission. The truck Liu Qi has stolen is commandeered by a handful of military officers to transport a lighter core to restart the nearest planetary thruster engine, and so he — and his grandfather, sister, and a few civilians similarly caught up in the chaos — becomes a part of the plan to save the world.

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Zhao Jinmai as a despairing Han Duoduo in The Wandering Earth. Netflix

The Wandering Earth is that it’s a blast. It’s an amalgamation of every single science-fiction action trope, with errant A.I., daddy issues, sacrifice for the sake of the greater good, a zero gravity ballet, and heartfelt appeals to humanity and hope for the future. The sheer amount of stuff that’s packed into the movie make a little unwieldy, yes, but there’s always another gonzo set piece on the way just when the movie starts feeling stretched thin.

The one-note characterizations also manage to skate by on the strength of the performances (Ng Man-tat and Wu Jing wring drop of pathos from the action-forward script) as well as a few inventions unique to the movie that help keep it from being totally rote. Gwo’s vision of the future includes a grenade-like device that turns into an oversized, protective hamster ball, as well as a curiously (refreshingly?) minimal American presence. American pop culture’s fingerprints are all over the movie, but the characters are almost entirely Chinese, with the exception of a few Russian cosmonauts, and almost every character gets a heroic beat rather than a single character becoming the planet’s savior.

Even the music feels like it’s been cribbed from previous movies in the same genre — Roc Chen’s score is like Hans Zimmer with emotional manipulation cranked up to 100 — but all of those familiar aspects don’t scuttle The Wandering Earth’s effectiveness as a box office behemoth. The movie’s a little silly, but it’s the perfect way to kill two hours with friends and a bucket of popcorn. Every beat is bigger and goofier than the last, to the point that it’s impossible not to cheer when — I’d say “if,” but the surprises in a movie like this aren’t in the destination but the journey — things finally work out. The film is spectacle after spectacle, and thank goodness for that.

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