Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 643 Premiere, Explosion Shell's Thoughts

As the screen dimmed and the lights came on, applause erupted in the main hall of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

"Good evening, my fellow Jaeger and Transformers fans!" The familiar teasing voice broke through the applause.

Jimmy Kimmel walked onto the stage with a microphone in hand, followed by two life-sized models of the prehistoric era and King Kong.

Jimmy Kimmel immediately lightened the mood with his opening remarks:

"Two years ago, when 'Crimson Typhoon' premiered, I called the chain sword 'Crimson Typhoon' a 'large utility knife,' and I was corrected by movie fans for half a year."

I did my homework tonight – this is the Crimson Storm, China's most powerful mech, with a newly added shoulder missile bay.

And this enormous creature that makes me want to feed it bamboo shoots is none other than the Primordial Era, a new member of our MonsterVerse—the colossal Panda King Kong, capable of tearing apart Kaiju monsters!

Jimmy then waved his hand and said, "Next, let's welcome the key figure behind 'Pacific Rim 2'—director Zhang Chen!"

Applause erupted from the audience, and the camera focused on Zhang Chen. Zhang Chen hugged Fan Xiaopang next to him, then got up and walked onto the stage.

"I bet everyone is just as curious as I am: how did Director Zhang suddenly get into the monster mecha universe?"

Zhang Chen took the microphone and smiled gently: "Actually, when I was conceiving 'Ring 1,' I thought about the setting of 'humans cooperating with Earth's native giant beasts'—the Kaiju are a threat to the Otherworld, so can humans have their own 'guardians'?"
The first thing that came to my mind was 'King Kong.' Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' gave me a lot of inspiration. I was thinking, if the West has King Kong, then what about the East? I thought of the panda—cute and cuddly, but actually very fierce. What if it became a giant beast like King Kong?

When Zhang Chen spoke, he even waved to Peter the Fat Man in the audience, who responded with a smile.

Actually, Peter's relationship with Warner Bros. has been very bad these past two years. Warner Bros. is shameless and withheld a share of the profits from "The Hobbit".

He could have easily skipped the premiere of Pacific Rim.

But Zhang Chen's performance during this period impressed him greatly.

Zhang Chen single-handedly took on Universal, one of the six major Hollywood studios, and gained a significant advantage, which Peter Parker greatly admired.

So even though he had a conflict with Warner Bros., he still came to support "Pacific Rim 2" and had the intention of learning from it.

Zhang Chen was completely unaware of all this. He continued, "The Primordial Era didn't appear out of nowhere. Its setting is that it's the 'descendants of a giant beast race that lived in the depths of the Pacific Ocean in ancient times,' and the character Fan Xiaoyang is the embodiment of the 'bond between humans and King Kong.'"

A murmur of admiration rose from the audience. Jimmy pressed further, "Will there be more 'Guardians of Earth' in the MonsterVerse? Like Godzilla?"

Zhang Chen nodded: "I've considered it. Actually, there are similar giant beast legends all over the world, which are all good themes—for example, the 'Sandstorm King Kong' adapted to the desert environment, and the 'Azure Sea King Kong' which is good at underwater combat. These can all be added to the monster mech universe..."

These words instantly caused a stir in the audience. Producers in the front row were recording with their phones, while fans in the back row shouted, "Looking forward to Sandstorm King Kong!"

On stage, Zhang Chen continued, while Michael Bay, sitting in the aisle seat, was lost in his own thoughts.

As a "veteran" of the Transformers series of mecha films, he had just attended the premiere of Avatar.

Not only him, but many people at the scene were just like him.

During this period, the dispute between the two films has dominated the headlines of the entire entertainment industry; it's hard not to know about it.

Coincidentally, the premieres of the two films were held one after the other. After watching "Pacific Rim 2" today, everyone couldn't help but compare the two films in their minds.

Compare the plots of the two movies~
Compare the special effects of the two movies~
Comparing the star power of the two films~
Michael Bay has a different approach; he thinks about things from the perspective of a series.

Compared to the first film, "Pacific Rim 2" represented a significant leap forward in special effects for him.

He clearly remembered that in Ring 1, most of the battles took place at night.

Why do you do this?

Of course, this was to cover up flaws in the special effects details.

From a technical point of view, the technical difficulties at night and during the day are different. During the day, you have to consider a series of issues such as reflection, and you will be exposed if you are not careful. But at night, all of these can be dealt with by shadows.

In "Ring 1", the Hong Kong battle scene was rendered by blurring the rough texture of the mech joints with neon lights and rain.

But Ring 2 is completely different, with 80% of its core combat taking place during the day:
The battle between the prehistoric beast and King Kong, and their battle against the giant octopus, especially the battle in the lake, the flow of the water, the reflection on the surface, and the difference in the fur of the two giant beasts after getting wet—these are all details that need to be paid attention to.

In another storyline, the sand kicked up by the battle between Crimson Storm and Dangerous Wanderer against the Skeleton Monster is so realistic that every grain of sand is illuminated by light and shadow, and even the indentations left by the Primordial Footprints on the dunes are so lifelike that they make your heart clench.

"It's much more ruthless than 'Universe 1,' daring to reveal the full appearance of the two giant beasts during the day," Michael Bay whispered to the producer of "Transformers 2" beside him.

He recalled the Egyptian pyramid battle scene during the filming of "Transformers 2"—in order to make the combined shot of "Devastator" clearly visible in daylight, the team spent three months debugging the CG model of 138 individual parts, even the angle of gear meshing had to conform to physical logic.

"I heard that the fur rendering of the prehistoric creature and King Kong in 'Ocean's 2' used a new 'layered simulation technology'. The reflection of the black fur in the sunlight, the arc of the wind blowing, and even the dust on the fur after the battle are all so detailed that you can see every single fiber."

The producer of "Transformers 2" also shared the information he had received, while in his heart comparing "Universe 2" with "Avatar".

While the blue skin of the Na'vi in ​​Avatar may have been exquisitely textured, it lacked the vitality of "primordial hair rising and falling with each breath." The contrast between "beastly nature and gentleness" added a layer of "humanity" to the fantasy of the alien creatures.

On stage, Jimmy and Zhang Chen begin discussing the upgrade of the mecha, while Michael Bay's gaze falls on the design drawings of the Crimson Storm on the screen.

Crimson Typhoon from Ring 1 had three arms, but after being severely damaged, he had only two arms.

In "Ring 2", it was upgraded again, with missile launchers added to the shoulders, and the energy core was changed from conventional power to nuclear power, making it look even better.

Explosion Bay understood that this was actually an upgrade to the character's image.

A series film must upgrade its characters to create anticipation for the audience.

If it's a live-action film, you need to explore the protagonist's inner world and background to enrich the character.

If it's a science fiction film, then the science fiction details need to be expanded.

If it's an action movie, the action scenes need to be upgraded. For example, the Fast & Furious series gets more and more exaggerated with each installment, and in the end, cars even went into space.

But the essence of the series has never been "starting from scratch", but rather "adding new flesh to the skeleton". Just like when he was making "Transformers 2", he added the detail of "the car door folding into arm armor" to Bumblebee, and added the logic of "the engine turning into shoulder weapons" to the transformation of the Fallen. He even added "trauma marks after battle" to the surface of the armor.

The same approach was taken with the modifications to Crimson Rising in Ring 2: the main setting was kept unchanged, but the details were upgraded to make it more "powerful". Even the mechanical sound of the joints turning was more profound than in the previous game. This feeling of "familiar yet fresh" is the key to keeping old fans hooked.

"Unfortunately, the approach is completely different from Transformers." Michael Bay shook his head slightly.

A scene of intense, crimson battle appeared on the screen, with the mech's heavy fist slamming into the skull of the skeleton monster, causing blue blood to spurt out.

Zhang Chen seems to care a lot about the sense of size and power, which is exactly the opposite of what he thinks.

Since Transformers 1, Michael Bay has insisted on using motion capture technology in order to make the robots' movements graceful and agile.

I heard that Zhang Chen also used motion capture technology in "Pacific Rim 2", but still took a heavy approach.

In Transformers 2, Optimus Prime is as agile as a swordsman, leaping and bounding with wide, sweeping movements as he slashes at enemies with his energy sword.

In "Pacific Rim 2", the character Honghuang is not as fast, but every move seems to carry immense power, causing irreversible damage to his opponents.

The two films take completely different action styles.

It's hard to say who's right and who's wrong.

Transformers are "alien life-bearing mechs," and the goal is to make the audience believe that "they have self-awareness."

The prehistoric creatures in "Pacific Rim 2" are colossal beasts, far larger than any Transformer. Their movements are too fast, which would make them seem unrealistic.

Michael Bay recalled how Pacific Rim fans described the battle scenes in Transformers as being like two flexible loaves of bread fighting, with countless crumbs appearing at the slightest touch.

He had also wondered if the Transformers should be made more serious, but the style of the first movie had already been set, and making a hasty change might have the opposite effect.

And as it turns out, "Transformers 2" performed very well at the box office and received excellent reviews, far surpassing its predecessor.

However, technically, Michael Bay believes he can completely defeat Zhang Chen.

The blurry edges of the screen in "Pacific Rim 2" are a typical trace of the post-conversion to 3D. The depth of field is not natural enough, especially when the prehistoric creature is running at high speed, the movement of the hair will be a bit blurry.

He had inquired and found out that "Pacific Rim 2" was filmed entirely in the traditional way, and the 3D effects were converted in post-production.

Michael Bay subconsciously squinted. In the forest battle scene of "Transformers 2", in order to make Optimus Prime's fist "smash into the audience's face", he specially used an IMAX 3D camera to shoot the scene. The camera moved close to Optimus Prime's arm, and the audience could clearly see the energy patterns on the fist.

3D has already shown promise in the film industry, so Michael Bay specifically added 3D shots.

In this respect, Avatar is even more revolutionary, with Pandora's floating mountains seemingly within reach.

In comparison, "Pacific Rim 2" is indeed weak in this respect. Zhang Chen seems to be very traditional in terms of technology and doesn't like to use these cutting-edge things.

"In comparison, I'm afraid 'Ocean's 2' can only make up for the technological gap with its story," Michael Bay suddenly thought to himself.

……

“Next, let’s interview a few ‘special audience members’~” Jimmy’s voice brought us back to the point.

The camera focused on the guest seats, and a familiar face suddenly appeared on the big screen: Quentin Tarantino, wearing a black hoodie and sporting his signature curly hair.

The microphone was handed to him, and Quentin's opening line was his signature bluntness: "That's fucking awesome!"

"My favorite scene was the final 'mass brawl.' The two giant beasts were severely injured, and Crimson Storm and Gipsy Danger were outnumbered. The big guys were blocked by the skeleton monsters, and Crimson Storm was even preparing to self-destruct. At the last moment, the human mechs arrived all at once. When they landed behind Crimson Storm one by one, to be honest, I was so excited that I was sweating profusely!"

He waved excitedly: "This thing isn't 'mech battles,' it's pure gang warfare! Every guy gets hooked on it—it's in our genes!"

From primitive hunters to mechs and Kongs side-by-side today, the essence is always 'a group of people guarding one thing.' This kind of passion is more effective than any flashy special effects! I have to admit, director Zhang Chen understands men!

Laughter and applause erupted from the audience. Quentin continued, "When I watched Avatar, I thought Pandora was beautiful, but it lacked a bit of 'roughness.' The male lead didn't even utter a single swear word."

"Pacific Rim 2" is different. The blood and gore as the prehistoric claws tear through monsters, the courage of Crimson Storm as she threatens to self-destruct—it all feels raw and real. This kind of unpretentious, passionate action is exactly what I like!"

These words excited many male audience members. Who hasn't been in a gang fight when they were young?

"Ring 2" isn't a monster movie; it's clearly about their youth.

No man can resist the allure of "monsters and mechs fighting side-by-side".

The next person interviewed was Jackie Chan, who was wearing a black Tang suit, holding a mini "prehistoric" model, and had an exceptionally sincere smile.

"I love the interactions between Honghuang and Xiaoyang the most. Their relationship is so enviable, and this kind of 'mutual protection' is so touching!"

He paused, then added in slightly accented English: "I watched Avatar the day before and thought the bond between the Na'vi and Jake was great, but the prehistoric world is different. It's a panda, which will resonate more with us Chinese people—such a huge beast can be gentle because of a human girl. This kind of detail is closer to people's hearts than 'saving another world'."

He looked at Zhang Chen and said earnestly, "Director Zhang, could you add a 'kung fu scene' to Hong Huang's film next time? I can be the action director!"

Laughter erupted from the audience. Zhang Chen smiled and nodded, "I'll definitely invite you!"

Then it was Tom Cruise's turn. "Pacific Rim 2 is a good movie, it gets your adrenaline pumping, but to be honest, after watching it, I'm even more looking forward to Mission: Impossible 4, which he's working with director Zhang. The thrilling action sequences that Zhang designed for Mission: Impossible 4 will definitely be just as impactful as Pacific Rim 2..."

Tom Cruise isn't really supporting "Universe 2"; he's clearly using this opportunity to promote his own movie.

Angelina Jolie, however, echoed his sentiments: "I agree with Tom, 'Planet 2' reminded me of the passion I felt while filming 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'—but I'm even more looking forward to working with him on 'Mission: Impossible 4,' where I play a female assassin. It's a short role, but I'm sure it will bring a different experience to everyone..."

After saying that, she added, "Of course, I will watch Ocean Drive 2 again, mainly for the sake of the prehistoric world—who can resist a panda like King Kong who will protect humans?"

The interaction on stage continued, with applause and laughter echoing from the audience.

As Michael Bay watched the frozen image of "the primordial chaos and the crimson storm side by side" on the screen, he suddenly felt that there was more to mecha movies than just "special effects." The emotional resonance of "King Kong + humans + mecha" in "Pacific Rim 2" might be another, more touching possibility.

(End of this chapter)