How did this star become more popular after his scandal?

Chapter 321 The special effects are not good.
At this moment, Lin Qianqian had already started watching the TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness".

Lin Qianqian had also been paying attention to the TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness". Besides the fact that the series had been heavily promoted beforehand, it was also because it was a competitor to Jiang Yu's "The Lost Tomb", and Lin Qianqian wanted to see what was so good about it.

Lin Qianqian had also been following the creative team behind the TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness." Both the director and screenwriter were top-tier teams in China, and even the male and female leads were among the most popular and popular actors in the country.

In the entertainment industry, the two actors who played the male and female leads in "The Legend of the Great Wilderness" are both very talented young people with good acting skills and high popularity.

Although she can't compare to prodigies like Jiang Yu and Yang Xue, she's still considered a top figure in the industry.

Lin Qianqian clicked on the TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness" and looked at the plot and content. She hadn't read much of the original novel, but she had watched some video explanations online, so she had a general understanding of the plot and pacing.

Well, Lin Qianqian had a pretty good impression of the TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness." Since it was adapted and produced by Warner Entertainment, a leading company in the domestic TV drama industry, the quality was generally not an issue.

However, Lin Qianqian always felt that these large-scale fantasy and martial arts productions couldn't recreate the grand and magnificent scenes of the original work.

Although it appears to be a fantasy/xianxia (fantasy martial arts) genre, the special effects in the TV series felt lacking, making it feel like a wuxia (martial arts) drama instead of a fantasy/xianxia story.

It's not exactly a martial arts film, and while the special effects are sometimes decent, Lin Qianqian always felt they looked cheap in certain scenes. The special effects, which should have been big-budget and grand-scale, were lacking, making the film feel disjointed and neither quite fantasy nor quite martial arts.

Lin Qianqian even wondered where all the money spent on this seemingly S+ level production of the TV series went.

They're all going to invite these top-tier celebrities, right?
The money wasn't spent wisely. Fantasy dramas rely heavily on special effects, and while the plot itself isn't bad and is relatively faithful to the original work, the only major flaw is the special effects. The grand and epic scenes lack the necessary visual effects, making it seem like the production team was trying to cut costs.

In particular, she was stunned when she saw in TV dramas that powerful figures, who had clearly reached the level of flying and teleporting, were still being chased on horseback.

"Am I watching a fantasy drama or a martial arts drama?"

Immediately, Lin Qianqian felt she couldn't bear to watch any longer. This feeling left her with a sense of disappointment. She had come with high expectations for this S+ level drama, a joint production of Warner Bros. Entertainment and iQiyi. But it felt like she had eaten cheap candy.

The plot is indeed quite good, but the special effects are truly disappointing. The acting of the male and female leads, while not quite on par with veteran actors, is still quite good; they're among the best of their generation of young actors, and they're also very good-looking and pleasing to the eye.

"I guess the highest cost of this investment was spent on the actors."

These are Lin Qianqian's thoughts after watching the first four episodes of "The Legend of the Great Wilderness" that were released today. Overall, she felt it wasn't very good. There were some prominent issues, such as the special effects. The plot was alright, but she really didn't want to talk about the special effects.

In the past, when I watched those fantasy dramas, the production quality was generally quite good, especially Warner Entertainment. In recent years, they've produced quite a few fantasy and historical IP adaptations, but those tend to be geared towards female audiences. Although they're fantasy dramas, there's a lot of romance involved, which is understandable since they're historical romance dramas; they're relatively easy to produce.

However, "The Legend of the Great Wilderness" is a male-oriented novel, and it's a fantasy genre that relies heavily on special effects. But judging from the special effects in this TV series, they seem somewhat lacking.

After watching the TV series "The Lost Tomb" and "The Legend of the Great Wilderness," Lin Qianqian felt she didn't particularly enjoy "The Legend of the Great Wilderness." It was clearly a fantasy novel, but the TV adaptation made it neither quite fantasy nor quite martial arts.

As expected, the IPs of male-oriented fantasy and martial arts dramas are the hardest to adapt.

"However, it seems that quite a few people enjoy watching this Legend of the Great Wilderness."

Lin Qianqian glanced at the comments section and online discussions about the drama. Whether they were casual viewers or fans of the male and female leads, it seemed like everyone thought it was pretty good.

However, Lin Qianqian knew very well that since this had just been released, many online trolls and fans of various actors would come to boost their idols' ratings. She personally felt that Warner Entertainment's *The Great Wilderness Chronicles* was inferior to Jiang Yu's *The Grave Robbers' Chronicles*.

Of course, this is limited by the subject matter. Although Jiang Yu's "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles" involves many suspenseful and thrilling scenes and the construction of many special effects scenes, it cannot compare with the fantasy genre, which has extremely high requirements for special effects.

Comparatively speaking, Jiang Yu's "The Lost Tomb" is much easier to adapt into an urban tomb raiding genre than a fantasy genre.

But that's the situation now. She thinks Jiang Yu's adaptation of "The Lost Tomb" is very successful. Lin Qianqian really likes their TV series. However, she doesn't think Warner Bros.' adaptation of the fantasy novel "The Great Wilderness" is very good. If she had to watch a TV series recently, she would definitely choose "The Lost Tomb" first.

As for "The Legend of the Great Wilderness," I might read it while eating to pass the time.

"It seems that Jiang Yu's side will take the lead for the time being in this premiere, and this TV series may even be able to beat the other side, Da Huang."

This is Lin Qianqian's comparison and feelings after watching the two TV series. She had high expectations for both shows, after all, they are major pillars of two major platforms.

However, it now seems that the S+ level big-budget TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness," co-invested by Warner Bros. and iQiyi, is somewhat disappointing. The special effects are subpar, focusing too much on faithfully recreating the plot and casting popular celebrities. It's estimated that the biggest investment was in the salaries of the male and female leads, who are considered top stars. Besides these leading men and women, the supporting cast includes well-known and respected actors, and hiring such popular stars must have cost a considerable amount of money.

At that moment, Lin Qianqian immediately logged out of iQiyi. She picked up her phone and started browsing online to see what netizens thought of the two TV series.

At this point in time, most people, like herself, should have almost finished watching. Lin Qianqian directly opened Weibo and, sure enough, saw trending topics about Jiang Yu and the two Warner Bros. dramas.

"The TV series 'The Lost Tomb' is now available!" "The TV series 'The Great Wilderness' is now available!"

"The showdown between Jiang Yu and Warner Entertainment has begun!"

"The feud between Jiang Yu and Chu Shaoyang!"

"The showdown between Jiang Yu and Chu Shaoyang, rivals in love, begins!"

……

Besides the two TV series trending on social media, there were also some gossip-filled trending topics about Jiang Yu and his complicated relationship with Chu Shaoyang.

Lin Qianqian, and many netizens, also know this. Jiang Yu and Chu Shaoyang had a past grudge because of Yang Xue. Chu Shaoyang liked Yang Xue, but Jiang Yu had a special relationship with Yang Xue, making them rivals in love. Furthermore, when Jiang Yu participated in "The Voice of China," Chu Shaoyang used underhanded means to get him removed from the competition. Even recently, Jiang Yu's film "Detective Chinatown" was competing against a film invested in by Warner Bros., and at that time, Jiang Yu's "Detective Chinatown" even outperformed Chu Shaoyang's film.

Now, these two TV series have been released. As everyone knows, this is another showdown between Jiang Yu, Warner, and Chu Shaoyang, or even a head-on confrontation.

As everyone knows, their previous films were in an area where Warner Bros. Entertainment wasn't particularly strong. However, television dramas are Warner Bros. Entertainment's forte. The duel between Jiang Yu and Warner Bros. Entertainment has hit a brick wall. Everyone is curious whether, with Jiang Yu's abilities and talent, he can finally prevail over Warner Bros. and Chu Shaoyang in television dramas, Warner Bros.' strongest area.

"You guys watched it today, but didn't see the movie or TV series 'The Lost Tomb' or 'The Great Wilderness Chronicles'? I just finished watching them, and I think 'The Lost Tomb' is better."

"I just finished watching it too. I've read both the Tomb Raider Chronicles and The Great Wilderness Chronicles myself. But after watching these two TV series today, I think Tomb Raider Chronicles is better."

"Yes, I think so too. I feel that the Tomb Raider Chronicles is highly faithful to the original work, and Yang Xue and Jiang Yu's acting is also excellent. Most importantly, it really captures the suspenseful and tense atmosphere of the original novel. Some scenes and special effects are also very well done."

"Ah, I actually think The Great Wilderness Chronicles is quite good. The male and female leads are young and handsome. And the plot is very faithful to the original story. I personally think it's better than Tomb Raider Chronicles. I'm not interested in tomb raiding dramas or novels. They seem pretty scary."

"Exactly. I find tomb raiding-themed TV dramas completely uninteresting."

"No way, there are actually people who think the TV series 'The Legend of the Great Wilderness' is good? Although it's a pretty good adaptation of the original novel, I really don't want to talk about the special effects. The grand scenes that should be there are just... indescribable." It's an S+ level big-budget TV series, and I think all that investment went into paying these popular celebrities.

"I also think this 'Legend of the Great Wilderness' isn't very good. The plot is well adapted by the screenwriter, but the special effects are terrible. You can't see any serious attitude at all. It's a fantasy novel, but the special effects are not up to par. Now it's neither a fantasy nor a martial arts novel. How can you watch it? I have no interest in watching it at all."

……

Lin Qianqian saw the comments from netizens after watching the two TV series. Sure enough, most people, like him, felt that "The Lost Tomb" was better after watching both series. As for "The Great Wilderness," the plot was fine, but the biggest problem was the special effects.

A TV series adapted from a fantasy novel often requires special effects for many large-scale scenes. However, Warner Bros. seems to have overlooked this, seemingly sticking to their old formula of making period dramas, placing too much emphasis on the romantic storylines. As a result, they've applied completely different methods to adapting male-oriented and female-oriented fantasy novels. Using female-oriented tropes on male-oriented fantasy novels for a short period resulted in a series that felt neither fish nor fowl.

"It seems that Jiang Yu's side will win this duel. The premiere ratings tonight will definitely not be low. The ratings of the TV series 'The Great Wilderness Chronicles' will probably not be as good as Jiang Yu's 'Tomb Raider Chronicles,' but they probably won't be too low either."

This was Lin Qianqian's thought and prediction. Both TV series were big-budget productions, receiving substantial resources and promotion, and boasting strong casts. Although the special effects of "The Legend of the Great Wilderness" were criticized, judging from its current popularity, it should still have a considerable number of fans of the original novel and the male and female leads supporting it, so its premiere ratings would definitely not be bad. However, she estimated that it wouldn't meet the expectations of Warner Entertainment and Taobao, and even felt that it would most likely not surpass the premiere ratings of Jiang Yu's "The Lost Tomb."

……

At this moment, at Chu Shaoyang's home in Huawai Entertainment, he had also finished reading Jiang Yu's "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles." Sitting on the sofa, he appeared somewhat sullen, especially as he looked at his phone, at the trending topics online and the comments from netizens, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"The special effects aren't very good?"

He looked at the comments from netizens about their drama, "The Legend of the Great Wilderness," and many were saying that the special effects weren't very good. But Chu Shaoyang thought that for a fantasy drama like this, the special effects were actually quite good. It's just that they felt that reasonable changes were needed when adapting it for a TV series. For example, the romantic relationship between the male and female leads was the most interesting aspect to adapt for a TV series, and it's also a mainstream element in current dramas.

Their goal was to strengthen the romantic relationship between the male and female leads, while downplaying other aspects like the cultivation path, so the special effects weren't as elaborate as planned.

After all, before this, the ancient costume and fantasy dramas they adapted relied on the romantic relationship between the male and female protagonists, such as tragic love or sweet moments, to become hits, and special effects were not needed to be too elaborate.

But it seems a bit different with the TV series "The Legend of the Great Wilderness". In order to cater to viewers who ship couples, they changed and strengthened the romantic storyline while downplaying special effects.

It now seems like a mistake, with many fans of the original work and casual viewers complaining about the special effects. It's made it neither quite fantasy nor quite martial arts.

Therefore, after reading Jiang Yu's "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles," Chu Shaoyang could tell that the quality of their work was very high. He himself admitted this, even though he disliked Jiang Yu, the facts were undeniable.

Their drama is about to premiere, and the reviews have been pretty good. However, it seems like things are going to fall apart on their end. This makes Chu Shaoyang feel uneasy and irritable.

(End of this chapter)