George Henry is the chief film expert of AMC Theaters. He will basically not miss any blockbuster movie with a production cost of over 100 million dollars in North America.
What's more, this is a work by Nanaya Kiryu that has exploded the summer box office twice in a row, using the two parts of the same movie.
He also attended the preview of UBW last year, and he still remembers the excitement he felt when he saw the movie.
The box office figures released by UBW later did not disappoint George, and it won last year's box office championship in a strong manner.
At this time, the content on the screen has entered the highlight of the second half.
As the epic BGM sounded, the unrivaled army that once appeared in history appeared in front of all the audience in the theater.
Amid the deafening shouts and cries of killing, George felt as if he were in the vast desert. The battle between the King's army and Hassan's men was full of swords and sabers, as brilliant and dazzling as summer fireworks.
The battle on the screen made George feel his blood boiling and almost made him scream.
The last time George felt that kind of heart-pounding feeling was when the two armies charged into the battle in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
When this battle is over, the film has reached its final stage.
Of course, this is not the ending of this movie, but it is more of a foreshadowing for the next movie.
By this time, George had gradually calmed down, and relying on his professional qualities, he quickly made the most basic judgment on the film.
Although the plot of FZ seems a bit tortuous, it is not particularly brain-burning. Basically, you can understand the plot smoothly by following the director's ideas.
This is not a traditional Hollywood movie with personal heroism.
However, George still gave the film an A+ commercial rating in his heart. Although the plot of the film is not traditional, the film has many and clear selling points.
First of all, the choice of actors. It is obvious that the choice of the role of Kiryu Nanaya was made after careful consideration.
The most obvious thing is that the proportion of Japanese actors has decreased a lot.
For example, the casting of the most important group of Masters in the movie, except for Emiya Kiritsugu, Kotomine Kirei and Matou Kariya who had already been confirmed in FSN, the other Masters were played by European and American actors.
Moreover, the roles of all the characters in the movie are arranged in a very reasonable proportion.
The situation in FSN where the perspective is overly focused on Shirou Emiya and his group does not appear.
These characters all have great performances in the film's plot.
Although we know that some of the tool characters are just tools, they still play a very important role in promoting the plot.
There are also large-scale action scenes, which are one level higher than the previous FSN in terms of both quantity and intensity of battles.
With the support of IMAX's special 3D technology, these scenes present the best visual effects to date.
Not only is the on-screen effect so realistic that it's admirable, but some special shots also make your adrenaline rush.
It can be said that this is the film in which George felt the most obvious improvement in special effects since "Titanic".
Moreover, FZ is not only about action scenes, but also does a great job in handling literary scenes.
Especially the king's question-and-answer scene, which is the climax of the movie, has a Shakespearean feel from the scene arrangement to the line design.
When these elements are combined, this film will surely become a classic commercial blockbuster.
If there is any flaw, it is probably that this is another movie with two parts.
Although Nanaya Kiryu had proved during her time on FSN that dividing her movies into two parts would not affect the box office, George still felt that this was a hidden danger.
After all, it is very uncomfortable to watch a movie halfway.
However, as someone who has direct contact with the cinema market, George is also very clear that the current special effects film market is far from saturated.
Currently, the vast majority of audiences go to the cinema to spend money for entertainment and to watch special effects movies.
From this perspective, FZ is not only very well done, but can even be said to be exceptionally good.
This will definitely be a major film that AMC Cinemas will be promoting from March to April.
FZ will definitely be a big hit.
Those who made this judgment include not only theater representatives like George, but also media reporters like Miss Katsushira.
In February of this year, after several rounds of communication, Ms. Katsushira finally reached a cooperation agreement with Washimine Entertainment, which is why she can sit here.
More importantly, this agreement only represents the cooperation between her and Washimine, not the "Eiga Secret Treasure" behind her.
In other words, as long as the agreement does not change, Katsushira can still get the privileges in the agreement even if he switches to another magazine.
For example, attending an advance screening like this.
Ms. Katsushira's opinion on this movie is similar to that of the theater representative named George.
She also believes that FZ is in line with the audience's needs for film entertainment.
What is a good movie?
This will definitely have different views for different people.
If they are professional film critics, they will definitely say that a good movie is one that reflects social reality, and a good movie is one that thinks about human nature and humanistic care.
However, such movies are boring and hypnotic to the general public.
What the audience wants to see are exciting battles and memorable characters.
The kind of movie that makes people's brains confused and confuses everyone may get good reviews from professional film critics.
But they are definitely not good movies in the eyes of the general public.
The classification of commercial films has actually never been complicated. Having worked as a reporter for so many years, Miss Katsushira is very clear that in the eyes of theaters, there are only two types of movies - movies that can sell tickets and movies that cannot.
Although FZ is obviously much heavier in plot than FSN, it still has many elements of the latter.
"Kiryu Nanaya's directing skills have become more sophisticated." Miss Katsushira concluded in her mind, "Although it is a bit out of the mainstream, he still firmly grasps the hearts of the audience. He also has a very clear grasp of the market."
Although the plot has become much more complicated, this complexity only applies to the advancement of the plot.
This is the inevitable result of an ensemble drama with too many characters.
But while the plot is complex, it's not confusing.
The director used the simplest camera language to clearly tell the audience the conflicts between each group of masters and servants and their opponents participating in the Holy Grail War.
More importantly, Nanaya Kiryu did not create mystery in the plot or discuss the philosophy of life with the audience, but instead told this fictional war story very seriously.
Perhaps in the eyes of professional film critics, such commercial films are soulless because they do not allow the audience to learn anything from them, nor do they reflect a very profound philosophy of life.
The theme of war is obviously the best subject to explore the complexity of good and evil in human nature, but FZ only touches on the surface in this regard.
But just like Star Wars which was criticized by film critics for being worthless, FZ is far more watchable than those films that are said to explore the origin of human thought.
It can definitely be said that it surpassed FSN which was released two years ago. As for whether it can surpass UBW, that is what the second half of the movie needs to do.
However, Katsushira believes that the box office of FZ will definitely not be worse than UBW. Apart from anything else, the show-off special effects alone are worth watching the movie twice.
I just wonder if the 3D movie tickets specially provided by IMAX will become a product that scalpers are particularly looking forward to, just like "Goblin Slayer".
As for the film content under special effects technology, the connection and transition of the plot of FZ can be said to be well-paced, and the rhythm control is excellent.
Moreover, when promoting the plot, the shaping of group characters is also done extremely well.
Because it is the first half of the movie, a lot of the two-hour-plus plot is spent on laying the groundwork for character relationships and shaping the characters.
However, when watching the series, the audience will not be misplaced or make the wrong connections; instead, they will be deeply impressed by each character because of the character's distinct and vivid personality.
The cold-blooded magician killer who loves his wife and daughter, his gentle android wife, and his cold assistant.
The taciturn priest who has not yet fallen into darkness, his somewhat self-righteous master, and the muscular old father.
A magician student who is often led by his Servant, an overly arrogant Clock Tower instructor, and so on.
Although the audience may not necessarily like these characters, they will definitely be impressed by them.
Even the selection of servants this time around was very interesting, and although their roles varied in size, each of their special abilities played a wonderful role in the plot.
Even Caster, a pure villain who is crazy only for the Saint, the tentacle monsters he summoned are disgusting but also unforgettable.
Don't say it's easy to do. Introducing more than 20 people to an audience that knows almost nothing about them in less than three hours requires strong storytelling skills.
This is something that many art films find difficult to achieve.
Normally a movie might be able to explain the main character clearly and let the audience know one or two supporting characters, but having so many characters is indeed a very daunting and challenging task.
Remember that movies are not novels, you have enough time for readers to understand the meaning of the text.
At the same time, movies are not TV series, so they can introduce a character in one episode each week, leaving enough time for the audience to savor the show.
It allows the audience to receive information continuously for more than two hours without interruption, while also ensuring that the audience does not become confused.
In Ms. Katsushira's opinion, Kiryu Nanaya has undoubtedly entered a stage of simplifying the field of directing.
"What a shame! It would be great if his acting skills were as good as the director's."
In Ms. Katsushira's opinion, the only shortcoming of this movie is Kiritsugu played by Nanaya Kiryu.
Although one can feel Nanaya Kiryu's efforts during her performance, she was still able to fool the general audience.
But as a reporter who has seen countless films, Miss Katsushira feels that he still has a lot of room for improvement.
"But this face becomes more and more attractive the more I look at it." Miss Katsushira looked at the back of a director in the front row, "I wonder if our director will have a large number of fans after the movie is released?"