Hollywood in the 10s was particularly fond of the new and disgusted with the old. Faced with the gradual maturity of special effects blockbusters, with the joint efforts of producers and fans, professional actors were forcibly bound by the image of the series, and the traditional star system began to lose shape, even with some idolization characteristics.
As far as the male stars born in the 5060s are concerned, apart from Tom Cruise and Will Smith, there seem to be very few who can successfully break through and continue their lives. Once the Oscar darlings have reached or are about to reach the 60th mark, suitable roles have also transitioned from middle-aged (white) men to old (white) men.
The new generation of viewers no longer caught cold with them. Seeing that John Travolta, who has been teaching science, has fallen from his own will, Johnny Depp, who has been like a day for decades, can’t support the wall, and Bruce Willis, who can’t be touched, can’t wait to transform into acting when he is young. , But there are still several counterexamples stubbornly paddling against the current.
One is Mel Gibson, who is capable of literary and martial arts, can write and direct, and slowly and steadily climbed the "hacksaw ridge" from the anti-Semitic pit at a rate of one part a year; second, it is easy It is Nicholas Cage who sells himself to pay off his debts.
In 2018, "Mandy" unexpectedly found a catharsis for his magical crazy temperament in the field of B-level films. From warmth and blood to the bloody face, he couldn't help but make this movie one of the cults of the year in an instant.
The same production company also took advantage of the heat and launched the second bullet of the "Cage Horror Show", "Color of Stars".
【Overview】
Although ranked as one of the greatest classical horror novelists of the 20th century, H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu bizarre novels are inevitably limited by their time. The concepts of “unexplainable horror” and “cruel strange universe” are unparalleled foresight and groundbreaking. However, in the modern context, the Rock’s story that relies on third-party “investigators” lacks sufficient sense of substitution. Lack of comparable readability.
Over the years, the Rock's story has inspired many movies directly or indirectly, and most of them have failed to deal with these issues well. In most cases, Lowe's stories tend to focus on rendering the indescribable, using vague hints to stimulate the reader's imagination-and this is often unrestricted and different from person to person.
In the process of imaging, this is the biggest enemy: when you want to show people a horror experience beyond imagination, it is no longer beyond imagination.
To successfully adapt Rockwell's works, you need to burn a lot of budget to bring the tangible horror to life, or you need an equal amount of imagination to make the movie move in the direction of Rockwell's plan. Therefore, although there are many movies and novels that draw on the elements of the Rock’s story, there are still a handful of truly outstanding Rock’s movies: "Living Corpse" and "Terrorizing Black Hole" can be two examples, and even "The Surface of Black Hole" can be used. For half an example.
【Production】
"The Color of Stars" is naturally not the first alien invasion novel, but its unique setting still has many imitators: such as "Annihilation" in 2018, such as the infamous "Not" in the new version of "Yin Yang Devil" in 2019. All Men". Even "Color of the Stars" itself has directly adapted movies with more than 4 versions, the earliest version appeared in 1965.
The veteran B-rated film director Richard Stanley was famous for his 1990 cult film "Hardware", and he was also notorious for his 1996 "Interceptor". In the new version of "The Color of the Stars", written and directed by him, he modernized the story is not unsuccessful, and more cleverly used the psychedelic elements of cult films to depict the distortion of the spiritual world, restoring Rockwell Very effective in temperament.
In other words, the radio waves are completely aligned.
Unlike "Mandy", which is wild and unrestrained, "Color of Stars", whether it is color scheme or visual effects, obviously needs to be more thoughtful, and complements the soundtrack. The script written by Richard Stanley and Scarlett Amaris is quite minimalist, relying on surreal images to maintain sufficient appeal.
What’s more commendable is that the film not only has the typological elements of modern horror movies (such as "Freak"), but also firmly grasps the essence of Rockwell’s bizarre story: the escalating horror that cannot be dealt with by logic or escaped. .
【Performance】
The former Oscar actor Nicholas Cage has always been known for his high productivity, but since the tax crisis broke out in 2009, the number of film projects he has participated in has skyrocketed, and there will even be six movies starring him in a year. These movies seem to be inexhaustible, but they are already crazy overdrawn in the same genre: not only the quality is worrying, but there is no performance at all.
In this case, a "Mandy" and a "Star Color", on the contrary, made Nicholas Cage, who was abandoned by Hollywood for nearly a decade, miraculously returned to the mainstream vision in self-defeating.
Although not entirely at the center of "Star Color", Nicholas Cage once again offered a particularly interesting show with his sophisticated acting skills. Since the story itself is more decent than "Mandy", Cage's performance is also more acceptable than the nerve knife at that time.
The foundation of "Color of Stars" comes from Lowe's original work, the framework comes from director Richard Stanley, and the personality comes from Nicholas Cage. His mania and excitement in his early years of performance style, in the past ten years of crazy filming, has a remarkable convergence. The role played by Cage after the reduction in energy level is more realistic, rather than from a habitually publicized performer.
Despite this, he was still able to steadily incorporate other actors into his performance space, slowly falling into madness and distortion with him. For fans of Cthulhu mythology, Nicholas Cage is the perfect spokesperson for the loss of san value.
【Summarize】
Although some of the side plots are just too simple, as an attempt by Richard Stanley and Nicholas Cage to return to the mainstream vision, "Color of Stars" did not disappoint. The film is a successful adaptation of Rockwell's strange story. It not only has a modern appearance and narrative methods, but also ensures that the essence of Rockwell's horror is not lost in the process.
The Rock’s story and the myth of Cthulhu have always been a huge challenge for video adaptation: Gilmour del Toro’s "Crazy Mountains", which had been prepared for many years, will inevitably end up with a miscarriage. As a result of the second collaboration between Nicholas Cage and the production company SpectreVision, if they are matched properly-for example, Ilia Wood, one of the producers of "Star Color", will appear as a metamorphosis similar to "Sin City" The killer character-the more heterogeneous "Cage Horror Show" is not a bad idea.
View more about Color Out of Space reviews
