James Cameron famously said: I am an explorer first and a director second. This is very obvious in his films. "Titanic" is an exploration of the seabed, "Avatar" is an exploration of alien planets, and the Terminator series is an exploration of unknown time and space, and the style of exploration is from "Abyss". started. In fact, this style has been around since the beginning of his first fully-dominated film, The Terminator (84), but it wasn't immediately obvious that the film was more about showing the violent abuse of science from a thrilling chase. In the more exciting "Alien 2", this style has been continued, but the exploration is still hidden behind the pursuit.
"Abyss" officially established Cameron's unique style of sci-fi. The terrifying underwater creatures have already appeared. The oil drillers also know that this work is very risky. However, driven by the interests of money, they still choose to go Save the submarine, but during the rescue operation, someone collapsed due to the huge pressure of underwater exploration. And madly wanted to launch nuclear bombs at those creatures. Fortunately, this action was finally stopped, and because Bud disregarded the danger of his life, he also had to dismantle the nuclear bomb. The spirit of sacrifice touched the abyss creatures, making them who originally wanted to destroy human beings gave up this idea. Through exploration, the two cultures were able to meet. In the end, the creatures of the abyss did not destroy human beings because they discovered that there is still love in human beings.
Compared with Cameron's other works, "The Abyss" is far less famous. However, this movie is not as rough in production as the previous Terminator, all the stunts rely on the original technology, such as the actions of the robot T-800 are all done with models. After the success of several films, Cameron has become famous, and he can do his ideal film experiments with confidence and boldness. Therefore, in terms of special effects, this film has played a vital role in the development of special effects technology in film history. It created unprecedented underwater special effects, and used a lot of CGI computer special effects, especially the abyss creatures entered the submarine in a water state. This 75 seconds is a milestone in the history of special effects. Industrial Light and Magic spent six It took months to make this, which included not only the time to operate the computer, but also the time to film the set from different angles over and over again. The effect of a lot of work is amazing, and the spectacle in "Abyss" is still amazing even today. The image of this supernatural creature was upgraded to the liquid metal man T-1000 in the later "Terminator 2". If James Cameron's stunts were still following George Lucas, then starting from this image, he Draw a clear line with all stunt masters and officially establish a school.
James Cameron, who did not go to film school, cannot be compared with Martin Scorsese or Francisco Coppola in terms of film language, but relying on his unique film narrative style and unparalleled imagination, he The status is enough to be equal to the Hollywood king Spielberg.
After watching the movie, I couldn't help but wonder, why is the membership of such a movie that is enough to go down in history? Thinking back on the viewing process, I immediately understand why the film failed. The first half of the film is too long, and there are too many characters. Although the seabed is strange, there is no fierce fighting. What is wonderful is the conflict between cunning and crazy characters. The film was released at the end of the summer season. Among the many exciting and fierce movies, this masterpiece, which takes time to prove its value, is difficult to show. The box office in the early stage was not good, and the distribution in the later stage was not done well. The director's cut version is more lengthy, and it is still difficult for ordinary audiences to accept. Although it was unique even in the 1980s when famous sci-fi masterpieces came out one after another, it is a pity that for one reason or another, this epoch-making sci-fi film did not really succeed. For Cameron, this should be a failed experiment.
He left his better work two years later. In 1991, "Terminator 2" was released. At this year's Oscars, it received seven Oscar nominations and ended up losing five. James Cameron also became the best American in the United States. Charismatic film director.
Now watching this movie, I can't help but sigh that the audience's eyes are not necessarily sharp, time is the real judge. "Abyss" is caught between the time and history, like a powerful depth bomb, but unfortunately he is in There was no real explosion at the time.
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