CNY holiday period box office
Feb. 1st, 2025 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoIt's not the bitter fight that was 2023, but still a spectacular fight for the box office this year. Very obviously, we have an unequivocal winner emerging in Nezha 2, which has already set world record for single day gross. My google-fu shows that it will also start showing in US theaters starting Feb 13, just in time for Valentines, lol.
The big let down appears to be Creation of the Gods 2, which is not doing so well at the box office, to put it mildly. I remember seeing the first film of this series at the request of my mom, who apparently got recced from her friends circle about it. I remember not being all that excited about it even before going, and my reception to the actual movie kinda meh too. Just searched DW and I didn't even make an entry about it, so yeah, that sounds about right.
IMO, the visuals of the first film already felt too anachronistic/dissonant to me, like it was trying too hard to be a a Hollywood-esque Conan film. Also made me think of other bad impressions like the live action Mulan and such. I mean, successful films like Crouching Tiger, or Hero, also had some westernized cinematic habits, but they also had quintessentially Chinese cores to the story and character design that made it acceptable. Creation of the Gods 1...didn't feel like it had anything that feels like China at all.
And from the reviews I've been following online about Creation 2, it gets worse rather than better. The deity characters are marginalized and/or warped, the protagonists held over from the first film get afflicted plot induced stupidity, the fights unsatisfying, a random love story tacked in... The only thing people have been praising is the new female general character.
But... this IP isn't Mulan. CotG likes to compare itself to LOTR (lol), but I remember watching LOTR Two Towers and people already dissatisfied with the addition of the weird subplot of Aragorn falling off a cliff just to have a dream about Arwen. If they actually made Two Towers centered around a love drama triangle between Aragorn/Eowyn/Arwen, and the actual Battle of Helms Deep into a few CGI army scenes ending with an ambush/duel between Eomer and the Orc boss... Eh, I am pretty sure a good amount of the audience would've rioted.
And it's not even like Feng Sheng Bang doesn't have TV/movie adaptations either! In the centuries since it was written, and all the adaptations since, it's clear who the most popular characters are: Daji (and her Shang king hubby), Jiang Ziya, Shen Gongbao, Nezha, Yang Jian, Huan Feihu, Huan Tianba, etc. Ji Fa is more like scenic wallpaper, not even half as recognizable as his father and brother. People come into this story to see gods fighting, tossing grand magical artifacts around like they're going out of style. Even if you want to bring it more "down to earth", the historical event it's based on is the classic rebellion against tyranny and the transition from a slave-based society (Shang) to the white moonlight of Confucianism (Zhou). But, apparently, this movie series isn't about any of that. So. Eh.
Anyway, so I have a set of 2 free tickets that I can redeem with AMC. I was originally thinking my mom will insist on seeing Creation 2. But now, I am wondering if might not be better to wait and try to convince her to see Nezha 2 instead. I mean, I'll have to get past her "cartoons are for kids" prejudice, but I think it might be doable...As long as her friends circle don't come back with positive reviews for Creation 2. We'll see.
The big let down appears to be Creation of the Gods 2, which is not doing so well at the box office, to put it mildly. I remember seeing the first film of this series at the request of my mom, who apparently got recced from her friends circle about it. I remember not being all that excited about it even before going, and my reception to the actual movie kinda meh too. Just searched DW and I didn't even make an entry about it, so yeah, that sounds about right.
IMO, the visuals of the first film already felt too anachronistic/dissonant to me, like it was trying too hard to be a a Hollywood-esque Conan film. Also made me think of other bad impressions like the live action Mulan and such. I mean, successful films like Crouching Tiger, or Hero, also had some westernized cinematic habits, but they also had quintessentially Chinese cores to the story and character design that made it acceptable. Creation of the Gods 1...didn't feel like it had anything that feels like China at all.
And from the reviews I've been following online about Creation 2, it gets worse rather than better. The deity characters are marginalized and/or warped, the protagonists held over from the first film get afflicted plot induced stupidity, the fights unsatisfying, a random love story tacked in... The only thing people have been praising is the new female general character.
But... this IP isn't Mulan. CotG likes to compare itself to LOTR (lol), but I remember watching LOTR Two Towers and people already dissatisfied with the addition of the weird subplot of Aragorn falling off a cliff just to have a dream about Arwen. If they actually made Two Towers centered around a love drama triangle between Aragorn/Eowyn/Arwen, and the actual Battle of Helms Deep into a few CGI army scenes ending with an ambush/duel between Eomer and the Orc boss... Eh, I am pretty sure a good amount of the audience would've rioted.
And it's not even like Feng Sheng Bang doesn't have TV/movie adaptations either! In the centuries since it was written, and all the adaptations since, it's clear who the most popular characters are: Daji (and her Shang king hubby), Jiang Ziya, Shen Gongbao, Nezha, Yang Jian, Huan Feihu, Huan Tianba, etc. Ji Fa is more like scenic wallpaper, not even half as recognizable as his father and brother. People come into this story to see gods fighting, tossing grand magical artifacts around like they're going out of style. Even if you want to bring it more "down to earth", the historical event it's based on is the classic rebellion against tyranny and the transition from a slave-based society (Shang) to the white moonlight of Confucianism (Zhou). But, apparently, this movie series isn't about any of that. So. Eh.
Anyway, so I have a set of 2 free tickets that I can redeem with AMC. I was originally thinking my mom will insist on seeing Creation 2. But now, I am wondering if might not be better to wait and try to convince her to see Nezha 2 instead. I mean, I'll have to get past her "cartoons are for kids" prejudice, but I think it might be doable...As long as her friends circle don't come back with positive reviews for Creation 2. We'll see.
