Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 695 The 2021 Summer Movie Season Begins

On the big screen, the plot of "The Hunger Games" has entered its second half, with the remaining dozen or so contestants forming teams in twos and threes, each using their own methods to strive for the final victory.

In this process, besides unity and fighting, betrayal and sacrifice are also inevitable.

Like Rue, who was saved by Katniss, who betrayed Katniss and Pitt for her own benefit, leading to Pitt's sacrifice. Katniss was heartbroken and held a simple funeral for Pitt, not only setting up wreaths but also singing songs.

The beautiful singing voice spread around the world through the video, touching countless people who supported Katniss with their votes and chart rankings, which made Katniss determined to achieve the final victory.

Thus, Katniss, driven to vengeance by the death of her companion, used her superb archery skills and the trap-setting techniques she learned from her teacher to wage guerrilla warfare in the jungle, eliminating several enemies in succession.

Katniss's formidable strength made even the teams of contestants with powerful connections wary. They devised a plan to lure Katniss into a trap by offering her allegiance to Rue.

After all, they knew that Rue's betrayal led to Pitt's death, and Katniss must hate her to death.

However, in front of countless viewers, Katniss displayed her superb tactical skills, using a clever counter-strategy and a diversionary tactic to eliminate two members of the enemy team.

Clearly, Katniss wasn't just suppressing her desire for revenge; she had made up her mind not to let any enemy get away. So, when facing an enemy, it didn't matter who she killed; it wasn't necessary to kill Rue first.

In this situation, the second-generation team came up with another plan. This time, they went directly to the burial site of Pete and prepared to use Pete's body to threaten Katniss.

This move can be described as extremely ruthless, because if Katniss disregards Pitt's body and acts too cold-bloodedly, her image in the eyes of the audience will be greatly diminished.

To their surprise, after all the hard work of digging Pete's grave, even though the pit was a meter deep, they still couldn't find Pete's body.

Just as they were wondering if they had dug in the wrong place, a sharp arrow pierced the air and pierced the eye socket of one of the men in the group.

Enemy attack!

It turned out that Katniss had been lying in ambush in the surrounding woods while they were digging the grave, waiting for them to exhaust themselves before launching a surprise attack.

The effect was remarkable. The group had already exhausted a lot of energy, and when they were suddenly attacked, they were thrown into chaos. Some of them even ran away and disappeared into the woods.

"idiot!"

Tony, the leader of the rich second-generation team, cursed loudly, and the next second, several screams came from the jungle. It was clear that the people who had just fled into the woods were in grave danger.

This calmed down the few remaining members of the rich kid team, and they began a final battle with Katniss in the forest. During this process, another of Katniss's trump cards was revealed: Pete was actually still alive.

Rue did injure Pete, but Katniss's wilderness survival experience allowed her to find special herbs that stabilized Pete's condition. However, Katniss also took the opportunity to fake Pete's death to mislead those watching their every move via live stream, and then have these people pass on the message to the rich kid's team, thus misleading them.

Katniss's method proved to be very effective. In the end, she and Pete teamed up and used the poison bees to defeat Tony, the last remaining member of the rich kid team.

Just as the competition was nearing its end and the two were preparing to claim their victory, the organizers suddenly revoked the rule that "both can win," requiring only one of them to survive.

In this situation, Katniss, unwilling to fight Peeta to the death, suggested that the two of them eat the poisonous "Nightlock" berries in the arena together to "die together" in order to fight against the organizers' manipulation, and Pete readily agreed.

"You saved my life, so you can do whatever you want!"

Seeing that the two were truly prepared to die together, the organizers, in order to avoid the competition becoming a joke due to the lack of a winner, were forced to change the rules again and declare Katniss and Peeta as the joint winners of this year's Hunger Games.

At the end of the story, Kate takes her sister and mother to Paradise Island, a place built by the tournament organizers for the winners of the Hunger Games. Her sister's illness is cured, and they will live there until an alien invasion. She and her children will then be eligible to take refuge in an underground base.

As for Pitt, after supporting each other through life-or-death battles, his relationship with Katniss has become more complicated and subtle, evolving from a fake romantic relationship at the beginning.

However, Katniss did not choose to take things further with Pitt at the end of the movie, and Pitt did not choose to stay on Paradise Island, which foreshadowed the later story.

Overall, the story of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay" largely follows the plot of the original novel, with only major changes made to the story's setting, which generally satisfies book fans.

Especially the first post-credits scene, which clearly relates to "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," and it's obvious that the second film will follow the original story. This puts book fans and original book lovers at least in the know that the film team respects the original work and knows what the audience likes to see.

As for the second post-credits scene in "The Hunger Games," it likely involves another film, but is also related to "The Hunger Games."

The Easter egg shows a group of men and women sitting on several large engineering vehicles that resemble tunnel boring machines, each with a huge drill bit in front.

Immediately afterwards, these tunneling vehicles plunged straight into the ground, seemingly heading straight down into the earth. Behind them, more engineers were helping to reinforce the huge holes that had been excavated.

With this, the film "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" officially came to an end. Its release, which grossed 310 million yuan on its opening day in China, also marked the beginning of the 2021 summer movie season.

Moreover, although the opening day box office of 310 million RMB is not particularly impressive in the current history of Chinese films, the main audience of "The Hunger Games" is not domestic audiences.

While it only grossed 3.1 million RMB in China, it already grossed 1.1 million USD on its opening day in Europe and America.

Furthermore, after its overseas release, the film not only achieved impressive box office results but also received excellent reviews. There is almost no doubt that the film's subsequent box office performance will be very promising.

Indeed, on the second and third days after its release, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire's daily box office performance in mainland China fluctuated slightly, while its overseas box office performance saw a small increase.

Based on its box office performance in the first three days, the film's global box office is estimated to exceed $10 billion.

This number could potentially place it among the top 50 global box office earners.

However, The Hunger Games 1 was not without its competitors during this release window.

Shortly after its release, on May 21, 2021, another sequel to a well-known Hollywood franchise, *Fast & Furious 9*, joined the summer box office battle. As the ninth installment in the *Fast & Furious* series, it was again distributed by Universal Pictures, directed by Justin Lin, and starred the original cast including Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Tyrese Gibson.

The film picks up where the previous one left off, continuing the story of "Dominic" Dominic.

Dominic and Letty, who had already retired, returned to the entertainment industry at the invitation of an old friend, and unexpectedly encountered Jacob, their long-lost brother.

Revolving around two mysterious semi-circular keys and a plan targeting global military satellites and weapons of mass destruction, Dominic and his companions form a special agent team. Under the guidance and scheme of Mr. Anonymous, they embark on a journey to stop Jacob and the forces behind him.

Well, although the film was shot on location all over the world, making the visuals stunning, the special effects and car chase scenes were exaggerated enough, and the plot of brothers competing, supporting, splitting up, and finally reconciling was also very touching.

but!

With the Fast & Furious series now at its ninth installment, the plot of the movies has really run out of things to tell. It's just rehashing old ideas, so the storyline of this movie isn't very appealing.

Secondly, the film's director and screenwriter clearly had to consider too many other elements, and didn't pay enough attention to the details of this scene. The performances of the two muscular men who were the main characters were also not very profound, making it difficult to evoke emotional resonance from the audience.

So it was almost obvious to the naked eye that the film's box office performance was not very good.

On its opening day, Fast & Furious 9 grossed 360 million yuan in China, slightly ahead of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, mainly due to its more elaborate special effects.

However, on the following two days, the box office of "Fast & Furious 9" in mainland China began to drop sharply.

This situation is also the same in overseas film markets.

According to a film critic on an overseas film review website, unless the sequel to this series involves time travel, it is difficult to predict how this series will surpass itself.

Just as "The Hunger Games" and "Fast & Furious 9" were locked in a fierce battle, June arrived.

With the arrival of summer and the scorching temperatures, the competition for the entire summer movie season will undoubtedly become extremely fierce, especially with the start of summer vacation for students.

On Friday, June 11, Wang Hao's new film "Game Era 2" finally premiered, officially joining the competition for the summer movie season.

Although it's called "Game Era 2", this movie should actually be called "Game Era 1 (Part 2)" because it was filmed together with the first one, and the separation between the two movies is not so obvious.

In the previous movie, the male protagonist Xia Feng lost his memory in a virtual game and became an "idiot." He then became involved in the journey of the Holy Maiden of the Sun Church of Egypt to the east to exchange scriptures, the impending war between Western Xia, Jin, and Song, and Xia Feng's search for his true identity in reality.

However, in "Game Era 1", these three events occurred in parallel, leaving many unanswered questions.

In this game, "Game Era 2", the three main storylines from the beginning gradually converge.

Despite many viewers complaining that "Game Era 1" was a long trailer, it didn't stop them from being curious about "Game Era 2".

The movie opens with what is known as a grand spectacle.

After the opening animation and the dragon logo finished playing, accompanied by the "whoosh" of arrows piercing the air, a dense rain of arrows was launched towards the audience in front of the big screen.

In a 3D cinema, the visuals would be even more realistic, but even in a giant screen theater, the immersive experience is sufficient.

At least when the audience saw this scene, they almost all felt the urgency of the situation that the male protagonist Xia Feng (played by Gao Weiguang) was facing at that moment.

The film's story clearly picks up where the first movie left off. Xia Feng and Tony, along with the saintess Daisy (Ellie Fanning), successfully escaped the capital of the Great Jin Kingdom and, with the help of the Khitan people of the "Sirius Society," evaded their pursuers.

However, the combination of two white men and one Song man was indeed conspicuous enough that when they fled to the Southern Song territory, they inevitably attracted the attention of the Jin soldiers, who suspected them of being Song spies.

The opening scene of "Game Era 2" is just like this: Xia Feng and his two companions are being chased by a small number of Jin cavalry.

In this process, Xia Feng fully demonstrated his importance as the male protagonist, using his superb kung fu and archery skills, along with various tactical thinking, to kill and wound many pursuers.

This situation is quite similar to the predicament faced by the male protagonist Xia Feng in the desert in the previous movie.

Similar scenes, coupled with a tense atmosphere, quickly evoked memories for viewers who had seen the previous film, drawing them into the story and making them deeply immersed in it.

However, unlike the previous encounter with the desert bandits known as "A Gust of Wind," this time Xia Feng and his companions faced soldiers from the Jin Kingdom.

Although the fighting capacity and discipline of Jin soldiers had declined significantly due to the long period of peace after the founding of the state, professional soldiers were still someone that bandits could not easily exploit.

Therefore, even though the number of pursuers was less than that of the "One Gust of Wind" bandits, Xia Feng and his men still found it much more difficult to deal with them.

"Let's go separately!"

Ultimately, Xia Feng made a decision: Tony would take Saintess Deslie to the Song Kingdom first, while he would stay behind to cover the retreat and draw away the pursuers.

They agreed to meet in Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, because that was the place where the Sun Sect and Taoism had agreed to exchange scriptures.

The three parted ways. Tony and Saint Deslie quickly disappeared into the distance, while Xia Feng deliberately created a maze to lure away the pursuers. In the end, amidst a hail of arrows from the Jin soldiers, he escaped by jumping into the river and using water escape techniques.

This brief scene creates a tense and exciting atmosphere, drawing the audience into the film's story. Through the words of Xia Feng, Tony, and Saint Deslie, it also briefly summarizes the key plot points of the previous film, preventing viewers unfamiliar with the original from getting confused.

After this part of the story finished, the title "Game Era 2" was displayed on the big screen.

(End of this chapter)