King of Hollywood
Chapter 515 - 236: Praised Enthusiastically

Chapter 515: Chapter 236: Praised Enthusiastically

After the thrilling opening had passed, the plot soon entered a relatively peaceful phase, yet still continued to be filled with suspense. Why were the agents looking for Anderson? Merely because he was a hacker? Why were the other hackers also seeking Anderson? What did Trinity mean by what she said to Anderson at the bar? Was the bug that the agents planted in Anderson’s navel real?

All of this intrigued the audience to keep watching. When Anderson was about to leave Trinity’s car under threat, Adrian even clearly heard the word "no." The plot had clearly grasped the audience’s hearts. Interestingly, when Aniston appeared, almost no one noticed, although this was partly because of the ugly makeup she wore; her on-point acting was another reason.

With nearly white short hair, a slightly collapsed nose, downward pulling eyelids, a gloomy and somewhat defiant look as if she was displeased with everyone—without close observation, one would never associate her with Rachel Green from "Friends." It was no surprise, however, that the shot initially took nearly 50 takes to perfect, and Adrian didn’t hesitate to offer criticism. Aniston wanted to change the fixed image brought by "Friends," and enduring hardships was part of the process.

Of course, Aniston never complained about anything. Adrian’s well-established reputation had proven that his views were almost never wrong, especially at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where the unknown Naomi Watts became a sensation due to a movie, which added a lot of persuasive power. Every aspiring actress in Hollywood, who wished to speak a word with the Miracle Director, confirmed this point.

Now it was proven, Aniston’s appearance didn’t cause much reaction, but for an actress about to be typecast, this lack of reaction was rather encouraging.

Alright, leaving that aside for now, the plot continued to evolve, and Anderson finally met Morpheus— the tall black man with reflective sunglasses just oozed coolness. After their cryptic conversation, they began to transition into the real world. When Anderson struggled out from the battery membrane, the vast "field" that unfolded shocked many, and the gasps in the theater were continuous.

Different from the original, Adrian made this production even more exquisite and grand, accompanied by majestic and somber music. At a glance, the shocking sensation was spot on. This segment of footage relied entirely on CG, making it relatively easy to produce; in simple terms, as long as there was enough funding, the special effects team could create scenes almost indistinguishable from reality.

The original version could not be sure if there was a market, so not much funding was put in, but this wasn’t a problem for Adrian. With memories for reference, he could invest more on a suitable basis!

Following that, there were more shocking scenes. The entirely different cool depreciating Morpheus and others, the chilly sensation specific to steel from the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar, and... the truth of the world! Although the gasps in the hall had lessened quite a bit after Anderson, or rather Neo, exited the program, it’s believed many were as dizzy and unable to accept reality as Neo was—humans had actually become slaves to machines, serving as both batteries and CPUs!

Adrian made changes here; the rationality of humans serving as batteries was frankly... too low. Although movies sometimes don’t need much rationality, it wouldn’t be appropriate if it was too low. This was, after all, a science-fiction movie, which at least had to seem sound on the surface. So, Adrian added the function of CPUs, and detailed explanations were included in the novel version, making it much more rational than the battery concept.

Next, the most exciting scene was about to play out, that being Neo’s showdown with Morpheus. Although Hong Kong movies still had a market in North America, not many watched them, and Americans were notoriously insular. Take "The Professional" for example; since its original version had a French director, despite having American funding, its North American box office was rather unsatisfactory, though it was quite popular in Europe. With Adrian stepping in, the situation turned around, enjoying much more popularity in North America than in Europe.

This was essentially the first time that kung fu was showcased to more Americans, and Adrian entrusted this segment of the fight entirely to Yuan Heping. Even though the punches grew faster towards the end, they lacked the original version’s sudden unreal flurry of blows; each punch felt very realistic yet dizzyingly fast and remarkably outstanding. Even Adrian, during a preview, couldn’t help but applaud and praise it, let alone the current audience. One just wonders whether Jackie Chan and Jet Li felt as if they had been transported into the film upon seeing this.

After a spirited fight, the plot temporarily returned to calm. This continual rise and fall, the narration with its little climaxes further seized the audience’s hearts. Next naturally was the meeting with the Prophet, followed by Seaver’s betrayal, and Morpheus fighting Smith recklessly to save Neo.

Here, there is a slight difference: the character Belinda, played by Aniston, originally died a suffocating death. She was unplugged without doing anything, so in this version, they arranged for her to draw the police’s attention in an underground parking garage to cover for Trinity, Neo, and others to escape smoothly.

"Are you sure?" Belinda on the screen asked Trinity with utmost seriousness.

"Yes," Trinity nodded earnestly, knowing exactly what she was asking.

"Take him away!" Belinda said succinctly, then pulled out her double guns and started shooting at the police while heading in the opposite direction. Her white trench coat fluttered in the wind, portraying an undeniable resolve. Of course, lacking sufficient firepower, she ultimately died like a small mouse in a barrage of bullets, giving a sense of heroism.

A low murmur of surprise finally arose among the audience, since the character had been shaking about on the screen for a long while, and a close-up was given, making it a disservice to Rachel Green from "Friends" if she weren’t recognized.

Frankly speaking, this was entirely an unintended effect, as Adrian initially intended to shoot this sequence following the original script. However, the issue here required some acting prowess. Knowing she would probably die from being unplugged, Belinda had to look at Neo and Trinity with an immensely complex gaze, showing a mix of despair and defiance on her face. Aniston tried many times but couldn’t pass the mark, so Adrian simply changed the script. Now, it seemed that this change was not bad at all.

After this storyline passed, the climax of the movie was forthcoming, accompanied by the iconic line, "Guns! Lots and lots of guns!"

"Cool" was a word fully exemplified in this movie.

Since it was the climax, the action scenes were naturally extraordinary; even though the entire hall battle was in slow motion, it offered the audience an extremely sharp sensation, causing their hearts to surge. Following that was the much-acclaimed "bullet time," a 360° full display that gave the entire scene a tremendous impact with continuous gasps of astonishment.

In fact, even back in the 60s and 70s, "bullet time" already had its initial concept, just that no one had enhanced it to something greater. That nobody could produce better effects was one aspect, and a lack of realization among filmmakers was another.

Through the efforts of Yuan Heping and Hollywood’s special effects team, this effect was perfectly showcased in the movie, allowing Adrian to leave another mark in film history.

What followed need not be said further—rescuing Morpheus—let’s not fuss over why the Gatling gun on the helicopter couldn’t hit the large black man—then escaping the Matrix. Due to an accident, Neo and Smith began their final fight in the subway, these main action scenes were even more spectacular and visually appealing than the original.

In the end, Neo resurrected because of Trinity, saw through the entire virtual world, plunged into Smith’s body to obliterate him, and after declaring war on the Matrix through a phone call, flew off into the sky like Superman, and the movie thus ended.

In the powerful surge of music, the credits rolled to the end, then the lights came on, there was a second of silence, followed by a deafening round of applause, nearly lifting off the ceiling, as the audience looked toward where Adrian was seated, as if failing to do so would not suffice to express their admiration.

Adrian stood up, holding Monica’s hand, smiling and nodding to the people around him, feeling very satisfied. "This is the charm of ’The Matrix’!"

"This is the charm of ’The Matrix’," Adrian showed us a bleak future and described it in an incredibly captivating way that you just can’t stop watching!" — "Variety"

"If I had to describe this movie in one word besides ’cool,’ there wouldn’t be a more fitting word, trench coats, sunglasses, and commanding characters, this is the first time cyberpunk culture has been expressed in this way!" — "USA Today"

"While it is a rich visual feast, the movie’s content is equally hard to ignore, what is real? This is a question worth considering." — "Hollywood Report"

After the premiere, the media was almost unanimously praising it, whether it was the intent or the way it was expressed, all received high acclaim. After all, although this was not the first movie to depict a virtual world or explore what is real, it was the first to tightly integrate these issues with commerce.

"To briefly summarize the plot, it’s about an electronic engineer named Anderson who discovers one day that his world is actually a computer-generated virtual space, and with the help of people who had escaped from here before, he comes to recognize himself and begins to save humanity. This sounds like a very clichéd story, similar to those in the comic books with superheroes, but if you delve deeper, you would find that the movie wants to convey far more than that, just like Morpheus’s phrase, what is real? How do you define reality? Despite centuries of inquiry, there is still no answer.

What this movie does best is that, even if you don’t want to look for these ultimate answers, the audience can still enjoy a visual feast of charismatic character designs and thrilling fight scenes. This is another prime example of art and commerce blended perfectly and truly worthy of the Miracle Director."

The above is a part of Roger Robert’s film review, like ’Mulholland Drive’ in May, full of praise. Other critics felt the same, although they were a bit dissatisfied—because, in conjunction with marketing strategies that required confidentiality, Adrian did not hold previews, naturally, critics did not get a sneak preview.

However, this dissatisfaction did not affect their mood, apart from the film company’s PR, the quality of ’The Matrix’ was also a reason, as Roger Robert said, it is another work where commerce and art are perfectly integrated. Even the critics who opposed for the sake of opposition did not nitpick the plot but targeted the performances of the actors, such as Reeves’s somewhat expressionless face, or Monica being overly sexy and so on.

Interestingly, Aniston received quite a bit of popularity, the "heroic sacrifice" scene received a lot of praise, many ’Friends’ fans couldn’t believe that this quirky character was the cute and playful Rachel.

"It’s unbelievable, I didn’t realize until after watching the movie and seeing the cast list come out, I couldn’t remember at all, and after talking with friends, I realized it was Belinda, that’s incredible! She did a great job!" a fan commented on the ’Friends’ official website.

But many people thought this destroyed the image of Rachel.

"It’s really too bad, I went to see the movie too, honestly, the movie is great, but I can’t accept Jennifer’s image, ugly and gloomy, a bit neurotic, only the final sacrifice was shocking. It’s too far from the image in ’Friends,’ I still prefer the confused and adorable Rachel, God bless, Jennifer shouldn’t take such roles again," wrote a fan.

Two factions fiercely debated the matter, unable to convince each other.

If Aniston’s short-haired policewoman role in "Broken Arrow" still bore traces of Rachel Green, then Belinda’s portrayal in "The Matrix" was entirely different, which is no wonder fans were so excited. As for Aniston herself, she took it in stride.

"I think I should try some completely new roles. Over the years, many directors and producers who approached me wanted a Rachel replica. I love playing Rachel, but it doesn’t mean I should always play that role forever, thanks to Adrian for giving me a chance. I will continue to maintain Rachel’s image in ’Friends’ and try more roles in movies," she stated.

Fortunately, her previous love triangle scandal with Renona and Dennis, and now her frequent public appearances with Dennis as her boyfriend, kept the media from labeling her as the Miracle Girl.

"It’s so unfair," Monica complained, "I’ve been trying so hard to portray Trinity, yet I am not as popular as Jenny and still criticized for being too sexy."

"Pay no attention to that, dear," Adrian comforted her, hugging her and laughing, "Everyone sees how brilliant you are. Stop focusing on the nit-picky criticism. There are many who praise you, right? Especially kung fu enthusiasts. Think about what they say – ’cool but mysteriously charming, irresistibly drawing one into her emotions.’ Can there be better praise than that?" Adrian kept her true thoughts clear, but he avoided voicing them now. He had already prepared a grand surprise for her.

Besides, various items used by the movie’s main characters also became popular, like Ray-Ban sunglasses, Motorola slider phones, and trench coats, etc., the sales of which more than doubled. Soon, Sunset Avenue saw cosplayers taking pictures with tourists, delighting those brands’ representatives who expressed unwavering support for the Miracle Director’s projects in the future.

That’s the advantage of fame. Originally, when "The Matrix" sought their investments, they hesitated a lot and offered low funds. But now, with this version, the moment Adrian reached out, they handed him the checks immediately. Could there be a more profitable venture than investing in the Miracle Director’s commercial films?

It’s a slight pity that Motorola had just launched its slider phone. Had the movie premiered a year later, when the phone’s sales were poor, Motorola would likely have been even more grateful. But it didn’t matter, their gratitude wouldn’t lead them to share more profits with Adrian.

With such rave reviews, the film’s box office was naturally stellar, grossing $55 million in three days in North America by the late ’90s, an impressive figure indeed. Unfortunately, "The Matrix" wasn’t at the top of the box office, as Spielberg’s "Jurassic Park: Lost World" claimed the throne by grossing $89 million in just three days, narrowly missing the $100 million mark.

Similarly, this sci-fi film also received tons of acclaim, naturally popular as the much-anticipated sequel to the record-breaking "Jurassic Park". Thus, in terms of reviews, both movies were neck and neck, with "The Matrix" possibly winning slightly, but "Jurassic Park" decidedly led in box office revenue, meaning Spielberg and DreamWorks won this round.

"It’s okay, it doesn’t matter who wins or loses. After all, we invested in ’Jurassic Park 2’ too," Adrian said to the film company staff.

Adrian, who had presciently secured the initial rights to "Jurassic Park", naturally had the priority for adaptation rights for the second installment, which was a joint investment by Universal, DreamWorks, and Bossworth, and he wasn’t wrong. DreamWorks wouldn’t dare withhold dividends, right?

Since the boss put it that way, the employees didn’t dwell on it, but did "The Matrix" really lose? (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please vote and support at qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation.)