Chapter 728: An Overrated Work Amid a Carnival of Praise

"I really don't understand why so many people worship Steven Spielberg, going so far as to use words like 'great' to describe such a mediocre director. Schindler's List is a classic example of being overrated; it was obviously shot entirely for the sake of winning awards. Exploiting its subject matter was a major reason for its success. Later on, Spielberg seemed to never tire of this trick, churning out political themes one after another to bewitch the judges of the School Faction. Munich and others like it are all mediocre works of this type..."

"The Terminal and The Adventures of Tintin both prove that he is past his prime, or rather, that he has reverted to his true form. The Adventures of Tintin is his actual level of skill. I've always wondered why he could ever be mentioned in the same breath as Stanley Kubrick. In The Adventures of Tintin, you can see that Spielberg has only scratched the surface of a master..."

These, of course, were not Duke's words to the reporters, but a review criticizing Spielberg that he had read online while on the plane.

In the minds of a small handful of people, Spielberg was definitely inferior to Stanley Kubrick. But in the eyes of most audiences and even the School Faction, Kubrick simply couldn't compare to Spielberg.

This was especially true for the Hollywood film industry.

People who had reached the heights of Duke, James Cameron, and Spielberg did not recklessly attack others. Duke and Spielberg in particular represented interests far more complex than James Cameron did. Even if the two wanted to go head-to-head, they wouldn't just shoot their mouths off.

In fact, running their mouths would be completely useless.

No one who reached this level was a fool. Even if they had started out a bit slow, the long journey would have sharpened them into shrewd operators.

Faced with the reporters' questions regarding Spielberg, Duke naturally had nothing but praise.

"Steven is a true genius and a master," Duke said. "Jaws, which pioneered and established the Hollywood Summer Season, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which created a new style of sci-fi film, are both more than enough to prove his greatness and his importance to the development of the entire Hollywood film industry!"

Although these words weren't entirely sincere, they weren't complete nonsense either. When it came to importance to the entire Hollywood film industry, Spielberg utterly crushed Kubrick. Much like Titanic, very few people within Hollywood circles would ever disparage Spielberg's Jaws, because both had brought groundbreaking new phases of development to Hollywood.

Titanic had knocked open the global market for Hollywood, thoroughly driving the globalization of Hollywood films. Jaws had created Hollywood's Summer Season model, laying the foundation for Hollywood films sweeping the globe later on.

Film critics might look down on these two movies and subject them to cynical mockery, but industry professionals never would.

Duke was one of those professionals.

Upon his arrival in Phoenix, the promotional campaigns for Fury Road were carrying out a concentrated bombardment across America and the entire world. Not only was the film dominating online public opinion, but related reviews and reports had also invaded the prime-time slots of many television channels.

The NBC Television Network's weekend evening program Movie View prominently highlighted this film. It argued that of all the audio-visual language techniques in filmmaking—axis of action, screen direction, dynamic editing, rhythmic pacing, framing design, camera movement, and more—there wasn't a single one that couldn't be found in Fury Road. With so many cars, so many people, and such intense car chases, the action was never unclear or confusing; it flowed flawlessly from start to finish.

The famous morning program Good Morning America interviewed several ordinary moviegoers, asking them to discuss the film's merits from a non-professional perspective.

"There are no melodramatic sex scenes before the big battle. There isn't even any romance."

One fan after another appeared on camera, stating their reasons for liking Fury Road.

"No forced trash talk or melodrama from the main characters right before the final fight."

"No deadweight teammates artificially increasing the difficulty just to make the protagonist look incredible."

"No unscientific, unkillable bodies strolling through a hail of bullets as if walking through a park."

"No exaggerated, physics-defying action scenes. We've had enough of cars crashing into planes and stuff like that!"

"No forced shots of people posing to look cool and acting pretentious."

"No dawdling flashbacks and not even a single line of wasted dialogue. The women aren't forced to drag the team down by freezing up or screaming in emergencies. Everyone is just doing their absolute best to survive..."

"All there is, is pure, unadulterated action! Fight! Fight! Fight! It's a thrill ride from start to finish!"

Fury Road couldn't completely escape its genre, so its audience was ultimately limited. Those who didn't like this style wouldn't force themselves to like it. But the point of the film's promotion was to pique the interest of potential demographics, drawing in as many viewers as possible and getting them to open their wallets.

The online promotions were even more diverse. After years of development, Duke's paid online shills were also able to utilize some highly inventive methods.

For example, several jokes they fabricated about Fury Road were being frantically shared on Instant Sharing.

"After quietly finishing Fury Road, several directors—including Michael Bay, Robert Zemeckis, and Zack Snyder, who always thought they were masters of visual flow—went home, ripped the storyboards for their next films to shreds, worked overtime, and started all over again... Only hall-of-fame masters like James Cameron silently recited in their hearts, 'Respond to all changes by remaining unchanged'..."

"After watching the test screening of Fury Road, Alessandra Ambrosio received a call from Michael Bay, the director she had previously worked with on The Island: 'How's the movie?... I heard you guys shot a lot of car chase scenes. Is it a lot like my style?' The supermodel angel, her face covered in tear streaks, muffled her voice and said, 'The subscriber you have dialed is out of the service area...'"

These were all meant to pique people's interest.

In order to build momentum for the promotional campaign, many things about the film were actually distorted. This was also a customary tactic in Hollywood. Claims that Duke had registered the script as early as 2004, and that the film was the result of five years of hard work, were very commonplace.

Furthermore, in order to distinguish it from modern action films that used CG like crazy, Fury Road constantly used live-action shooting as a gimmick in its promotions.

In truth, Duke had never been opposed to CG technology, and the film's original director from his past life was no exception. Just like George Miller, Duke used nearly two thousand CG-composited shots in the final cut of Fury Road.

But exactly as Warner Brothers had advertised, this was a live-action film, and this gimmick attracted quite a few viewers.

Making fake things sound incredibly real during film promotion was a tactic used by the film industry all over the world.

The entire cast and crew of Fury Road had long since reached a tacit understanding on this.

When Duke was interviewed and asked about Charlize Theron's look, he absolutely refused to mention that it was his own idea, instead attributing it to Charlize, who was more likely to attract attention.

"I remember when Sally first got the script, she repeatedly analyzed the character," he said. "She always felt something was off, until she finally had a sudden realization. She told me she wanted to appear on screen with short hair to further strip away the physical sense of gender. Naturally, I agreed, and only then did we get the epic-level Furiosa we see today!"

Duke didn't even need to prepare a script to spout these words. "Charlize Theron has brought a fierce heroic wind to this summer. When those bright, gleaming eyes of hers look right at you through the lens, you can't help but be drawn in. And what's even more fascinating than this physical charm is the power of wisdom, courage, and love she radiates through her character in the film!"

This was a role that was very likely to make waves during the awards season as well, and Duke didn't mind offering Charlize Theron a few words of flattery.

For any movie, there would be people praising it, and similarly, there would be people criticizing it.

The Washington Post, which had always been somewhat at odds with Duke, published a related review in a prominent position in its Sunday special edition.

"Fury Road: An Overrated Work Amid a Carnival of Praise!"

This review employed the tactic of praising first before criticizing. It started by commending the film's action choreography, arguing that keeping all the action sequences constantly in motion heightened the tension for the viewer. But it deemed every other technique in the film to be unacceptable.

"Displaying a large number of mutants and disfigured faces is a customary tactic in many similar B-movies, and we see these elements in this film as well—such as the dwarf in charge of keeping watch, and the completely pale, chalk-white enemy soldiers. Fury Road is, at best, a heavily invested B-movie!"

The Washington Post also rebutted the views of many media outlets who wildly praised Fury Road as a milestone in the action genre.

"Fury Road, which is nothing but mindless thrills, doesn't actually contribute much to revolutionizing the action movie system. The excessively bright color palette and the heavy use of undercranking are all aimed at undermining the film's seriousness. Especially when fast-forwarded shots continuously wash over the audience's eyeballs, it's like the film is telling you: this movie is just a purely mindless B-movie, so don't think too much, just sit there and enjoy the ride!"

However, this report was completely powerless to stop Fury Road's word-of-mouth from spreading like crazy. Over the course of more than two days of public screening, its IMDB rating soared to 9.8, surpassing The Dark Knight in one fell swoop to temporarily take the number one spot.

Although it wouldn't hold this position for long, it was more than enough to prove that a massive number of people loved the movie.

In CinemaScore's statistics, the positive rating among theatergoers reached a staggering ninety-two percent, with an average audience grade of "A+". On MetaCritic, 55 media journalists gave it an ultra-high score of 97.

These were all guarantees that the film would be a box office hit. Even as an R-Rated Film, after a series of feverish promotional pushes, Fury Road still achieved an impressive 26.37 million dollars on its second day of screening in North America.

Compared to Fury Road's upward surge, The Adventures of Tintin, which was released during the same period, actually experienced a decline due to poor audience reception, taking in only 3.89 million dollars on Saturday alone.

Fury Road enjoyed an enthusiastic market response, but the media and fans frequently comparing it to other car-centric films also plucked at the sensitive nerves of certain individuals.