《上海堡垒》 Shanghai Fortress

自称花了5年时间筹备、斥资3.6亿的《上海堡垒》（Shanghai Fortress）自8月9日上映以来票房口碑双双溃败。目前，该片在豆瓣的评分已经降至3.2分。

Shanghai Fortress, which has seen its score falling to 3.2 points out of ten on the reviewing site Douban, has been criticized fiercely online.
《上海堡垒》被网友批得体无完肤。豆瓣评分一路下跌，目前仅3.2分。

8月10日，该片导演滕华涛道歉，称“谢谢所有观众的批评”。

It doesn’t just show dissatisfaction with the film,” Teng wrote. “It also shows a loss of hope in Chinese sci-fi. As the director, I’m inescapably responsible for this, and I’m truly sorry.”
滕华涛写道：这不仅仅是对电影不满意，也是对中国科幻电影的期待落空了。作为导演，我有着不可推卸的责任，真的很抱歉。”

当天下午，《上海堡垒》的原著作者江南致歉称“辜负了你的等待”。

A similar statement on Sina Weibo came from novelist, and the film's scriptwriter, Yang Zhi, better known by his pseudonym Jiang Nan: "To those who don't like the film, I am sorry that it didn't live up to your expectations."
江南在微博中写道：“致歉于那些不喜欢电影的朋友，辜负了你的等待。”

记得年初，《流浪地球》（The Wandering Earth）势如破竹的时候，中国电影人都很兴奋。“中国科幻元年”终于到来的呼声不绝于耳。

《流浪地球》在春节档以黑马姿态呼啸而出成为爆款，有着不少先天优势。而这些《上海堡垒》并不具备。

Here are the elements that paved a solid ground for the soaring success of The Wandering Earth: Director Guo Fan is a diehard sci-fi fan; the script was adapted from top sci-fi novelist Liu Cixin's eponymous work and its lead star, Wu Jing, is a box office draw who mostly plays tough guys on screen, matching the persona of the astronaut who sacrifices his life to save the Earth in the movie. 
《流浪地球》的“原生”优势在于：导演郭帆是铁杆科幻迷；剧本有着“中国当代科幻第一人”刘慈欣的原著托底；主演吴京自《战狼2》后，堪称“票房吉祥物”，而且他的银幕硬汉形象，也和片中殉道式牺牲的宇航员契合。

But The Wandering Earth has become a game changer, making people highly anticipate Shanghai Fortress, which was produced almost in the same time period as The Wandering Earth. And, the creators behind Shanghai Fortress had worked hard.
《上海堡垒》从选角到拍摄，其实和《流浪地球》差不多同时期。这部在网上口碑饱受争议的影片据说也是努力过的。

导演滕华涛是一位以都市爱情片成名的导演，《上海堡垒》是他走出自己舒适区的尝试，但显然他的功力还不够。

He spent six years on the production, with one-and-a-half years on special effects. Teng once said that he believed shooting big-budget films with a lot of visual effects will be the mainstream in the future, so he wanted to be on board. However, he is obviously incompetent.
他用了六年制作，一年半花在特效上。他曾经表示，视觉特效丰富的大成本影片未来有可能成为全球电影市场的“主流”，他希望自己也能成为这股“洪流”的一部分。然而，他显然功力不够。

《上海堡垒》的问题，还在于根上。

原著的故事设定于2009年，外星人要大举进攻地球，上海是人类唯一的希望，而这只是营造一个乱世的背景。

In the original story, the protagonist, Jiang Yang, who is played by Lu, and Lin Lan, played by Shu, are respectively 22 and 23 years old. This age gap makes it easier to shape a convincing romance. But Lu is 14 years younger than Shu, and both fail to create appealing chemistry on the big screen.
原著中，男女主人公江洋和林澜的年龄设定，分别是22岁和23岁。这样的年龄差，是可以让人信服他们之间的朦胧爱意。但差了14岁的鹿晗和舒淇，却无论如何撑不起这样的银幕CP感。

至于特效，滕导或许是尽力了，但效果还是有些平淡无奇。

Considering there have already been so many excellent Hollywood films depicting alien creatures, it's easy to understand why Chinese audiences are not satisfied with the look of the hunters from the Delta civilization in Shanghai Fortress.
在内地观众被好莱坞科幻大片熏陶了这么多年之后，什么样的外星怪物没见过。《上海堡垒》中“德尔达文明”捕食者们的造型和作战方式，还真是有点平平无奇。

科幻片可以这样拍么？不是不可以。但《上海堡垒》却没能用科幻的概念，撑起一个乱世中难以保全的爱情。

Actually, there are two main subgenres of sci-fi productions, respectively dubbed soft sci-fi and hard sci-fi. A love story can shape a wonderful sci-fi story, such as The Time Traveler's Wife, but the storyline in Shanghai Fortress — which was supposed to be a heartbreaking romance amid turbulence — is told in a poorly made narrative, failing to touch the audience.
本来，科幻就分“软科幻”和“硬科幻”两种。《时间旅行者的妻子》就是一个软科幻爱情故事，令人唏嘘不已。但《上海堡垒》却没能用科幻的概念，撑起一个乱世中难以保全的爱情。