Chapter 40: China's Version of Superman

Outside the Huaying International Cinema, the crowd was in an uproar.

Inside the Huaying International Cinema, more than ten minutes remained before the film screening.

Deng Hairong rushed into the restroom, grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer, and stared fiercely at the bewildered cinema staff member.

"Do we... have anyone making this kind of hand sanitizer? And when did the premiere of 'Superman 2' change to the 'Feihe Cinema'!"

"..."

Under the lights.

The hand sanitizer bottle in his hand bore the poster for 'Superman 2', and beneath the poster, it clearly read: 【Come to Feihe Cinema to watch 'Superman 2'】.

That's wrong!

Damn it!

This isn't 'Superman 2', it's 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2'!

The cinema staff members were stunned, stammering and unable to speak.

Immediately...

With a gloomy expression, Deng Hairong walked toward the toilet seat in the restroom!

Almost every toilet in the restroom had a toilet seat cover hanging on it!

Damn it!

In this scorching heat, who would put a toilet seat cover on!

He lowered his head and looked at a line of text printed around the toilet seat cover.

【Not satisfied enough watching 'Superman 2'? Come to 【Feihe Cinema】 to watch 'Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2'! Punches that hit flesh, an ultimate visual experience!】

???

He then looked at the toilet paper in the restroom...

Seeing these people's madness, even on the toilet paper, these words were printed: 【If you're tired or sleepy, come to 【Feihe Cinema】 to watch 'Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2'!】

At this moment!

He felt his blood pressure skyrocket!

"Get rid of them!"

"Get rid of all these things for me!"

"..."

……………………………………

Five minutes before the premiere of 'Superman 2'!

Fans and media personnel from all walks of life arrived one after another.

Film critic Liu Jiasheng, among these people, walked excitedly into the cinema!

In the thousand-person screening hall, the crowd was immense; various posters and merchandise boards for 'Superman 2' were piled up in prominent screening positions.

In their ears were all sorts of expectations and discussions about 'Superman 2' and its plot!

Just like Liu Jiasheng, they all longed to witness the glory of the 'Superman' series IP once again, and they were even more eager for this 'Superman 2' to bring them visual shock and anticipation!

Watching the excited figures one by one, he took a deep breath, opened his laptop, and on the document, wrote the title draft for 'Superman 2'.

His thoughts returned to thirteen years ago.

That year, 1987, summer, fourteen-year-old him walked into a cinema and, in a state of confusion, saw the premiere of 'Superman', being shocked beyond measure!

That year, in major supermarkets, cabinets, shopping malls, and bookstores across Huaxia, one could see all sorts of comic books about 'Superman 2'; a series of 'Superman' stories seemed to have opened the door to a new world for him overnight...

That year, 'Superman 1' made everyone believe, "Humans can fly too!"

Thirteen years later, by a stroke of fate, he joined the media industry and became the chief film critic for the magazine 'Global Cinema'.

Over these years, he had watched countless movies, but no movie could ever bring him the shock and excitement like the former 'Superman' series did.

He sat in the back row, staring at the large screen about to begin.

At this moment, he could no longer suppress his excited emotions; his hands trembled slightly.

To make himself calmer and more objective in describing this film, he took a deep breath, casually picked up a bottle of mineral water placed nearby, took a small sip, and only then felt slightly relieved.

Wait!

Subconsciously, he stared at the cover on the mineral water bottle!

He saw that the 'Superman 2' on the mineral water bottle seemed a bit off!

Immediately...

His eyes widened!

It wasn't 'Superman 2', but 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2'...

Is the organizer so careless?

When he looked carefully again, he saw a set of words glaringly on the mineral water bottle!

【Come to 【Feihe Cinema】 to watch 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2'】

【【Feihe Cinema】, the global simultaneous premiere cinema for 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2'!】

???

Seeing this scene, he suddenly began to doubt life itself.

Disbelieving, he carefully looked at the 'Superman 2' movie ticket in his hand.

It was indeed 【Huaying International Cinema】!

Wait, where did this 【Feihe Cinema】 come from?

"Sorry!"

"Sorry, let's swap the bottles!"

"Sorry..."

"Staff mistake..."

Just as he felt somewhat bewildered, the staff at the nearby cinema suddenly turned pale and hurried over, exchanging their bottles with them one by one using the latest bottled water...

Just as he felt somewhat bewildered...

The screen ahead lit up!

The entire screening hall instantly fell silent!

His spirits lifted!

Without thinking much, he stared tightly at the big screen.

The premiere of "Superman 2" had begun!

Perhaps because the original "Superman 1" was simply too successful, the sequel "Superman 2" was inherently difficult to make; or perhaps he had grown up, watched more movies, and his aesthetic standards had risen.

Half an hour later, the expectation in Liu Jiasheng's eyes, which had been eager to find that same shock from the movie "Superman 2," gradually vanished.

"Superman 2" continued the plot of "Superman 1."

【A new villain invaded Earth; Superman, who intended to save the world, lost his superpowers due to some unforeseen circumstances and became an ordinary human...】

For the first half hour, it kept describing how powerful this villain was, how aggrieved Superman was, and how difficult the world was...

After watching for half an hour, the grand scenes and punch-to-flesh visuals he longed to see were completely absent; for thirty minutes, the protagonist was like a marginal character, constantly suppressed in power...

This is the movie made with a budget of 180 million US dollars?

Liu Jiasheng was stunned!

However, thinking of the previous reputation of "Superman," Liu Jiasheng ultimately continued to watch seriously.

After watching for nearly an hour, he finally saw the aggrieved Superman, through various efforts, regain his superpowers!

Just as Liu Jiasheng thought Superman was finally about to unleash his power...

Those big villains suddenly kidnapped Superman's girlfriend; then, to save her, Superman was forced to endure all kinds of humiliation, making Liu Jiasheng so aggrieved he wanted to curse his mother!

You, a Superman, being stepped on the head by human villains like this?

Where is your super speed?

Where is your flight?

Where is your laser beams?

The plot setting was already somewhat unreasonable; not to say the power system collapsed, but it was completely suppressing the power level!

After nearly an hour and a half, the movie finally began to have some climax, and some epic special effects appeared...

But...

Liu Jiasheng, who had seen the grand scenes of "Superman 1" like carrying an airplane and saving a fire truck, watched Superman fighting in the high sky in "Superman 2"; although the special effects looked incredibly explosive and stimulated the senses for a time, compared to "Superman 1," this "Superman 2" added countless fight scenes that looked very poor, displayed more violent elements, yet completely lacked the solid feel of punch-to-flesh...

The pacing was so sluggish; the process where Superman agreed to give up his powers was unexpectedly decisive; the female lead was completely dead weight; on one side, the world was ending, while on the other, she was acting out a suicide attempt by jumping off a building, recklessly crashing into a fruit stall, creating such stupidity that it made one's blood pressure spike just through the screen...

It felt like being aggrieved for a long time, about to feel satisfied, but then seeing the AVI plot where the female lead turned into an old lady, instantly causing a feeling of impotence!

Liu Jiasheng took a deep breath!

Greatly disappointed in his heart!

This movie, apart from having awesome special effects, had a plot that could be said to be worthless, completely lacking the shock "Superman 1" gave him!

Even!

After watching it...

He vaguely had a bad premonition!

After the premiere of "Superman 2" ended...

Under the promotion and hype of the media, Deng Hairong accepted a series of interviews and promotional roadshows.

Busy until early morning, he finally returned to the office.

"Mr. Deng, has the box office for 'Superman 2' come out?"

"How much?"

"The opening day box office just broke 15 million..."

"Oh, that's good!"

Seeing this data, Deng Hairong nodded.

In 2003, an opening day box office figure of 15 million was absolutely a huge blockbuster.

"However, there is something I don't know if I should say..."

"Go ahead..."

"Pirated copies of the movie 'Superman 2' have already appeared on the market!" The assistant took a deep breath, his expression gritting his teeth: "Even more despicable than the piracy is that today, a movie titled 'Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2', taking advantage of our 'Superman 2' release, has sold out completely on the pirated market; just today, nearly ten thousand copies were sold!"

"..."

"Riding on our hype is one thing, but the most despicable thing is that the quality of this movie is so poor it's hair-raising, and the pirated movies are even hanging our name 'Zhengban Tiao Ren 2', causing a large number of movie fans to be deceived; some netizens who didn't know the truth, after watching that 'Sun Wukong Battles Superman 2', immediately started cursing our 'Superman 2' to high heaven!"

(Two chapters delivered...)