Shanghai Fortress (2019)

Finally, I watch Shanghai Fortress. The movie, which received so many poor and negative feedback from the viewer including its’ Director himself, Mr. Teng Huatao.
As I watch this movie, well, let me spell out here….. OMG Teng Huatao how can this movie failed because LUHAN? You must be crazy!! You out of your mind man!!
Now, I kind off agreed with some comments earlier from viewers from various article since this movie came out. This movie is a flop based on my review and comment! No offence to anybody, just an honest comments.
1. Opening of this movie, The Director too eager, to show-off his first time sci-fic movie. Rushing until we do not know what is happening and what? This movie supposed to be Sic-fic/Romance right? What is going on here? OMG!!
2. Yes very true the storyline is totally poor, this I must say. OMG! What a waste.
3. The Sci-fic that Teng Huatao trying to present …. Totally nothing special. Anything and everything in this movie, seen in other movie before. Bottom line… nothing to shout about. OMG terrible project you did Teng Huatao.
My question here, on whatever reason, this movie flop because of Luhan? OMG totally nothing to do with him. Totally nothing. Wake up Teng Huatao.
Let me re-cap, back in August 20, 2019. Based in one article with the headline, “Shanghai Fortress” Director Under Fire for Throwing Luhan Under The Bus”. In this article, during Teng Huatao earlier interview, he commented about one of the reason why his movie fail is because Luhan and because of this, Luhan’s fan get upset. I’m not so his fan but YES I’M UPSET TOO!! OMG. In this article, Teng Huatao commented earlier (in some other article & said):
1. He had no comment on Luhan’s acting skills. However, he also said this, “But I overlooked in difference in actor types. I used Luhan wrongly in a role wasn’t suitable for him”.

My comment: If Luhan not suitable than who suitable? Arnold Schwarzeneggar? OMG, Teng Huatao, in your movie, Luhan’s character is a 20 years old college student, who falls for an older woman. What you talking about! What about Shu Qi? She do not even have a leadership or charismatic character in her. There are tans of charismatic female actress out there and why her? OMG Teng Huatao, you blind.

2. Also pointed out Luhan’s styling in the movie might have also contributed to the poor ratings.

My comment: OMG WHAT!! You are the director of this movie, you should know this better than anybody else. But anybody never comment about Shu Qi styling? As a high rank officer, while on duty, she let go off her hair freely? Why? Why no comment about this?

3. He also clarified that Luhan’s salary for this movie wasn’t high, shooting down rumors that he had accepted the role based on his high paycheck.

My comment: This, Teng Huatao, I can say just stop the crap. Luhan is an Idol and he has so many fans in China, Korea and almost everywhere in this world. Teng Huatao, stop joking if you do not know how.
Conclusion:
1. The movie fail totally because of TENG HUATAO, one and only.
2. The movie is such a boring movie. Rating for the movie, I give 2 out of 5.
3. Rating for Luhan’s acting & facial expression, I give 5 out of 5. Because, I can see his improvement in expressing his facial compare to his other dramas & movies before. Other Directors out there, you can cast Luhan on a Romantic movie or drama after this, and I can guaranty your BOX will explode.
4. As for Teng Huatao, I’ve no comment for you except you can start planning for your retirement in this industry and maybe you attend night class and learn on basic moral education as I notice that you can’t excepted your failure.

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" Shanghai Fortress " was for sure not a memorable movie. Even having watched it two nights ago, I can't even recall the actual point of this movie.

The movie had a weak plot. The whole romance was just boring and it didn't add anyting exciting to the plot, as there was zero development. The friendship betweet the "pilots" was really good and it gave a youthfull spin to the movie. The acting was good as well. In addition, some of the CGI were good, but others were just horrible.

Overall, the story was bad. There was no plot, just a faint idea of where they wanted this movie to go.

So, three out of ten.

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Short Review

I dont know about you guys but, this movie made me cry ugly tears. The plot was amazing, I was confused at first but i got more and more into it. It was literally everything. I'm sure the editing and things for the aliens and stuff, that was AMAZING. Like, look how good of the editing it was, Literally. I didn't expect to cry since i dont watch cry while watching much dramas/movies. This one made me feel some type of way. It was really good. I enjoyed this, i dont know why people gave it bad reviews, everything was amazing. I recommend this to people who like sci-fi, robot, alien things. This movie was amazing. I'd rewatch this again.

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Shanghai Fortress had pretty special effects, but they forgot to show us the most important part about an alien invasion-the aliens!

We are told somehow, somewhere, someway humans found a magical alien crystalline energy source in outer space and it transformed human society. We are told some alien Big Bads decided they wanted it and started attacking the earth. We are told about major cities being devastated world wide. We are told about loving longings between characters. We are told about friendships between characters. Another important thing this movie forgot---showing is more important than telling.

I found it utterly impossible to emotionally connect with any of the characters. Shu Qi is a beautiful and talented actress who was given the job of standing around looking at a monitor and giving orders. The four young pilots featured didn't have enough charisma or meaningful interactions with each other to have me invested in their lives or even remember who they were half the time. The rest of the cast acted in such a reserved manner as to feel almost lifeless.

Much of the CGI was good, even if the part of the alien spaceship they showed looked suspiciously like the ship from Independence Day. Too bad they forgot the part where we were shown what the actual aliens looked like from that movie, to make the battles seem even more personal and real. In Shanghai Fortress with all the amazing weaponry the humans had developed to combat the aliens, I'm at a complete loss why they still fought the alien robots on the ground using ineffective bullet shooting guns. There were several plot developments that made no sense.

Sometimes I can check my brain at the door and just enjoy the ride if the characters are compelling enough but this felt more like a hologram that was all visual with no substance.

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It's a classic, action, propaganda Chinese, well stocked film.
But I watched it with pleasure. I didn't expect nothing more then total destruction in the war with nasty aliens, apocalyptic veduta of Shanghai, extermination of human being, sacrifice and death of friends.
Unexpectedly I was suprised by little, melancholic and sad romance that was written like a poem. I like this elegiac vibe and memories of love, because it shows a bit humanity during the end of the world.

Despite of stereotypes and simple plot you watch this smoothly. Of course it isn'n the great film, but you may enjoy some star battles or love of boy and woman with military uniform.

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My roommate and I have this random fascination with Lu Han ever since watching him and Dilraba on Keep Running, so when she told me that he was in this "end of the world / alien invasion" film on Netflix, of course we had to set aside a night to watch it together. Was is good? Nah. Was it enjoyable? Sure. We will definitely have more inside jokes because of it. I loved how there was a "star" cast with the obvious Luhan but also Qi Shu (the "love interest" of Bruce Willis in the first Transporter movie) who played commander Lin Lan and Godfrey Gao (who of course played the famous Magnus Bane in the 2013 The Mortal Instruments movie) who played Yan Jiannan. And overall, the acting was fine. It was a very patriotic film about people who would die to save their county and even would monologue about their love for Shanghai before they sacrificed themselves. But that is all this movie was; an ode to how much these people had pride in their country.

But there was more to this movie that I disliked more than I liked. At first, we were making jokes about how we thought we were watching a B rated Transformers movie and kept shouting, "where is Michael Bay when you need him?" Also, we kept questioning if the "aliens" were robots themselves or if the aliens created these robots to fight their battles. We kept making One Punch Man references as well as Independence Day references. Asking ourselves if Will Smith would be able to defeat this evil. I think a 6/10 is generous, but it kept us entertained by fueling our jokes.

I thought the romance between Jiang Yang and Lin Lan was super unnecessary especially when they made us think it was one sided the whole movie, until the very end, after the credits, when they decide to show a few clips from before everything happened, showing that there might have been mutual feelings. But that was also the whole movie - they went straight into the action without any background. All I got from it was that there were 4 friends that were on the Grey Eagle team, who really didn't have anything special about them except for working well together. We didn't get any background information about the aliens or how long they've been attacking Earth. Maybe they had no information on them because they were super worried about killing them instead of understanding them. I felt like the writer was very lazy - more focused on the action rather than the story-line. Which made he not really "care" once people that we were introduced to started to die off. The only person that she kind of got to know was Jiang Yang, but it seemed like he had more of an one sided love for Lin Lan that didn't make sense. Or an unhealthy obsession.

Overall, I was confused the whole time, not knowing what the plan and plot was. All I got from this film was that the Shanghai defense team wanted to shoot the alien mothership out of the sky with a huge laser rocket that they had secretly or not secretly created underwater (was not clear whatsoever) which would take all their power (that was coming from whatever underground natural energy source that blue stuff was) which would ultimately make Shanghai cave in on itself. It didn't make sense that the commander of the aliens didn't tell its robot minions to attack the rocket laser as it was the only thing that could defeat them. Also, it didn't make sense that the aliens had such an obsession with Shanghai and didn't move on and then come back after destroying other major cities. They tried to make the ending sentimental and have the people who survived the attack honor the people who had fallen, which yes, was emotional, but after 5 years which took to rebuilt Shanghai, which I thought was still crazy fast, the person/people that survived the final battle thought of a single person instead of honoring the people that they actually fought alongside. The people that ultimately sacrificed themselves to give the survivors a fraction more of a percent of defeating the aliens. Also, one last thought. I never understood the whole, last resort, self destruct button which would reboot the whole system. Like, did no one think that major they could have had a better last resort option before this that would kill less people?? Just saying. Maybe another button that could turn on the backup generators if something crazy would happen? It seemed like a waste to sacrifice so many people in order to turn on a back up generator and also kill a single robot. I don't understand why some people were carrying around a gun that could kill the robot soldier in one blow, while other people were given handguns like that was going to protect them again anything.

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Not a bad film...

It's just not great either. In very basic terms, humanity finds a super amazing energy source but it is slightly unstable. An alien mothership arrives and attacks various places on earth. Shanghai has a huge amount of the energy source underground which gives the city power. The mothership begins attacking Shanghai. A group of 4 friends who were all trained as pilots/soldiers fight for their city. The action and special effects are well done, the acting is really good but there is just something missing for me. Oh and it is super soppy, lots of long glances, pregnant pauses and being upset because someone we cared about died and we didn't get the chance to tell them we cared for them even though we had hundreds of chances! Yeah, that was the most annoying thing about this film, apart from the fact someone who should have been dead at the end wasn't. Not a bad film, I would watch it again but I wouldn't choose to buy it.

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Ceritanya biasa aja, padahal acting para pemain nya bagus. Efek nya juga bagus.
Nonton ini karena ada Lu Han dan Shu Qi dalam satu frame..
Walopun sebener nya gak cocok kalo mereka di jadikan couple, untungnya cerita berkata lain..
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Jujur aja kalo untuk story lebih suka film nya Kriss Wu yang judul nya E***E RAIDER.
Kalo film Lu Han lebih seruan yang main nya sama Yang Mi, tapi aku lupa judulnya apa.. semoga ulasan nya membantu temen2 yang mau nonton film ini. Dan kalo ada yg tidak sependapat, ya silahkan karena selera orang berbeda. Terima kasih

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