This year, Emma Watson starred in Alice in Wonderland, working alongside Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Anne Hathaway.
It was also a 3D film. After Avatar sparked a 3D craze, Alice in Wonderland became the second film to boldly embrace the format.
The film performed very well. Its North American box office reached $286 million, and its global box office totaled $839 million, achieving a massive financial success.
The film's impressive box office once again drove film companies to produce 3D movies, and it was clear that in the following period, 3D films would emerge like mushrooms after the rain.
Emma Watson also completed a glamorous transformation with this film, essentially freeing herself from the shadow of Hermione in the Harry Potter series.
Among the "Gryffindor Big Three," her future and career prospects were the brightest and most promising.
This also made Emma Watson once again appreciate her own wise decisions. If she hadn't resolutely clung to Gilbert's side, preserving her purity for him, how could she have achieved such a bright future?
In a Hollywood where private lives were often chaotic, Emma Watson's preservation of her virtue even earned her a reputation as a pure and innocent girl, which was genuinely unexpected.
Hollywood stars' messy private lives were no secret; they were a topic that remained endlessly popular among Americans and global onlookers.
Take the most talked-about couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. At one point, there were rumors that they were about to get married.
But just last month, gossip reporters revealed that Angelina Jolie had caught Brad Pitt with a Latina maid engaging in activities in their kitchen.
However, an enraged Angelina only fired the maid. Perhaps because no hush money was given, the Latina maid revealed that Brad Pitt favored her prominent backside.
The three even held a little competition, but since Angelina Jolie's rear was smaller, out of jealousy, she fired the maid.
These shocking, bizarre, and sometimes unbelievable gossip stories left people overwhelmed, though the thick-skinned North American public had long grown accustomed to such news.
So, looking back at Emma Watson's uniqueness, she stood out as an exception. Perhaps it was precisely because of her difference that her popularity skyrocketed.
However, if fans knew that the outwardly pure Emma Watson had already become Gilbert's private little wife behind the scenes, their hearts would probably break into pieces.
Returning to the film premiere, during media interviews, Gilbert emphasized that Inception was a contemporary action sci-fi film set within the structure of consciousness.
In the world of Inception, a technology exists that allows people to enter others' dreams, and the protagonist, Cobb, is a thief—this world calls such people "extractors."
After a failed mission, Cobb is given a new task by the target of the previous mission.
A wealthy businessman from China asks Cobb to implant an idea into the heir of a rival company, instructing the heir to dissolve their own company—an almost impossible task.
If the film merely involved stealing dreams like stealing objects or ideas, it would at best be a heist movie with some new elements.
But once the concept of idea implantation appeared, the audience in the premiere hall became captivated.
The story structure was not overly complex, but the film employed a sophisticated multi-thread narrative technique, where missing even a small detail could result in losing key information.
Frequent sci-fi movie viewers might notice that most sci-fi films have very simple story structures, almost straightforward.
Either aliens invade, and humans find a way to defeat them; a meteor threatens Earth, and humans find a way to destroy it; or they travel to a distant planet, face dangers, and resolve them.
This repeatable, easily imitated, mass-produced story template is a characteristic of commercial films. When done well, it spreads widely.
When done poorly, it becomes hollow and boring, leaving audiences feeling it lacks originality, turning into easily tiresome fast-consumption entertainment.
After watching for a short time, everyone realized that Inception was far from an ordinary commercial film; it was unique.
From the initial dream-within-a-dream mission as a small test, to later accepting the task from the Chinese businessman, assembling a team, and planning step by step, the audience experienced the team's planning from a participant's perspective rather than a bystander's, while visual spectacles like the Penrose stairs, infinite hallways, and upside-down Paris assaulted their eyes.
Few heist films reveal the entire plan to the audience at the start, and even if they do, the film maintains suspense throughout.
Unexpected events—like a train racing through city streets or armed forces appearing in dreams—added uncertainty to the mission.
One area where Gilbert surpassed Nolan was in shooting action sequences, gunfights, and car chases; he was a master, making everything thrilling and intense.
When two, three, or even four layers of dreams were narrated simultaneously, even following every task detail with the protagonists left the audience's minds scrambled.
As a loyal Gilbert fan, Evans had watched Gilbert's The Matrix countless times, studying its details.
Unfortunately, although high-intelligence crime films like The False later appeared, Gilbert never again produced a work on the level of The Matrix.
However, tonight, attending the premiere and seeing this multi-threaded dream epic, Evans felt his brain cells burning.
He had a premonition: a Matrix-level work had finally arrived, and it was Inception.
At this moment, Emma Watson's small mind was a complete mess. She tried to use all the information she knew to analyze the film but found she couldn't figure anything out.
She wasn't alone. Besides Scarlett, who had read the script, and Cameron Diaz, the producer, who could understand a little, the women of the Melon Estate were all mentally fried.
Jennifer Connelly quietly asked Charlize Theron, "Sally, you acted in The Matrix. Did you understand it?"
Charlize Theron shook her head. "I didn't get it. It seems like Leo is supposed to implant an idea into someone, but something went wrong?"
Most of the audience in the theater barely grasped the plot, but fortunately, even if they didn't fully understand it, the action scenes were intense and visually captivating.
When the theater lights came up, all the viewers were savoring the film, some still wanting more. Many were debating whether the final spinning top had stopped.
Some said it had stopped, meaning Cobb returned to reality. Some said it hadn't, implying Cobb was lost in the subconscious.
Others suggested the whole story was just a dream Cobb had, and the extraction never actually happened—everyone had their own reasoning.
But one thing was certain: this was an absolutely thrilling and entertaining cinematic experience. Even without dissecting the plot, the visual spectacles and action alone made the ticket worthwhile.
After a long moment, when Gilbert and the creative team took their bow, the theater erupted in applause, dedicated to this spectacular film.
Tom Cruise clapped while speaking to Nicole Kidman, "What does David have to do to beat a film this brilliant? It's practically impossible."
Indeed, if there had been any doubts before, after watching the film, all the guests and audience members agreed: this was the most exciting movie of the summer season.
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