《傲慢與偏見與殭屍》 電影混搭新潮流

As a fan of both Downton Abbey (2010-2015) and The Walking Dead (since 2010), you can imagine how excited I was when I heard about a film named Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After all, what could be More entertaining than watching the orderly world of the British gentry get thrown into chaos by a bunch of filthy, undead villains?

作爲《唐頓莊園》和《行屍走肉》的鐵粉，你應該可以想象當我聽說《傲慢與偏見與殭屍》這部電影的名字時有多麼興奮。畢竟還有什麼比看着英國貴族井井有條的生活被一羣骯髒不堪的不死惡魔攪得一團糟更有意思呢？

The film begins just as Jane Austen’s 1813 novel does: Mrs Bennet fervently informs her five daughters of the news that the rich and eligible Mr Bingley has moved to the neighborhood. But you immediately know you’re not in the same world imagined by Austen. Rather than sewing or drawing, the girls are busy polishing their guns and swords. They are all trained to combat the zombie plague that has surrounded London.

電影開篇和簡•奧斯汀1813年的那本小說如出一轍：英俊多金的賓利先生搬到了附近，班納特太太激動地把這個消息告訴了自己的5個女兒。但你馬上會意識到這與奧斯汀筆下的世界並不一樣。姑娘們可不是在寫詩作畫做女紅，而是在舞刀弄槍。她們正在嚴格訓練，準備與在倫敦爆發的殭屍瘟疫奮戰到底。

The romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy is as tense as it is in the novel, but the film takes their war of wills a bit further. Moments that used to be filled with witty and wounding banter are replaced with scenes of actual punching, kicking and sword fighting.

伊麗莎白•班納特與達西先生之間的浪漫愛情如小說中一樣跌宕起伏，但電影更深入地刻畫了兩人情感上糾葛。小說中那些談笑風生的片段都被電影中真槍實彈的扭打，劍鬥鏡頭所代替。

This is probably why the film received a lot of attention, particularly in the wake of its US premiere in February.

這可能是這部電影大受關注的原因，尤其是二月份在美國上映之後被熱捧。

“[It’s] an Austen adaptation that’s even more fearlessly feminist than Jane was”, wrote Alynda Wheat, senior writer at People Magazine. “Ladies are valued more for their ability to take a head shot at 20 paces than for their skills on the pianoforte.”

《人物》雜誌資深作家艾琳達•惠特這樣評論道，“這是一部由奧斯汀的小說改編而成的電影，但它比原著更加大膽地宣揚了女權主義。比起彈鋼琴的技巧，姑娘們更重視20步以內對殭屍爆頭的能力。”

But after the initial novelty wears off, the film starts to get a little boring. The zombie part isn’t nearly as exciting as what’s offered by the hit TV series The Walking Dead, and the romance is also undermined by the bloody theme. American Seth Grahame-Smith, a zealous fan-fiction writer, wrote the 2009 best-seller that inspired the film, and he was careful to retain the charms of Austen’s classic novel. His previous works also include Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, another book that failed to translate well on-screen. Perhaps the film industry is not yet ready for this kind of crossover genre.

但當起初的新鮮感逐漸消退，這部電影開始變得有點無聊了。殭屍的情節不如熱門美劇《行屍走肉》驚險刺激，而愛情故事又被恐怖血腥的主題所掩蓋。本片靈感來源於美國知名同人作家賽斯•葛雷恩•史密斯於2009年創作的暢銷書，他在該書中盡力保留了奧斯汀經典小說的原汁原味。他還創作過小說《吸血鬼獵人林肯》，不過這部小說改編的電影也不太成功。或許現今的電影業還沒做好準備迎接這類跨題材作品。

“The idea to simply add zombies to the Jane Austen classic is a winning concept [...] but director Burr Steers couldn’t seem to find the sweet spot between the original and the re-imagining to make the big screen rendition work as well as it could have,” wrote Perri Nemiroff, editor of movie news website Collider.

電影新聞網站《對撞機》編輯佩裏•雷米諾夫寫道：“簡單地把殭屍元素加入簡•奧斯汀的名著中不失爲一個成功的賣點……但導演布爾•斯蒂爾斯似乎沒能在經典與重塑之間尋得最佳平衡點，所以大銀幕作品並未取得應有的成功。”

That said, this kind of mash-up is still an appealing idea, particularly for young science fiction fans. Perhaps, before long, we’ll be expecting similar productions such as something like “The Old Man and the Sea and Godzilla”, “Oliver Twist in Hogwarts”, and “A Tale of Two Cities–Zootopia and Transylvania”.

即便如此，這種混搭電影仍然是一個吸引人的賣點，尤其是對年輕的科幻小說迷來說。我們或許可以期待一下不久後類似的作品，例如《老人與海與哥斯拉》，《霍格沃茨的霧都孤兒》，以及《雙城記——瘋狂動物城與精靈旅社》。