Pacific Rim (2013) (1 Viewer)

[dpippel]

Man, that's depressing. Once again, Hollywood is right to keep working with existing properties because it's the only thing that the public will go and see.

Depressing indeed. IMO all the evidence we need to conclude that the human race as a species is doomed is the fact that Grown Ups 2 beat out Pacific Rim at the BO this weekend. Pathetic.

I swear, with each passing day I'm more and more convinced that "Idiocracy" isn't a movie. It's prophecy.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Depressing indeed. IMO all the evidence we need to conclude that the human race as a species is doomed is the fact that Grown Ups 2 beat out Pacific Rim at the BO this weekend. Pathetic.

I swear, with each passing day I'm more and more convinced that "Idiocracy" isn't a movie. It's prophecy.

I think Hollywood box office figures are proof that the human race is getting dumber, it's evolution in reverse.

 

[dpippel]

Or DEVOlution. Those guys from Akron were right...

 

[FoxyMulder]

Or DEVOlution. Those guys from Akron were right...

Nahhh, we got that in Scotland in the nineties when we got our own parliament..

 

[Malcolm R]

Man, that's depressing. Once again, Hollywood is right to keep working with existing properties because it's the only thing that the public will go and see.

Depressing, yes, but I'm not sure we can argue that PR is really all that original aside from the fact that it's not a direct sequel to an existing film. It does seem to be a frankenstein mash-up of bits and pieces of other films.

The film's performance must also be a point of discussion among the production staff for the upcoming "Godzilla" reboot, as well. I wonder if that will be affected? Probably depends on the overall international grosses.

 

[dpippel]

Nahhh, we got that in Scotland in the nineties when we got our own parliament..

1977 baby...

 

[Sam Posten]

I swear, with each passing day I'm more and more convinced that "Idiocracy" isn't a movie. It's prophecy.

Probably treading close to P&R, but here's the reason for that Doug, and the politics angle is a byproduct, not necessarily a cause:
http://theawesomer.com/why-everything-sucks/243614/?

 

[dpippel]

Thanks Sam. I'll check that out when I get home this evening.

 

[TravisR]

...I'm not sure we can argue that PR is really all that original...

Absolutely. However, I'm not wondering why people didn't see some experimental art film. I'm wondering why they couldn't take a 'chance' on seeing a movie with a shit ton of destruction, fighting and special effects. Even that kind of movie now needs to be a property that people are familiar with.

 

[Vic Pardo]

As someone who's seen all the kaiju films del Toro has seen and all the giant robot anime and live-action shows, I was somewhat disappointed in this. It was very exciting for the first two thirds and had lots of original scenes and imaginative touches, but it all got to be a bit too wearying. At some point, it just stopped working for me. It didn't have strong enough characters to keep me engaged and it didn't leaven its seriousness with any humor. I didn't find any chemistry among the cast and it didn't seem to me that they were all acting in the same movie. And they had two characters tagged as "comic relief," but no one gave them anything funny to do or say.

For a film like this to be a true pop classic, it has to create a world that the audience understands and believes in and the actors have to inhabit that world and make us believe it. Like THE MATRIX. Or it has to have a sprawling sense of humor like the first and third TRANSFORMER films. Those movies delivered the goods, in terms of giant robot battles, but they also gave us a good time and made us laugh a lot. If PACIFIC RIM isn't going to be a "fun" movie, then it has to offer some kind of emotional core that is sustained throughout. The scenes of Mako Mori as a child in the Tokyo flashbacks hinted at what that core could be, but it wasn't developed enough.

 

[FoxyMulder]

For a film like this to be a true pop classic, it has to create a world that the audience understands and believes in and the actors have to inhabit that world and make us believe it. Like THE MATRIX. Or it has to have a sprawling sense of humor like the first and third TRANSFORMER films. Those movies delivered the goods, in terms of giant robot battles, but they also gave us a good time and made us laugh a lot. If PACIFIC RIM isn't going to be a "fun" movie, then it has to offer some kind of emotional core that is sustained throughout. The scenes of Mako Mori as a child in the Tokyo flashbacks hinted at what that core could be, but it wasn't developed enough.

Maybe a directors cut will rectify that.

 

[Quentin]

I thought the childhood scene was good...I would have liked to have seen more scenes of a young Mako being raised by Pentecost. What would that have been like? And, how much more emotional would that have made the climax?

But, I think there could have been a LOT more character building all around: what about the Chinese triplets and the Russian husband and wife? I REALLY want to know more about them and get to like them. I want to see their personalities reflected in the fighting styles of their Jaegers.

And, then, lets see another 'sparring' scene with Jaegers where we see them all work out using their unique abilities. And, lastly, lets see a scene of the group of Jaeger pilots blowing off steam. They know they could die any time...show us how they try to relax.

All of that would have made us connect more strongly with the Jaegers and the characters. It would have added more emotional heft to the fights.

I still like the movie...but, like I said, I wanted MORE.

 

[dpippel]

As someone who's seen all the kaiju films del Toro has seen and all the giant robot anime and live-action shows, I was somewhat disappointed in this. It was very exciting for the first two thirds and had lots of original scenes and imaginative touches, but it all got to be a bit too wearying. At some point, it just stopped working for me. It didn't have strong enough characters to keep me engaged and it didn't leaven its seriousness with any humor. I didn't find any chemistry among the cast and it didn't seem to me that they were all acting in the same movie. And they had two characters tagged as "comic relief," but no one gave them anything funny to do or say.

For a film like this to be a true pop classic, it has to create a world that the audience understands and believes in and the actors have to inhabit that world and make us believe it. Like THE MATRIX. Or it has to have a sprawling sense of humor like the first and third TRANSFORMER films. Those movies delivered the goods, in terms of giant robot battles, but they also gave us a good time and made us laugh a lot. If PACIFIC RIM isn't going to be a "fun" movie, then it has to offer some kind of emotional core that is sustained throughout. The scenes of Mako Mori as a child in the Tokyo flashbacks hinted at what that core could be, but it wasn't developed enough.

To each their own. I thought that Pacific Rim WAS fun and DID have an emotional core. The audience at my screening was totally into it. The film had just the right amount of humor for me, and I also thought that the three main characters were well realized. Elba's Pentecost (HATE the name however) was the most cliched of the trio, but I was a bit surprised by the sincerity and humanity of both Charlie Hunnam's and Rinko Kikuchi's characters. I bought them. Was there corn-a-plenty? Absolutely, but it was intentional corn and it worked in a sort of Star-Wars-ish way for me.

PR is far from perfect and it would have been much better IMO without the two annoying scientists, without the dinosaur reference (which was pretty lame), and with some tighter editing for a slightly shorter run time. All three Transformers movies, on the other hand, were pretty joyless IMO. Talk about characters that you have zero emotional investment in, with the possible exception of that "Megan Fox under Bumblebee's hood" scene in the first one anyway...

 

[DVDvision]

This isn't a Kaiju film. It's an Alien film. It's Aliens 2 or Alien 3, the one Cameron didn't make. You can see it's the story of Newt grown up, with Ripley (Elba) you even have Hicks, now with a son, the Power Loader, throwing acid...

 

[DVDvision]

Hell you even have the guys dying "always knew you were an asshole Gorman!" Style

 

[dpippel]

Del Toro says no Director's Cut of Pacific Rim and DVD/Blu-ray releases comparatively light on extras, etc.:

http://collider.com/pacific-rim-alternate-endings-directors-cut/

 

[Robert Smith1]

In Pacafic rim A fantastic prologue puts the audience into the mix immediately, showing how a rift in the bottom of the Pacific created a wormhole into another dimension where an army of monsters called Kaiju emerged and attacked our major cities. To fight the monsters, giant robots known as Jaegers were created, which humans would pilot from inside by using a device similar to an eliptical machine.

 

[DaveF]

I was unclear about a couple of things:

[*]Hannibal was upset after hearing about the human-kaiju drift, stating it was a two-way connection whereby the aliens would have gained information about the humans' tactics. But there had to be some kind of monitoring going on already, as they said the kaiju kept evolving to better fight the Jaegers until they were on the verge of defeating them. The invaders must have already known what was happening on Earth in order to modify and improve the monsters they sent through the portal.
[/list]
[*]There was a big deal made about the humans' inability to penetrate or destroy the portal without having some sort of kaiju DNA to permit passage. Otherwise the portal would remain sealed. However, the escape pods seemed to have no problem moving through the portal on their own, without any kaiju "parts" to use as camoflage and trick the portal into opening.
[/list]

Kaiju communication in order to "evolve" was unclear. For that matter, I'm not sure they really were evolving, since they were clones. Clones that got pregnant.

As for the 'fingerprint' needed for portal passage, apparently one way lock. Besides, why would they ever lock it going from their dimension to ours?

I did have to roll my eyes at a few bits, like the idea that the kaiju were here before in the form of dinosaurs, but didn't find earth hospitable enough. Umm... Dinosaurs were around for more than 150 million years, I think they found it to their liking. And I did have to wonder why they didn't just fire a nuke at every monster that came out of the rift. Seems that would have worked great until the category 5 sharkna.. err monster.

The Kaiju weren't the enemy; they were the weaponry. Presumably the (smaller and less evolved) versions 100 million years ago got along ok in the environment and evolved until the asteroid strike. But the actual trans-dimensional enemies -- those three guys floating on the rock on the other side of the portal -- couldn't live comfortably in our pre-hominid Earth.

NIT PICK - I also had a hard time actually hearing what most of the characters were saying. I don't mind accents, but it's hard when a lot of characters have accents. I totally saw through Hunnam's 'American' accent.

8/10

I thought it was just me. But it was oddly hard to understand what people were saying. It's like the mix was off, and voices didn't have enough treble.

Yeah man:


And:

!!!!

Or DEVOlution. Those guys from Akron were right...

Elvislution.

For a film like this to be a true pop classic, it has to create a world that the audience understands and believes in and the actors have to inhabit that world and make us believe it. Like THE MATRIX. Or it has to have a sprawling sense of humor like the first and third TRANSFORMER films. Those movies delivered the goods, in terms of giant robot battles, but they also gave us a good time and made us laugh a lot. If PACIFIC RIM isn't going to be a "fun" movie, then it has to offer some kind of emotional core that is sustained throughout. The scenes of Mako Mori as a child in the Tokyo flashbacks hinted at what that core could be, but it wasn't developed enough.

I thought this delivered giant robots fighting in a way that Transformers didn't. The Transformers are too large, fast, and nimble. They feel like CG. The Jaeger of Pacific Rim finally brought the weight and impact I've been hoping for.

But, I think there could have been a LOT more character building all around: what about the Chinese triplets and the Russian husband and wife? I REALLY want to know more about them and get to like them. I want to see their personalities reflected in the fighting styles of their Jaegers.

I really wanted more from the Shanghai Surprise Triplets (I don't recall the name). That three-armed robot deserved more screen time!

As someone else said, it could have been 10-20 minutes shorter.

I also didn't understand why it was dark and shakey-cam. Del Toro was using all the tricks to hide bad FX. Except this movie is incredible, and needed clearer shots of both the exteriors and interiors.

And still, I want to see it again. The action was fantastic. Best giant robot movie I've ever seen.

 

[DaveF]

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/movie-review-pacific-rim

1.) Pacific Rim serves as its own sequel.
Before the movie title even comes up you are given the story of how we went from the world of today to a world where monsters (kaiju) have decimated our cities and made us a worldwide civilization that focuses on defense via giant robots (jaegers). You see the escalation step by step, how our culture adapts to it, and you’re introduced to the main character during a lengthy kaiju fight. The entire sequence is so joyful that when it abruptly turns you’re gutted. The movie then starts with the battle already waged and with the war at its lowest point. Because Pacific Rim has already run through all the usual action movie scenarios in its first 15 minutes its premise continues to seem fresh.

 

[DaveF]

Sam I am

http://kotaku.com/pacific-rims-most-emotional-line-was-left-untranslated-789403352

Just before her protector and adoptive father blows himself up, Mako cries one last goodbye into her radio. It's in Japanese, and it's left untranslated and without a subtitle.