Pacific Rim Review (Spoilers)

[FatherXmas]

Okay I went to see the 7pm 2D showing tonight.  Sadly however do to technical difficulties it didn't start until after 7:30 and it had framing (subtitles and tops of heads cut off) and sound (turned up too loud to make out some dialog).

Nothing really of note in the Trailers except maybe the new Aubrey Plaza R rated high school sex comedy might be worth renting (yes, she's 29 playing an 18 year old).  The Joseph Gordon-Levitt film Don Jon (he also wrote and direct) looked meh but could be one of those "critically acclaimed" films I don't bother seeing in theaters.

The movie itself will make Kaiju fans happy I think.  I enjoyed it and it was as good as any of the Showa or Heisei Godzilla films.  It's more action pack then Cloverfield.  As for piloted Giant Robot fans, and there isn't a lot of live action to choose from there including the mecha in the Godzilla films, I think they will be happy as well.

Is it Macbeth?  No.  Did they "borrow" a lot from other movies.  Hell yea.  ID4 most prominently, the Giant Robo anime and they took a gag from the first MIB film.  Does it have plot holes you could pilot a Jaeger through, hell yea.  Would I love to see a full history of all Kaiju and Jaeger battles as well as attempts to destroy the breach.  Yep.  Please but that on the Blu-ray.

It's not meant to be a film that one thinks to hard about while watching.  The acting was reasonable.  Problem with the lead was his attempt to do an American midwest accent really shows sometimes (he's English, only fair for all of the times American actors poor attempts at various English accents).  Yes I did say subtitles because the Japanese market bait of the movie, besides Kaiju and giant robots, is Rinko Kikuchi as the kick ass girl and she says some of her lines in Japanese.  And she is very, very cute.

I think it could have been a great Anime series.  They could flesh out the whole conflict from 1st contact to resolution in this film.  Watch the advancement in Jaeger tech as well as Kaiju evolution.  They really could have fleshed out all the pilots and support characters and not just ... two ... a very little bit.

I think it's worth seeing on the big screen.  There is a scene after the first bit of the end credits.  The end credits conclude with a dedication to Ray Harryhausen and Ishirō Honda.

[Todogut]

It's quite a spectacle. I saw it in 3-D IMAX, which added scale and immersive sound (punishingly loud during fight scenes).

I'm a big fan of del Toro's films. This one's a bit different because it's like a live-action anime. But, I liked it for what it is.

One critic's review that I read on Rotten Tomatoes suggested, if you are in favor of seeing a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters, then you'll like it; if you're not in favor, then you won't.

I saw the movie with my brother. He wasn't in favor of the concept going in, and he didn't like it.

Me, I really enjoyed it. I'd like to see it again.

[Kaos Arcanna]

Yeah. I liked the movie a lot.

Of course I grew up watching giant monster movies.

[Golden Girl]

It's somewhat weak box office seems kinda strange - the hype's been pretty high, the review scores are good, and with Man of Steel winding down and The Lone Ranger continuing to fall like a stone, it's not really got any serious action movie competition either.

[Razy]

Actions movies. By the time people realize there is no story, the movie is over 

[Aggelakis]

THIS IS WHAT GODZILLA 2000 SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

I lost count of the number of times I said "ARE YOU SHITTING ME" (or the more emphatic "ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME") or "OH MY GOD".

I am a HUGE Godzilla fan, so this scratched that itch REALLY WELL (the monsters are beautifully designed!!!) and I'm a fair fan of mecha Anime so that was pretty cool too. I *really* liked the story behind why there's two pilots, though I saw the Idris Elba's story coming a mile away from his introduction.

I really, really, really want the story of the Russians. They piloted their Jaeger for SIX YEARS. They were there from the beginning. With such a high fatality rate, that is AMAZING and deserves a full story in itself.

I would love a whole bunch of prequels to fill in all the stories. I want to see the first attack as a movie, culminating with the false sense of resolution, the six months of peace. I want to see the pants-shitting fear as the second one came, after everyone thought it was a freak one-time thing.

[FatherXmas]

Like I said, it would make a great anime series from first encounter to this movie.  They could have gone into the Jaeger program, all of the previous encounters, all of the pilots, all of the Jaegers, what ever political wrangling that went on to cause the abandonment of the Jaeger program for the wall, when they discovered the rift, previous attempts to close it.  I see 100-150 episodes easy.

[Tenzhi]

My review:

Pacific Rim was an excellent movie that could've been better. It had better pacing than most Japanese kaiju movies, but while the fights were good they could learn a few things from the aforementioned movies about properly showcasing the action - I mean, it wasn't as bad as the shambling mounds of metal fighting in Transformers, or the shaky close-ups of Batman Begins, but it could've been better.

The various human stories going on didn't drag on too long, and the bits with the scientists were fairly entertaining. None of it interfered overmuch with the giant robot versus giant monster battling.

Some of the monster designs were cool (I think my favourite was the sort of crab-like thing in the Japanese girl's flashback) and I liked the robot designs. Both could've been showcased a bit better (the monsters in particular), and the monsters could've used more colour and variation in texture.

[goodtime]

I disliked it intensely.   There is no story; it's a loose connection of vignettes designed to take you through emotional flip-flops until they get to the good stuff, and even the good stuff was disappointing.  So much idiocy and so many cartoonish - in a bad way - characters.

I gave it four stars on IMDB. 

[FatherXmas]

What ticks me off is there should be toys in the stores.  Kaiju and Jaeger alike.  Not the inevitable $350 Sideshow Collectables, toys, for kids.  Already in the stores now that the movie is out, not the holiday season, NOW.  I should be able to watch kids have Kaiju/Jaeger battles in sandboxes and playgrounds.

[Golden Girl]

Surprising things that Pacific Rim's box office teaches us:

1 - Michael Bay is one of the most popular directors in the world

2 - Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are two of Hollywood's leading actors

3 - The Transformers brand has a pull and cultural impact that dwarfs Star Trek, James Bond and DC, and rivals Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel and Lord of the Rings.

[Tenzhi]

There is no story;

Did you sleep through the story and only open your eyes during the fights or something?

[Aggelakis]

I disliked it intensely.   There is no story; it's a loose connection of vignettes designed to take you through emotional flip-flops until they get to the good stuff, and even the good stuff was disappointing.  So much idiocy and so many cartoonish - in a bad way - characters.

I gave it four stars on IMDB.

I agree with Tenzhi. I think you must have been looking at your phone or something during the exposition parts. There was plenty of story. There was a lot more fighting and explosions than story, but that's what you get in giant monster vs giant robot movies. But there was plenty of story. There was enough story there to make me want to know more.

[Aggelakis]

I fired up ICON when I got home to try and make the Russian pilots with their face plates & suits. Got pretty close but forgot to take screenies. lol

(I might be slightly obsessed with the Russian pilots.)

[The Fifth Horseman]

Not bad for some action-over-brains entertainment.
Also: Ramin Djawadi's soundtrack. As bloody good as the one in Iron Man, if not better.

[FatherXmas]

Not bad for some action-over-brains entertainment.
Also: Ramin Djawadi's soundtrack. As bloody good as the one in Iron Man, if not better.

I've been watching Game of Thrones (half way through season 3 now) and it wasn't till last night when I looked of the who scored it and then found out he did Iron Man, Pacific Rim and Person of Interest among others and was blown away.  Why haven't I noticed him before now?  Damn.

[JanessaVR]

I expect I'll catch this in a few years, when it's free to stream on either Netflix or Amazon Prime and I need some background noise on a Saturday afternoon while housecleaning - it kind of strikes me as that kind of film.

As for giant robots...I liked Evangelion immensely, but that was actually a drama series with a dysfunction junction cast of characters, themes of syncretic mysticism, (possibly) old conspiracies, and occasionally esoteric existentialism that just happened to have giant robots fighting Lovecraftian aliens as a framing device.

This film, however, seems to star...Fantastic Special Effects!  Oh, and I think there were some people in it, too, but they didn't look that important.  At least that's the impression I got from the trailer I saw.

[Aggelakis]

Yes, the central premise of the movie is the robots vs kaiju. I mean. Duh. lol

But it's done beautifully. And waiting for it to be background noise on the tiny screen is doing yourself an injustice. It's not going to transition well.

[batqueen]

Having watched Godzilla and anime for many years, I have No Problem with giant monsters and robots. Got to see it yesterday, in 3D. It was awesome, I waited 6 months for this to come out. It'll have to hold me until Godzilla comes out next year. Hope they do as well. And the scene with the little girl running down the street in front of the terrible huge sky-filling beast- how do you get a little kid to cry as hard as that? I hope they haven't gone back to the "I'll shoot your dog" tactic like they used on  Jackie Cooper in the 30's. (And no, I don't actually believe they have.) Funny seeing Perlman cut his way out at the end, yelling for his shoe. I would have sworn that wasn't survivable, but hey, it's Ron Perlman, so that's different. If anybody could make it, he could.

[Golden Girl]

Funny seeing Perlman cut his way out at the end, yelling for his shoe. I would have sworn that wasn't survivable, but hey, it's Ron Perlman, so that's different. If anybody could make it, he could.

He'd have been well prepared for it, because he knows that war never changes.

[Battlechimp]

What ticks me off is there should be toys in the stores.  Kaiju and Jaeger alike.  Not the inevitable $350 Sideshow Collectables, toys, for kids.  Already in the stores now that the movie is out, not the holiday season, NOW.  I should be able to watch kids have Kaiju/Jaeger battles in sandboxes and playgrounds.

The toys are out there... well wave one any ways.  Gipsy Danger, Crimson Typhoon and I think Knife head.  But from what I've seen only in comic stores or specialty toy stores.  Which sucks as they should be out there in every Target, Walmart or similar.  If any recent sci fi movie screamed toy line, this was it.  And a second wave with battle damage GipsyDanger.. and can't remember the name of the Kaiju. The gorilla looking one that was killed in the city fight.

And from comments here, I'm glad I'm not the only one who went hey, those Russians have the COH Cyclops tech head piece!' :-)

[Aggelakis]

Funny seeing Perlman cut his way out at the end, yelling for his shoe. I would have sworn that wasn't survivable, but hey, it's Ron Perlman, so that's different. If anybody could make it, he could.

Hey, if Tommy Lee Jones can do it with a giant cucaracha, Perlman can do it with a baby kaiju.

[batqueen]

 

[Magus Prime]

Could these be Jaeger pilots in training?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lLkEH7vuK0

[ag88t88]

I've never been of the mentality that just because a movie is an action movie or special effects movie or meant to be some sort of visual spectacle, that it makes it okay for movies to be dumb, have horrible writing or really stupid plots.  (Seriously, in GI Joe: RoC, the under water station was destroyed by rapidly sinking Ice.  No one but me has a problem with that?  I digress.)

That said, I really enjoyed Pacific Rim.  The writing and dialogue were atrocious in some places, seriously horrendously bad and I laughed out loud at it.  The thing was, I felt like in many places in the movie, I was kind of supposed to. The Movie never took itself too seriously, the dialogue, bad as it was in some places, never seemed forced or like it was intended to be profound.  It felt to me like they knew it was cheesy, they played into it a bit and they showed a lot of Robots fighting Monsters.   

That's the other thing, I feel like so many action movies that end up dumb with bad lines and what not, still don't do a great job at showing me the action, or the visual spectacle. And this movie not only understood it was cheesy and did okay with that aspect, they nailed the Giant Monsters V Giant Robots thing, seriously jaw dropping spectacle in a way that honestly felt too big even for the massive I-max screen.

So I'd recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi, fun flick and as there were some big plot holes and horrible lines in some places, none of it was completely stupid, too serious or really all that bad, and the action sequences and breath taking scale of it makes everything else completely moot.






--- SPOILERS?----

I did have one major nitpick though.  Why on earth would you not build more ranged weapons onto the Jaegers?  What you can build giant effing robots with whip swords but you can put a big rail gun or machine gun on there? Make those things like mechs with shoulder mounted missles everywhere and lasers and the whole bit.

And the ranged weapons they did have, they never wanted to use them until after they had punched the monster a few times and got in close. Is there no targeting system on those things? I mean it's a giant freaking monster, you can't hit that from more than a half block away?   Wouldn't it be smarter to weaken the things with the plasma guns or chest missles BEFORE they got in close enough to get their damn dirty paws all over the mech?   

[FatherXmas]

I did have one major nitpick though.  Why on earth would you not build more ranged weapons onto the Jaegers?  What you can build giant effing robots with whip swords but you can put a big rail gun or machine gun on there? Make those things like mechs with shoulder mounted missles everywhere and lasers and the whole bit.

Because Kaiju are surprisingly nimble for their size?  They may be cold blooded so you would need either radar or laser targeting to maintain lock, neither work so well in cities.  It's also possible that it was tried early on and proved less effective than close combat pummeling.  Maybe those weapon systems are to easily destroyed and too costly to fix/replace.  Once you've exhausted it's ammo they're deadweight. 

And if you want to play Monday morning quarterback why weren't their off shore mine fields?  Mining of the breach?  On shore artillery/missile batteries?   Seems like they put their money into a Jaeger or two per major coastal city.

Plus that goes against genre.  You must have seen at least some of Toho Studio's Kaiju films.  Missiles from planes, shells from ships, ground masers, even super anti-kaiju weapons are mostly ineffective.  It's only when it's Kaiju Vs Kaiju or mecha-Kaiju that any progress is made.

[Aggelakis]

Plus that goes against genre.  You must have seen at least some of Toho Studio's Kaiju films.  Missiles from planes, shells from ships, ground masers, even super anti-kaiju weapons are mostly ineffective.  It's only when it's Kaiju Vs Kaiju or mecha-Kaiju that any progress is made.

They even mentioned it in the movie. The first kaiju, before jaegers were 'born', took 35 days and destroyed 3 cities before it could be brought down with tanks, jets, everything short of nuclear warfare.

Did you (ag88) not see the flashback? A fighter jet ran into the kaiju's (arm? tail?) and exploded along with its whole payload and the thing didn't even twitch a muscle. Looked back at the impact like a mosquito bite.

[ag88t88]

They even mentioned it in the movie. The first kaiju, before jaegers were 'born', took 35 days and destroyed 3 cities before it could be brought down with tanks, jets, everything short of nuclear warfare.

Did you (ag88) not see the flashback? A fighter jet ran into the kaiju's (arm? tail?) and exploded along with its whole payload and the thing didn't even twitch a muscle. Looked back at the impact like a mosquito bite.

Sure, when they are using 50 cal machine guns and missles that fit on planes.  However at the point that they have Giant Jaegers running around, they obviously could (and did) attach giant more effective ranged weapons to them.  One of the Jaegers had missles in it's chest, but waited until after melee striking and such to use them. The Gypsy had the plasma cannons, but again waited until point blank to use them.  Which begs the question to me,  why not have more ranged weapons mounted on the Jaegers, giant missles, plasma what ever, lasers etc and just blast the shit out of the things, and when they get in close they are already hurt, making them weaker to grapple against. And at the point you have ranged weapons, have more, use them at range then scrapper lock.

A scrapper could take on lots of Bosses or EBs or AVS on it's own, but isn't it a little easier if there is a blaster behind the scrapper hitting from range before the scrapper goes in for scrapper lock? 


And Father Xmas, I haven't seen Kaiju films before, so I had no idea what cannon they were pulling from.  All good suppositions, hadn't thought about the cold blooded thing, on the other hand I think manual aiming should work for something the size of a sky scraper but even still I could see it being problematic, especially the dead weight once it's unloaded thing.

I hadn't thought about off shore mines, like really huge ones, I like that idea. I did kind of wonder why they had no giant weapons or artillery on or behind the wall though.  Seriously I was just kind of thinking during the whole wall segment.. "So they think these giant monsters can't destroy the wall? If they don't kill the things won't the monsters just beat on the wall until it breaks?"  The walls didn't seem to be a very well thought through plan, obviously the Kaiju weren't going to just mope around outside the wall.. "Aww, they didn't build a door, they won't let me in to their party. Shux.   I'll just mope around in the water..." 

Mines would have worked, artillery, all of it, put it all on the wall with some giant plasma cannons and missles.  Or make it electrified and see if you can convince the monster to try and wizz on it. 

[FatherXmas]

Which all goes back to the history.  The 15 years between first Kaiju and this movie.  I'm sure they did try a number of these ideas and they learned it wasn't all that effective, non even softening them up for the one on one battle.  That's why I wish they would do a long animated series about the history from first contact to this movie.  All the Kaiju attacks, all the Jaegers and their pilots, all the attempts tried to stop the Kaiju, etc.

I would love to see them try battleship size artillery and MOABs to limited effectiveness.  Problem is our current weapon systems are designed around the size and speed of it's target.  Fast things are small and don't need much while immobile targets require heavy ordinance.  So what do you do use you have something as tough as a bunker in a mountain but moves faster than a ship and doesn't explode because it's not full of fuel or ordinance?  Build a big ass maverick?  Remotely piloted drone bombs of absurd size?

And I thought it was only 6 days and 3 cities (San Francisco and likely Oakland and San Jose as oppose to LA and SD).

[Aggelakis]

And I thought it was only 6 days and 3 cities (San Francisco and likely Oakland and San Jose as oppose to LA and SD).

Hmm. I was sure but now I'm not because six days is making brain twinges too. I guess I'll just have to go see it again

[JanessaVR]

As far as mecha design and combat goes, this is an interesting reference:

http://denbeste.nu/Chizumatic/tmw/mechas.shtml

[Tenzhi]

I would love to see them try battleship size artillery and MOABs to limited effectiveness.

And don't forget the Masers. 

[Nos482]

What ticks me off is there should be toys in the stores.  Kaiju and Jaeger alike.  Not the inevitable $350 Sideshow Collectables, toys, for kids.  Already in the stores now that the movie is out, not the holiday season, NOW.  I should be able to watch kids have Kaiju/Jaeger battles in sandboxes and playgrounds.

Look what I just found on ThinkGeek.

[Kaos Arcanna]

You know, I did really enjoy this movie, but on reflection I wish they had made the Kajiu more colorful.

[Aggelakis]

I don't. It's a nod to the granddaddy of all kaiju. Even Godzilla at his most colorful was green with some shiny bits on his spikes - or Mechagodzilla, who was all chrome-y.

[FatherXmas]

They even mentioned it in the movie. The first kaiju, before jaegers were 'born', took 35 days and destroyed 3 cities before it could be brought down with tanks, jets, everything short of nuclear warfare.

Did you (ag88) not see the flashback? A fighter jet ran into the kaiju's (arm? tail?) and exploded along with its whole payload and the thing didn't even twitch a muscle. Looked back at the impact like a mosquito bite.

I looked at the novelization while at a bookstore the other day and it says 6 days and 35 miles later.  Guess we are going to have to wait for the DVD.

[fdbryant3]

--- SPOILERS?----

I did have one major nitpick though.  Why on earth would you not build more ranged weapons onto the Jaegers?  What you can build giant effing robots with whip swords but you can put a big rail gun or machine gun on there? Make those things like mechs with shoulder mounted missles everywhere and lasers and the whole bit.

And the ranged weapons they did have, they never wanted to use them until after they had punched the monster a few times and got in close. Is there no targeting system on those things? I mean it's a giant freaking monster, you can't hit that from more than a half block away?   Wouldn't it be smarter to weaken the things with the plasma guns or chest missles BEFORE they got in close enough to get their damn dirty paws all over the mech?

My thought is the main reason (if we really must try to make up reasons for this) is probably because world economy is on a thread with pretty much all resources going into the Jaeger program.  Missiles are consumables, not to mention developing ones that are effective without being nuclear.  Which is also probably why they went with punching first.  Lasers and plasma weapons - development research got diverted into building the Jaeger's themselves.  All while being constantly attacked by the Kaiju.

Now the real question is - didn't these folks watch Voltron?  Just always go for the blazi....err whip sword first (it was great I had commented to my buddy, you know what the need - a blazing sword right before they pulled it out)

Quite honestly Pacific Rim is the most satisfying movie I've seen this year.

[PunkusJR]

You know I liked it as I watched it, but thinking back . . . I really wish we had seen them win some of the fights. Someone else said it, the period between the first Kaiju and the movie needs to be shown in an anime or something of that sort.