Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

Unread postby Chuckg » July 15th, 2013, 2:27 am

Go see it. Its beautiful. If you loved giant monsters or giant robots, this movie is a love letter to your childhood.

This is not 'Transformers with Godzilla'. The CGI is better, and the camera work is infinitely better (no shakycam! clear fights!) The characters are standard archetypes without much variation (in a summer blockbuster? Who ever heard of such a thing?) but very well-executed and written with cheerfulness and wit. Furthermore, they are leavened with touches of humanity and uniqueness that make their stock archetype-ness even better, like how just a touch of seasoning makes the whole dish. (The fact that Mako Mori is convincingly tough-minded and badass while still acting like a traditional Japanese young woman instead of a stereotypical hardass 'action chick' was just a delight to me; likewise, how the situation where a love interest would be stereotypically rammed into is instead not given one.)

... OK, let me put it this way. In a movie that utterly fails the Bechdel Test, the female lead is still neither put in stripperwear (the outfit you see her wearing in the one trailer where she's martial-arts sparring with the male lead? That is the skimpiest thing she wears in the entire movie), or forbidden to have a healthy emotional relationship with a man not her father without also falling in love with him. It had an honest-to-God sincere friendship between the male and female leads, without layering over 'And now you must KISS!' at any point. For that alone, this movie should be lauded.

And the fact that she's a woman is of no import to anyone around her. People who criticize her job performance criticize it in exactly the same way that they would if she was a six-foot-six guy named Billy-Bob. People who applaud her do the same likewise. The one person who treats her differently and with even a touch of patronization is her father, who... um, he's her father. So, yeah. :)

But there is so much more than that. In an age of cynicism, this movie spits on it. In an age of grimdark, this movie sets itself on the very rim of Hell, on the literal day of the Apocalypse, and still holds out hope. In a world that is so beaten down that everyone is stripped down to the barest essentials of themselves out of sheer survival, the cast is still selfless and heroic. This movie has no existential angst. (Individual characters have personal tragedy angst, but even they get over it.) There is no 'are we really the monsters? is mankind worth saving?' Like the Dark Knight, this movie answers the question 'Is mankind worth saving?' with a simple and resounding "HELL YES."

At the edge of their hope, at the end of their time, people do choose to believe in each other. And their belief is rewarded.

This is a movie where two pilots in a disabled mech can unhesitatingly crawl out of the exterior hatch onto their mech's shoulder and shoot a 200-foot tall monster in the eye with flare pistols, willingly courting certain death to distract the monster away from a city full of people for just one more minute, and nobody finds this behavior remarkable. Other characters neither gape incredulously at their valor nor berate them for their foolishness. What they did in the name of duty is simply noted as 'yeah, that's how Jaeger pilots get it done', they get their manly nod of respect, and they move on.

... oh, do they survive? Watch the movie. :) (Punchline: This isn't our heroes I'm talking about. The supporting cast members get to be this balls-awesome and HOT BLOODED. Try to imagine the epic shit the two lead characters get up to. Better yet, don't try, just go see.)

It is a movie about courage and selflessness and determination and coming to peace with tragic loss and having faith in each other and all the things alien invasion movies go on about. Its not new, but it is fresh. Its not original, but its still unspoiled.

In conclusion, this movie is a massive and pure act of love from its creators, to its genre and the fans who loved that genre.

So yes, everyone should go see. Because its beautiful. And kickass.

One-Sentence Review: If you loved "Avengers", this is a movie for you.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby shadowspiri5 » July 15th, 2013, 5:02 pm

YES!!! I agree so very much. It was one of the most epic movies I have ever seen. There wasn't any sappy BS where the main characters wondered if what there doing is the right thing, and there's a female lead who isn't treated like a child just because she's a woman. Over all a good review of a great movie.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby doc.exe » July 25th, 2013, 3:58 pm

Managed to watch it last night. This movie is pretty much anime turned into live action, and it’s beautiful. :want:

Better than all the Roland Emmerich disaster movies put together as well.

There is only one thing I can complaint about:
Spoiler: show
I understand that the movie follows a structure similar to some Super Robot shows, where the main mecha is ultimately the one that gets the job done. And Mako and Raleigh are very likeable leads, but I can’t help it but think the other Jaegers besides Gipsy Danger truly got shafted.

Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha are destroyed too quickly by the two Type 4’s in the battle in Hong Kong, and despite how much hype Striker Eureka received as one of the most powerful and advanced Jaegers, we don’t really get to see it fighting that much on screen. In that sense, I think a few additional battle sequences with the other Jaegers kicking Kaiju ass would have been much appreciated.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby Farmer_10 » July 28th, 2013, 2:31 pm

Went to see it today. I feel validated. This is the one. Every mecha fanboy has been waiting for this one. And Del Toro delivered it.

He nailed it with the Mecha part of the equation. I loved every one of them. He just has to do a better job on the human element. I mean we love super robots because we don't just love the machines, we love the people behind the machines. If he just gives us deeper characterization in the sequels and makes us care about the pilots as much as we do about the mechs, these movies will be perfect.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby MrRigger2 » July 28th, 2013, 11:23 pm

I don't have much to say about this movie that others haven't said already, so I'll just say this. This is a movie done right. Go see it.

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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby MEKristian » August 12th, 2013, 11:34 am


del Toro does Japan.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby Comosicus » September 11th, 2013, 3:49 pm

You have spiked my curiosity. I must now find a way to see it.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby Phht » September 12th, 2013, 1:40 pm

How can you miss a movie that not only has giant robots fighting giant monsters, but music like this?


My only regret was that I never saw it on IMAX but just in normal theater.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby Zankaru Zelladonii » September 29th, 2013, 2:19 pm

Classic movie, this is one I will be looking back at fondly forever.

I doubt there will be any sequels.
Spoiler: show
There are no enemies left to fight. On top of how badly it did in the American box office, which studios use to pick what movies are made, even though it set records worldwide. Very low chance of Pacific Rim 2, very high chance of Fast and Furious 13.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby doc.exe » October 1st, 2013, 11:17 am

Well, Del Toro did mention some plans for a sequel but who knows if they will materialize. While the movie didn’t do that well on the US, it was a smashing success on other parts of the world (especially China and Japan), so who knows, he might be able to get funding from other countries.
Spoiler: show
Although honestly, outside of seeing more Jaeger vs. Kaiju action, there isn’t really much point in a sequel. The story was pretty much completed… A prequel or interquel on the other hand...
Also: Welcome back, Zankaru.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby Zankaru Zelladonii » October 1st, 2013, 8:20 pm

Thank you, good to be back.
Spoiler: show
A prequel seems like the obvious way to go, but I would not try to predict del toro if he did get funding. I would not mind watching pacific rim 2 if it only came with English subtitles (due to Asian country funding) the first was so good.

Even if it is such a giant-robot cliché that not having it in the movie would be borderline heresy:

Boat-sword! :yuush:

Also, the anime-style, freeze frame slash during the aerial fight by gypsy was epic. I had to death grip the theater seats so I did not jump into the air roaring my pleasure, I still ended up yelling 'f*** yeah!' into the silent theater though. :nose_bleed: .

Like chuckg mentioned, the lead male and female did not develop a romance....wat. In this day and age? Every scene I was waiting for the instant, mid-fighting-for-the-world, total stranger romance to start and it never came. They even fought hand-to-hand without one of them getting the upper hand and pinning the other to the ground staring lustfully into the others eyes. So proud of del toro and his writers.
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Re: Pacific Rim

Unread postby Comosicus » December 4th, 2013, 6:24 pm

I finally saw this movie a couple of weeks ago when they put it on UPC on demand, here in Ireland. With all the hype I've seen around this movie I ended up expecting a bit more than what I had received. Not that it didn't delivered. But I guess I lack the background of immersion into giant mecha / monster movies, manga and anime like most of you. It ended up being an enjoyable popcorn action flick with some extra candy and crack on top.

What I mean is that I expected a lot more fighting and action. I guess it must have been the same for those that viewed the first Star Wars movie for the first time. You're presented these cool lightsabers, but you only see a training sequence and the Vader/Obi Wan fight. Everything else is normal sci-fi with ships, fighters, lasers and pew-pew.

I also found Ron Pearlman as the badass of the movie
Spoiler: show
after being swallowed alive by a Kaiju toddler and cutting his way out only with a butterfly knife. And his first worry was his missing golden shoe.
Regarding the sequel - maybe they can do sort of a Clone Wars series showing the few years between the initial incident with Gypsy Danger and the final fights. Or, nothing said that the aliens can't simply open another portal. I don't think it took them 60 million years to build it and I don't believe that the reactor explosion wipe them all out. The portal facility? The Kaiju building factory? Maybe. But not the background infrastructure that must have sustained this operation.
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