I hosted the "Pacific Rim" panel on Friday, and was the only person at the table when it started. I asked if anyone else was interested in weighing in on the film and two people walked on up to offer their views. It is true that one of the two was fairly negative about the film, and did get a bit long-winded in his commentary. To be clear, he gave a the film a standard "two stars out of four" rating, so he wasn't totally negative about it.
It's too bad you only stayed ten minutes, because I went around the entire room and made sure pretty much everyone who raised a hand got a chance to respond. I would agree that the individual you mentioned looked to be taking advantage of the opportunity to hog the mic, but after he got done with his 3 minute dissertation I moved on to others. Out of the three of us I am pretty sure I was the most vocal, but as to whether or not what I had to say was of value, I leave for others to decide.
As for the negative comments, I thought the speaker had some good points, but was talking mostly about the film he would like to have seen vs. the one that was actually produced. I mentioned that I thought we were better off discussing the film that was actually made vs. the one that existed only in his mind.
I am truly saddened that you thought it one of the worst panels ever, based upon only seven minutes (four of which were spent polling the entire audience as to their views, giving my own take, and of the course, the initial introduction). As several people said to me at the conclusion, it was more of a round robin than a panel. In other words, the people in the audience spoke more often than those on the stage (once we were past the original "rant").
As for the "rant" itself, the opinion expressed was as valid as any other. I don't begrudge the speaker his opinion, even though it was clearly at odds with the opinions of most of the others in the room. Where I can agree with you, Klen7, is that it seemed to be "soapbox time," with a deliberately provocative tone. However, I can't imagine that if someone had gone on a three minute enthusiastic rant about how much they loved the film it would have been complained about.
On the other hand, it's a bit dispiriting to me to hear you call a panel you only experienced approximately 15% of "one of the worst." I would be genuinely interested to hear any other views from people who attended the entire event. From the extended ovation at the end I thought it had gone well.
For anyone interested in the overall views of the people in the (pretty much packed) room, it basically broke down like this. First, I asked people to think of the film using the standard "1-4" star rating system, with four stars meaning a film you consider to be one of the best you have ever seen, 3 being good but not great, etc. When I asked for a "four star" rating, about 1/2 of the hands in the room went up. When I asked for a "three star" rating, about 2/3 of the remaining hands went up. The rest (about 20% of the crowd) gave it the proverbial two star rating (the same as our "negative" panelist). FWIW, I came down firmly in the "three star" camp. No one gave it one or zero stars. (I hate these arbitrary 1- 4 star rating systems, but it was a quick and effective way to poll the room.)
Several people in the room commented that the action scenes were framed so tightly that it was difficult to get a real feel for what was happening in the battles. As a result, I asked the crowd "who is tired of shaky-cam action scenes framed so tightly that it is hard to determine exactly what is going on?" and it seemed like literally every hand in the room went up.
My own take was that the film was fun, but that the lead character / actor (Charlie Hunnam) was kind of bland, and that we never really got a sense of the "world in danger" like you do in the best of the Godzilla series. I also felt that the kaiju were pretty much interchangeable and lacked strong personalities, so it was difficult to root
against them and
for the heroes in the battles. The best Godzilla films, IMO, have great monster opponents with clear purposes, personalities and abilities, and they lead up to a grand finale where you can't wait to see Godzilla kick the crap out of his foe. By having so many (to me interchangeable) monsters, it was hard to build up any type of feelings about any of them.
Other than that, I was fully entertained for 2 hours and 10 minutes, and admired many of the FX and visuals.
by MouthForWar » Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:49 pm 
