Pacific Rim: The Biggest Giant Monster Movie Ever Made!

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

OK, so some expanded thoughts. Trying to keep it non-spoilery first:

Things I loved:
-The effects. For me to say this is a HUGE compliment, given how little I enjoy CG effects work, but I thought they were generally fantastic.
-It delivers on its promise.
-It's not overly serious or melodramatic (save for one moment...but that's a spoiler to discuss). There are moments where it's serious (people die after all) but it's never as ridiculously melodramatic as something like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
-The fights are follow-able. I was really worried this would be all jump cuts and things moving so fast we couldn't see, but nope. You can see the kaiju grab a crane and smash it into the jaeger's back, the jaeger pick up a train car and bash the kaiju's face, things play out in such a way as to be pretty easy to take in (generally).
-The scale (when present). The times when we get the true sense of scale, like the fight in Hong Kong, are awesome.
-The world. There's a big, expansive world ready to be built upon here. I dunno if it ever will be, but there are giant walls being built, original attacks, several eras/marks of jaegers, and black market kaiju organ dealers just waiting to be expanded upon...not to mention, we don't get much (if any) of an idea of what the world as a whole is like...for people in the mid-west, are kaiju just something you hear about? or does it affect them? are they on rations there too, just like those on the coastal cities who are fighting for work on the walls just for a day's meal? I would like to know, honestly.

Things I liked:
-The characters. This has MUCH more to do with the actors than the characters though. After talking with Travis Beacham and getting a feel for his body of work, I'm convinced the dude just really doesn't write very good dialogue. It's cool that he's a nerd and a fan and that he's getting to do passion projects and such, but his dialogue is not good....but Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, and Charlie Day bring something to their characters to make them likable, something that slightly just ever so slightly elevates them above their stock, cliché caricature-like dialogue and makes them more relatable...like the characters of a Jun Fukuda film...
-The monster designs. The ones we get to see decent amounts of have solid variety, and even in their similarities, there are storyline reasons for it. This only falls into the "like" category because it felt like every design that we DIDN'T get to see on screen for a long time was derivative of another of the film's designs. Like, "eh, this one will only be on screen for 20 seconds, just make it look exactly like that one."
-The score. It's still not as great as I'd like, but it's much better in the movie than standalone...and that's largely because of the repetition. I like when themes get re-used throughout a score to tie the whole thing together...listening to the standalone PacRim score, it's like an hour long jam session...watching the movie, it's a more cohesive score, and the "Go Big or Go Extinct" track gets sprinkled throughout the movie to give us a nice theme to latch onto.

Things I did not like:
-The ending seems a little too final. On the one hand, setting up a sequel would be easy, on the other hand, it'd be difficult to do it without the setup feeling kinda lazy and obvious.
-Some of the plot points did not connect (more in the spoilers).
^STOP READING HERE IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN SPOILER FREE









SPOILERS ABOUND:
More things I loved:
-The monsters had SUPER POWERS! Holy hell, totally unexpected and awesome. Acid breath, EMP-head-blasts, wow...freakin' sweet.
-The kaiju being under control. was a point I'd heard about during pre-production and didn't care for much, but I liked it. It felt like a 60s alien-invasion plot piece AND I actually thought it lent a nice bit of duality here...I noticed the aliens themselves in the brief moments we saw them, were VERY evocative of the kaiju, and the jaegers are essentially humanoid...it made it feel like the kaiju were/are the jaegers of the aliens. I liked it. It felt like a nice point.


More things I did not like:
-The overly melodramatic moment....Raleigh sets Gypsy Danger to explode, gets into an escape pod, escapes....and we're supposed to believe the he somehow magically died in the pod at some point? That just didn't jive to me, not to mention it was ENTIRELY unnecessary and a terrible cliché.
-Everything in the movie is destroyed at the end...all the jaegers, the bridge, most of the jaeger program personnel...a sequel would have to address not only how the kaiju would get back to Earth (kinda easy, honestly...build another portal, since they were said to just be biding their time anyway), but how it would be decided to re-start the jaeger program, who would take over, where they would get teams from, etc, etc, etc. I know it seems like we win at the end, but I dunno...it feels like we made ourselves pretty damned defenseless.
- The non-connecting plot points....OKAY, so we're decommissioning the jaegers and building a wall...but before that order is even really finalized, a kaiju breaks through the wall in under an hour, destroys Sydney AND on top of that, a jaeger takes it out QUICKLY. It'd be one thing if it broke through the wall and the jaeger failed and you'd just sit back and say "Hey, the wall is like a warning system and it's less expensive and less life-costly than the jaegers...I mean, the jaeger showed up and the kaiju kicked its butt" but when the thing you're decommissioning protects you from the threat and the new thing fails, it tugs at my suspension of disbelief a bit too much...it didn't feel enough like there were consequences for the actions in this movie.
-We never really get a feel for WHY certain bridges are stronger than others and some pilots mesh really well...The funny thing is, it's not so much the Raleigh/Mako team I had a problem with, as their ability to bond seems strongly rooted in each of them having a major traumatic moment in their past, but more with the Australian team...seriously. The prequel comic says pilots need to be best friends and even leaving that aside, the movie itself says the deeper the bond the better the control, but pops and his son don't even seem to like each other...especially the son. The egomaniacal douche of a person that he is, it doesn't seem like he'd bond with ANYONE for ANY reason, he'd be too proud to admit he needs help. Show me some reason why these two make a good team and I'd probably withdraw my entire "teamwork" complaint, but as it is, it just feels like "hey, here's a plot point to make the movie LOOK LIKE it's not just a $200 million movie on the level of Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, but it totally actually is" i'm fine with that, but the pretense of the two-person pilot system never really paid off the way it could have.


END SPOILERS




It's a fun movie, but don't go into it expecting more than that. It's fun. It's the type of movie that I would have killed to have seen at the age of 12, and it's the type of movie I ultimately think I'll end up being able to watch over and over and whenever it ultimately winds up on tv, i'll be able to pick up halfway through and just sit back and enjoy...but it's missing SOMETHING and feels a BIT like a missed opportunity. There's a more fleshed-out, slightly better idea in here. I just hope the film does well enough to warrant a sequel so we can get it.

Don't take this as me admitting I didn't like it or something, I loved it, I just wish I could be more confident that others would love it too...

[jellydonut25]

Oh yeah, another non-spoilery nitpick...the night/dark/wet/rain/water stuff did get kinda old....like ALMOST GINO old...

EDIT:

This would be my review if I were doing a blurb-ish review (Spoiler-free!):
I could go on a HUGE rant about the movie. I loved it, but it's not without its faults. At the end of the day, it's a lot like a 60s or 70s Godzilla film for me. Big, bright, colorful, and fun, with good actors carrying stock/cliché characters farther than they should in terms of what's in the script, but still a flawed film with a plot that only kinda hangs together in a bare way. I personally LOVED it, but I think in a certain way, it's a bit of a missed opportunity: kaiju fans will love this, but I don't think this is going to convert anybody new, honestly.

EDIT AGAIN:
I think I'm gonna stand by that 60s/70s Godzilla movie comment pretty solidly. Largely because I get the feeling that it's what GDT was going for, but also because that's how it came across to me...like the best Jun Fukuda G films.

[klen7]

Loved it. Not perfect but tons of fun. Will see it again for sure and buy it on bluray

[Jorzilla]

I really enjoyed the movie. There were times I found myself laughing at how ridiculous and awesome something was on screen. I really want to buy a Striker Eureka figure (my favorite Jaeger). I'll pick it up on Blu-Ray. I may just see it again in theaters with someone if they are on the fence about seeing it (which is very rare for me, even movies I really enjoy I only see once in theaters).

[kiryugoji04]

I won't call it for sure before I see if again but my gut reaction is that Pacific Rim is probably top ten material for me. I mean, f*cking seriously. Nothing but unabashed love for this film right now. Ishiro Honda is all over this movie.

[jrichreturns]

How packed were the theatres?

[Jorzilla]

I saw the 10pm showing at the Boeing Imax theater, and it was at full capacity except in the worst seats.

[mrbluehair]

Saw it, loved it. When I watch these films, as long as there are no real WTF moments in the story, I'm fine if the puzzle is kind of forced together.

I mean you had to fit a story in a monster fight fest, and they did it quite well. Most of the battles were awesome, there was a sense of grandeur that was evident, I guess my only "complaint" comes from being a Godzilla fan and that was the long shot where you can take in the action from a distance instead of so much close up or ground level shots. That said, they used much of the close ups to show the slow, heavy impacts instead of quick rips like Transformers. I could follow the fights, so I could stand the night/water stuff. Plus Hong Kong at night with all the color really added a nice element.

I think my favorite moment is when they go back to "Check" Leatherback.....

I did see it in 3d, and am not as harsh as some here are on it, they did seem to do as Guillermo said and kept it mostly 2d with the battles which worked well.

I was just happy all the trailers really only did scratch the surface of what I got to see.

[Pkmatrix]

Saw it and really REALLY loved it! I loved the kaiju, I loved the Jaegers, the characters were good and well acted, I really enjoyed the story and the world...I can go on and on sing praises for this one.

[Hybrid Gojira]

There were probably 50 people at the last showing I went to (10:30 non-3D).

[Jinzo Ningen]

Pretty good movie - for what it was. But honestly, I was hoping for it to be better. All of the characters were cliches, overall the script was beat-by-beat totally predictable, and I was very disappointed that del Toro chose to stage the 2 main battles in the dark & rain. Seriously, after 20 years in the CGI business, there's no reason that ILM couldn't have done those battles perfectly 100% realistic in broad daylight; the sequence with the attack on the Golden Gate bridge underscored this. Granted, the lights on Hong Kong harbor were pretty, but it sure would've been nice to actually get a chance to admire the intricate Jaeger and Kaiju designs.

I thought that all of the actors did well with what they were given, although the 2 scientists were just over-the-top in their scenery-chewing. But if you take this film as a love letter to the Golden Age Toho kaiju films then it's about pitch-perfect. And at least I could actually follow the battles - which were beautifully executed. I guess I liked it but left wishing it had been better. A true sign of jadedness and nit-pickery, but hey... it is what it is. Also, FWIW, there were only about 1/4 of the seats filled in the 7pm showing in our theater. Don't know about the 10pm, but it looked to have a slightly larger turnout, based on the line-up we saw as my wife and I exited the theater.

[jellydonut25]

I wonder if the 7 pm showings were added too late and most people just didn't know about them. That would dit with all the other marketing mistakes made up to the film's release

[jellydonut25]

[mr.negativity]

THR:


Deadline:

[Henry88]

[Kailem]

[Jinzo Ningen]

[jellydonut25]

[DannyBeane]

[Henry88]

[Gman2887]

[Henry88]