Escape to the Movies: Pacific Rim

[PuckFuppet]

In all honesty Yuuki those suits reminded me far more of the basic texture designs they used in Mass Effect than Crysis.

Coming back to an earlier discussion about box office take, PR performed surprisingly well in on-line ticket sales for a new IP with little in the way of really bankable stars. Elba's European pull seems to be selling the film well in the UK and Germany so far, where the majority of the advertising has used him front and centre with the mecha, but that could change. Even if it just pulls down a relatively meagre 40,000,000, the fact that a 40,000,000 take on an opening weekend is considered meagre for a genre film should appropriately amaze everyone, it'll be on course to cover its budget at least.

 

[Nouw]

snip

Really? You decide to spoiler tag a picture but not an actual spoiler? The movie came out this week, have some common freakin' courtesy.

Spoiler tags are only there because the images were big and ate up too much screen space.

MovieBob went out of his way in the very first minute of the video to give flat-out recommendation and warned the review was full of spoilers. People who just wanted a professional verdict were told what they needed to know.
If they still went on to watch the whole review despite the endless warnings and then read this far into the thread (seriously?), that's their freakin' decision. Don't tell me about "courtesy".

Interesting how we both edited our posts.

I'm just a bit miffed I got spoilered after having gotten past the review and everyone else's reviews spoiler-free. Yes, I read through the thread because I wanted to see what the rest of the Escapist thought. Is that such a damnable crime that I deserve to get spoiled? (He doesn't actually give a spoiler-warning...). Arguing over this isn't going to make me magically forget so let's just leave it there shall we?

My apologies for being rude.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Do they say in the movie why we need giant mech's as to just using tanks and air strikes on these things? Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna see it, just wondering about that.

Well, glad to see that it didn't suck and now I can see it this weekend.

Would have loved to the see the UK make a Warhammer 40K style mech for the movie but oh well.

They said that when the first Kaiju attacked, it took 6 days and 35 miles before they were able to take it down with conventional weapons.

sounds good and i sure are interested, but for some odd reason my cinema, who usually plays 2D and 3D version of the same movie,only has it in 3D.
not really fond of 3D and it costs too much. looks like i have to wait till its out on dvd so i can watch it in normal 2D version.

seriously??? this movie one should watch not only in 3D but in Imax 3D. well go wait, I will go see this movie the way it was meant to be seen, Imax 3D.

Except it was post-converted into 3D, so it was originally intended to be viewed in 2D. Imax perhaps, but still 2D.

The movie was pretty good but I have to say...those 'Australian' characters had the worst 'Australian' accents ever.

Spoiler

It's not doing so well over here in Australia (opened in 4th place) and that poster of Sydney in rubble? Yeah...not in the movie. A Kaiju attacks Sydney briefly but there's hardly any destruction as it's quickly disposed of by the 'Australian'-piloted Jaeger

The action was intense and epic although I don't think it will do very well unfortunately. Mainly because it is camp and full of cheesy acting/dialogue. It will probably be a box-office flop (especially with a $180 Million budget) and end up a cult classic like Starship Troopers.

Uh, whut? They had great Australian accents. Just because they don't sound like people around cities doesn't mean their accent is wrong.

Uh, no, most of the time (especially the younger one) they were very clearly British accents.

 

[Bujiraso]

I shot off to see it last night with three friends while catching up on Escapist videos, specifically the one where Bob said he hadn't even seen it but urged us to go

TT___TT the movie... was so ... GOOD <3

Twice now me and a bunch of friends have run off to a phenomenal movie we would have not otherwise seen because Bob says "GOGOGOGO!" (Cloud Atlas was the other).
I am pleased.
Thanks Bob!

 

[Tim Dettrick]

Just got back from seeing Pacific Rim. Bob, did we see the same movie?

IT WAS HILARIOUS! I had tears in my eyes from laughing!

Unlike "The Avengers" though, it really didn't seem to realise that it was cracking the funnies. The CGI was fantastic, yes, but the plot seemed like a fever dream after chain-reading tvtropes.com.

To give some examples:

Spoiler

* Anybody wonder why the wall to protect Sydney runs east-west, for some reason protecting Sydney CBD from... North Sydney? Because it's not Sydney without the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in shot!

* Oh look, the Kaiju is flying. Well, I guess seeing as those helicopters can carry the Jaegers, I guess that makes sense.

* We're being carried off to the sky, and we're doomed... oh, wait, we have a sword... which we haven't used until now 'cause... well, 'cause.

* The cloned critter is pregnant... because a working reproductive system is what a genetically-engineered war machine generally carries about.

* Of course the Jaegers work 3km underwater. (These ones are nuclear-powered, remember?) Can't see because it's dark, but of course voice radio works *just fine*. Works fine on the other side of an inter-dimensional rift too BTW.

* We can blow the rift, because we're nuclear-powered... err, sure.

* Nuke under water to take out the enemy. First, you go: "nuclear depth-charge == PURE AWESOME" and then realise that everything you know about explosions under water doesn't happen in this universe... because if it did, we'd have no need for fighting robots!

* "He needs to blow the reactor now" followed by "timer set to 60 seconds". What part of "now" did you not get, hotshot?

* You need Kaiju DNA to go through the rift, except when your escape capsule is floating "up" through said rift.

* While wearing metal armour, there's no problem with swimming a few strokes to get to your co-pilot's capsule (which is conveniently only a few meters away).

* The best form of CPR after oxygen deprivation is to hug people close to your chest!

I understand the concept of genre movie. I'm not asking for realistic physics. Unlike the anime it mimics though, it doesn't even pretend there's a "good explanation". No Minovsky particles here. No "AT field". Splashing around in water is obviously more damaging than all the weapons in the world, so we're doing that. We don't even go through the motions of hitting it with a nuke.

It's Power Rangers, with slightly better looking uniforms.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Gush more Bob


I saw it this morning.

It's alright, not great by any means, and I'm easy to impress.

I don't know, I think I was just expecting it to be more like this in terms of fun.



What is awesome, is that the voice of GLaDOS says 'Rocket Punch engaged'

I repeat

[HEADING=1]the voice of GLaDOS says 'Rocket Punch engaged'[/HEADING]

Now I wait for Platinum games to make a movie...

Hey, it could happen

Agreed, there was no polish, no style. Don't get me wrong the fights were epic but apart from 1 cool acrobatic manoeuvre, it was trading body blows all the way through. Dialogue could have been served with crackers (again, not really a problem but did the huge cgi budget mean there was nothing left for a scriptwriter?), basically we need an eastern big budget mech movie...and see it done REALLY right.

I think that's exactly why I didn't like it as much everyone else.

I mean, yeah, I went to see robots punch monsters in the face, that was the soul reason I went.

Apart from the mentioned air scene, there was just no finesse to any of it. The fights were boring, it was just punches and grappling, but with no sense of impact.

I wanted Gurren Lagan, I got Rockem Sockem Robots.

 

[revjor]

Bob likes his nostalgia as usual, and that's nice, but did he miss the part where...

Spoiler

Idris Elba chooses the asshole kid as his co-pilot near the end and hand-waves it saying "You're an egotist with daddy issues". And because he can summarize him with that sentence, they're perfect for neural bonding? What? Didn't we just go through about two hours of ALLEGED psychic bonding between our two main protagonists? And Idris and the douche just hand-wave it because whatever? The whole audience held their breath thinking somebody would explain things in that scene. But it ended. And then the movie ended. It was a good fun movie but what the fuck was the point of all that moping and bonding and doubting and wondering between Becket and Mako if any two people can bond just as well in like a second? It undermined everything the movie had built up to.

It was more than that:

Spoiler

First the father and son reference in their goodbye that jaeger pilots don't normally talk to each other about their feelings because they already know what they are gonna say. Though the father still feels regret for not having said them. Then Idris says the whole "You're egotistical, arrogant...etc... I figured that out that on day one." *camera switches to broken arm dad.*

Idris' first Jaeger partner was the Aussie pilot's dad. So Idris has the shared memories of the father which include part of the son's life. That would make them as close to father and son as you could get without Idris being the father. The "I figured that out on day one" is also the Idris saying, "You are my son and we can do this together." Which is one of those things the father never said. It was a nice little moment of fatherhood and brotherhood between partners past and present.

Then when the son questions how he'll be able to handle Idris' mind Idris explains that he can keep his mind completely blank. Which shows that he's the most badass of all the badassest.

 

[Summerstorm]

Oh sure Bob!
I'll just grab my bike and pedal that sucker across the fucking Atlantic.

I'm so goddamn jealous right now.

But hey at least it's supposed to be good so I do have something to look forward to at least

Hm hm... 5 days... FIVE DAYS.
Dammit.
That is five days i have to read about it being too awesome to miss on the internet. CURSE you, global network!!! CURSE YOUUUUU.

 

[Iceklimber]

Moviebob often mentioned this Movie and always referred to it as an "Original" but but there were giant Robots controlled by Humans that fight each other or Monsters were in Japan since many many Decades time and time again so no Idea how it is supposed to be original.

 

[Buizel91]

Can't wait to see this! This along Monsters Uni is in my top 4 to see this month!

 

[Fangface74]

Moviebob often mentioned this Movie and always referred to it as an "Original" but but there were giant Robots controlled by Humans that fight each other or Monsters were in Japan since many many Decades time and time again so no Idea how it is supposed to be original.

Also agreed; Robot Jox (1989 I think)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kd642Ix5ks

 

[Ix Rebound]

I disliked how both the Russian and Chinese teams got precisely ONE battle in which we saw them fight, and in that very battle both were killed. For all their robots/teams were hyped-up to be "legendary" when introduced, what a terribly short performance.

What made even less sense is that the Chinese+Russian teams were killed despite being vastly more in-sync due to so many years' battle experience (Chinese team was composed of triplets for christ's sake)...and then a random combination of the protagonist + some Japanese girl whom he has fuck-all experience drifting with beats BOTH category 4 Kaiju? Kaiju which had no issues destroying both Chinese and Russian teams? Sorry but WHAT? That goes against the whole "better sync'd pilots = better fighters" principle, doesn't it?

I get this is a movie aimed at Americans but...come on, at least TRY to give giant robots from other countries a decent chance and "balance" the robots/teams in terms of power -_-

Yeah that kinda annoyed me as well, more so because (since im aussie) I wish we saw Striker Eureka in more fights, I mean its said that it has over 10 confirmed Kaiju kills and it described as the most advanced Jaeger of all time, but it only gets 2ish fights and then game over

It gets an admittably awesome introduction where its beats the living shit out of kaiju in under 20 seconds of screen time. But then when the stakes are actually high, it roughs up one kaiju but is then shut down just in time for the other (american) jaegar to SAVE THE DAY! -_-

It gets my hopes up in the end where gypsie and striker team up to assault the breach but then dashes them when it gives the Cat 5 kaiju a paper cut and then decides to blow itself up.
Never mind that they were in pretty much 100% battle condition (ok the chest piece was dented)They could have at least waited until they were properly banged up, maybe even until they killed that other Cat 4 kaiju but no. It got to be the 'muricans thats save the earth! -_-

 

[revjor]

I disliked how both the Russian and Chinese teams got precisely ONE battle in which we saw them fight, and in that very battle both were killed. For all their robots/teams were hyped-up to be "legendary" when introduced, what a terribly short performance.

What made even less sense is that the Chinese+Russian teams were killed despite being vastly more in-sync due to so many years' battle experience (Chinese team was composed of triplets for christ's sake)...and then a random combination of the protagonist + some Japanese girl whom he has fuck-all experience drifting with beats BOTH category 4 Kaiju? Kaiju which had no issues destroying both Chinese and Russian teams? Sorry but WHAT? That goes against the whole "better sync'd pilots = better fighters" principle, doesn't it?

I get this is a movie aimed at Americans but...come on, at least TRY to give giant robots from other countries a decent chance and "balance" the robots/teams in terms of power -_-

Yeah that kinda annoyed me as well, more so because (since im aussie) I wish we saw Striker Eureka in more fights, I mean its said that it has over 10 confirmed Kaiju kills and it described as the most advanced Jaeger of all time, but it only gets 2ish fights and then game over

It gets an admittably awesome introduction where its beats the living shit out of kaiju in under 20 seconds of screen time. But then when the stakes are actually high, it roughs up one kaiju but is then shut down just in time for the other (american) jaegar to SAVE THE DAY! -_-

It gets my hopes up in the end where gypsie and striker team up to assault the breach but then dashes them when it gives the Cat 5 kaiju a paper cut and then decides to blow itself up.
Never mind that they were in pretty much 100% battle condition (ok the chest piece was dented)They could have at least waited until they were properly banged up, maybe even until they killed that other Cat 4 kaiju but no. It got to be the 'muricans thats save the earth! -_-

Spoiler

They were doomed when both kaiju were bearing down and they knew it. They blew the nuke thinking it would kill both allowing Gypsy to grab a corpse and easily finish the job. Even if it killed the Cat 4 in 2 on 1 combat what difference would that make? It's dead either way and the 5 is still alive. If that went wrong you run the risk of dying in the fight and both kaiju living. There was no way the one legged and one armed Gypsy was gonna beat both.

From what I can tell, an Aussie, a Brit, a Japanese(haha "a Japanese") and an American did a whole lot of world saving in the end.

Also Aussie bros shot a kaiju in the face with flare guns. How do you get more badass than that?

 

[tohellwithyourcrap]

It's Power Rangers, with slightly better looking uniforms.

you say that as if it's a bad thing. the first way i described this movie to people was to tell them it was power rangers vs godzilla.

I did not expect nor do i need much else from this particular film other than said power rangers fighting the aforementioned godzilla(s)

Pacific Rim was great. I wish my nieces and nephews could understand words. They would love this movie if they were just a few years older.

 

[Malisteen]

My only criticism is the under-use of the Russian and Chinese teams, yeah. I mean, the film was long enough already, but they could have cut or re-arranged things to allow one or both of them to shine more.

Other than that, though, it was a fun movie with great action, cool monsters, and a refreshing lack of pretense & wangst. I loved it.

 

[Edith The Hutt]

So I just found this quote by del Toro about the film:

It is my duty to film the finest fucking monsters ever committed to the screen. And the greatest fucking robots ever committed to screen. That's a pledge

Yeah, I reckon he delivered on that one.

 

[lightsentry]

It wasn't bad, it was what it set out to be and that's ok. Was pretty average on the whole though.

 

[mecegirl]

And you are saying that is a bad thing?

No. Just that it's silly for people to keep comparing this movie to Eva when it draws its inspiration from so many sources. Especially considering since the tone and iconography of the Eva anime is miles away from this movie.

 

[PuckFuppet]

No Minovsky particles here. No "AT field". Splashing around in water is obviously more damaging than all the weapons in the world, so we're doing that. We don't even go through the motions of hitting it with a nuke.

I take it the Minovsky and "AT field" references are to fictional concepts? Assuming that to be true I would infer that these concepts occur as part of the plot in a medium whereby there were hours worth of possible screen time to air them out thoroughly or perhaps could be referenced at length in other associated media like books or on a wiki. While it isn't exactly something they should feel that they can just handwave I don't think that a film aimed at launching a new and potentially high budget franchise should waste any screentime explaining concepts that a majority of its audience are not going to care enough about to understand.

Spoiler

Nothing in the intro suggested that they hadn't tried nukes at one time or another, in fact going by some background discussion about the rift I'd say that they had tried to get a nuke (or something else) through it before. But as was discussed earlier in this thread the potential collateral damage from the use of tactical nuclear warheads, or any ordinance powerful enough to damage a target that shrugged off a direct impact from a jet and multiple missles like it was no big deal, would be massive. Significantly more damaging even than having that target engaged and then held within a few km^2 by something that could exert enough physical force to chop it to bits or even tear it apart.

In the intro it explicitly stated that it took six days to take down the first Kaiju that made landfall with conventional weapons, presumably this was a Cat 1 or 2 but even going so far as to directly compare it with the Cat 5 we did see then the sheer amount of damage something that big getting hit with that much ordinance in a densely urban area could cause would be staggering. And we're not talking about some IED's slapped together by a few amateurs, we're talking about the kind of explosive and armour piercing ordinance at the disposal of a modern military force, and when you see the kind of damage those IED's can do it certainly scares the crap out of you when you consider how that damage would scale with the difference in available resources.

Furthermore the one time we did see a Kaiju get hit by a nuke it took a megaton blast to the face and walked it off.

 

[knight4light]

Bob. you need to watch this. Its a fully funded parody of PR. Totalbiscuit. Jessecox, dodger. huskystarcraft, gamegrumps. :3 its soo bad and awesome.


also Guillermo del Toro makes an appearance