Pacific Rim: not forcing it.

[CrazyCajun777]

Ok so I am about to spoil the pants off of the end to Pacific Rim. If you haven't seen it I would recommend it. It isn't the next Casablanca, but it is a lot of fun. I generally disagree with Movie Bob, but on this one I have to say that he is right, if a little over enthusiastic.

OK so SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

I am going to point out something I like in Pacific Rim for two reasons

1.) it is demonstrative of what made the movie good.
2.) I like attention.

In one of the final scenes of the film (perhaps the very final I don't exactly recall) the main character and his leading lady saved the day Huzza!!! These two are built up to be a somewhat romantic couple for the entirety of the film. She watches him change through a peep hole(oh but when i do it I'm creepy...double standard!), he defends her honor, they talk about feelings and grow closer by discussing past tragedy, he does the whole "I never really thought about the future before...until now" suggesting he thinks about a future that she is a part of and so on and so forth. Then, at the final moments of the film, where he after he saves her life and the world, they don't kiss.

'Yup, I'm pleased about something that did not happen in a film. Now don't get me wrong, a part of me wanted them to kiss (I know I'm a sap) and when they didn't I felt frustrated. I wanted that release (this is getting creepy). However, I remember at the end hoping they would not kiss. Why? because their relationship was not there. It would have felt very forced and contrived. Sure, they certainly eyeballed each other a couple of times, they were very close, they seemed attracted to each other, and they even flirted a little, but they weren't there yet. See in movie terms a big sloppy kiss at the end might as well be a wild sex scene (that is a different Pacific Rim though...eh eh eh....get it?...sorry) it is bringing that relationship to the next level, but the two weren't given enough focus as a pairing to justify it.

I suspect the relationship had not yet reached the point where a big kiss would feel natural because of time. I do not know this, but I suspect at some point someone looked at the movie's run time and decided that ten minutes of a date involving putt putt golf and a long walk on the beach needed to be cut for more robot punching monster in face stuff. Which is good! Action movies can be tough. You need to walk the line between personal story telling and SPLOSIONS! This is no easy task. If you have too much personal you get transformers, too much SPLOSIONS! and you get transformers 2. I feel that Pacific Rim did a good job of walking this line. It never sacrificed what was good about it. This trait continued to more details, but that is a discussion for another time.

Thank you for your attention.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I didn't mind at all. I was kinda waiting for it. I would've almost felt insulted if they hadn't kissed. A movie about giant robots slicing giant mollusks with mega swords and GLaDOS AI doesn't need to worry about rushing into a little kiss. It's almost traditional at this point dammit, the hero and the heroine kiss!

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I see that quite a bit in anime, so I was fine with that in the movie. Hell, I thought it was quite refreshing for a big budget American summer Hollywood blockbuster. From what I've gathered, it's typically a Japanese thing. Japan sees kissing as a more sexual act that should be done in private and when you're really, really close.

 

[Rylot]

Yeah that struck me as a nice touch as well. Felt more natural. There was a lot of little things that the movie did well that made me like this movie more than I otherwise would have.

 

[Olas]

Sooo glad they didn't kiss. It would have been really stupid and inappropriate all things considered.

'We just killed a monster, we're in love now'

 

[krazykidd]

Ok so I am about to spoil the pants off of the end to Pacific Rim. If you haven't seen it I would recommend it. It isn't the next Casablanca, but it is a lot of fun. I generally disagree with Movie Bob, but on this one I have to say that he is right, if a little over enthusiastic.

OK so SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

I am going to point out something I like in Pacific Rim for two reasons

1.) it is demonstrative of what made the movie good.
2.) I like attention.

In one of the final scenes of the film (perhaps the very final I don't exactly recall) the main character and his leading lady saved the day Huzza!!! These two are built up to be a somewhat romantic couple for the entirety of the film. She watches him change through (oh but when i do it I'm creepy...double standard!), he defends her honor, they talk about feelings and grow closer by discussing past tragedy, he does the whole "I never really thought about the future before...until now" suggesting he thinks about a future that she is a part of and so on and so forth. Then at the final moments where he after he saves her life, and the world they don't kiss.

'Yup, I'm pleased about something that did not happen in a film. Now don't get me wrong, a part wanted them to kiss (I know I'm a sap) and when they didn't I felt frustrated. I wanted that release (this is getting creepy). However, I remember at the end hoping they would not kiss. Why? because their relationship was not there. It would have felt very forced and contrived. Sure, they certainly eyeballed each other a couple of times, they were very close, they seemed attracted to each other, and they even flirted a little, but they weren't there yet. See in movie terms a big sloppy kiss at the end might as well be a wild sex scene (that is a different Pacific Rim though...eh eh eh....get it?...sorry) it is bringing that relationship to the next level, but the two weren't given enough focus as a pairing to justify it.

I suspect the relationship had not yet reached the point where a big kiss would feel natural because of time. I do not know this, but I suspect at some point someone looked at the movie's run time and decided that ten minutes of a date involving putt putt golf and a long walk on the beach needed to be cut for more robot punching monster in face stuff. Which is good! Action movies can be tough. You need to walk the line between personal story telling and SPLOSIONS! This is no easy task. If you have too much personal you get transformers, too much SPLOSIONS! and you get transformers 2. I feel that Pacific Rim did a good job of walking this line. It never sacrificed what was good about it. This trait continued to more details, but that is a discussion for another time.

Thank you for your attention.

Wait you never kissed someone spur of the moment? Or on the same day you met them? Man my morals are non existant .

OT: wait your spoiler( and thread )was all about kissing ?

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Have you seen Lockout with Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace? Relationship between two main characters in both movies felt really similar to me. As in, two main leads go through the hell, develop affection to each other, save each other lives, and in the end their romantic relationship is implied, but not shown. In end of Lockout, Maggie Grace's character approaches Guy Pearce, music gets all sappy and then she punches him in a face. "I thought you were gonna kiss me". Amazing touch.

 

[Jandau]

I noticed the absence of a kiss as well and found it to be a nice little touch, along with the lack of a cheesy sex scene. There was no need for any of that, and it also shows that a man and a woman can become close and intimate without necessarily making out and/or fucking.

In general, a ton of little things in the movie just added a lot to it and this is definitely one I'll be watching again. I'm not saying it's perfect, there are things one can nitpick about, but there is so much right in there that the bad just pales in comparison...

 

[fix-the-spade]

too much SPLOSIONS! and you get transformers 2..

Transformers 2 should have had more SPLOSIONS, every part of that film that wasn't splosions was horrible to watch, especially all the college scenes. Really a perfect Transformers movie would be Optimus Prime and Megatron fighting, for an hour and a half whilst everything around them explodes.

With any luck, Pacific Rim 2 (live in hope) will skip straight to them being a married couple and established aces of the world like the Russians and Cherno Alpha were, but hopefully it won't arbitrarily kill them off like complete bitches this time.

 

[CrazyCajun777]

I would just like to say for the record that I do not disagree with a big kiss at the end of a film. I actually prefer it. I mean yes it is used a lot, but there is a reason for that, it works. It is a final pay off of the tension and build up. In fact, the fact that they didn't kiss left me frustrated. However, at the point in the film where one would expect a kiss it would have been a cheap contrivance because such a thing would have been forced. At the end of the day I am complimenting Pacific Rim for avoiding contrivance and staying true to what is at the core of the film. Personally, I feel that building up the relationship more between the two characters and having them kiss at the end may have been favorable (we will never know). However, what was presented up to that point did not allow for a big sloppy wet one.

After doing some research I found that they actually did film a big kiss at the end, but it felt "weird." This is an imprecise way of saying that it felt unnatural because of the lack of build up.

Wait you never kissed someone spur of the moment? Or on the same day you met them? Man my morals are non existant .

OT: wait your spoiler( and thread )was all about kissing ?

Reality is different from a story my friend.

In Jack Bickham's "Scene and Structure" ole Jack points out that in reality people just get sick. However, in a story someone can't just get sick. I mean think how odd it would have been if just all the sudden Stacker Pentecost was like, "look man I'm sick and going to die. I got small cell lung cancer, and ebola, and Kuru, and a super STD for like no reason." It would be weird. His illness has to be explained, "well in the old days radiation shielding wasn't really a priority" (or something like that). It has to be justified and explained or the audience will reject it.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I was actually surprised they didn't kiss. I even went after they hugged towards the end "now kiss..." (in my head), but that moment never happened.

I didn't feel that their relationship throughout the movie was supposed to be a romance or maybe I didn't read the signals off properly. It might have, but that's not that I saw.

Regardless, movie was great and everyone should go see it at least once.

 

[the7ofswords]

It's funny?at the end I was silently willing them not to kiss, and was quite pleased they didn't. I was glad to see the antithesis of the concept that men and women can't have close relationships without it becoming sexual/romantic.

They were clearly psychologically compatible (otherwise they wouldn't have been able to function properly inhabiting one another's minds in the Drift), and so they naturally became close. But that doesn't mean they have to pair off romantically or get involved in a sexual relationship.

Might they have? Or might they later on down the road? Sure, it's possible. (Compatibility again.) But it wasn't necessary, and it wasn't needed here.

As far as him defending her honor, I was a bit bothered by that, at first. Partly because she had proved herself quite capable of defending her own honor. But then, she wasn't the kind to let the Australian's remarks bait her?either because she felt she deserved derision, or because, perhaps, she felt she was above such pettiness. (I've been debating which in my own mind.) And after what he'd witnessed in her childhood memories, he probably felt a strong sense of protectiveness towards her. So, I think that scene was a little bit of character building for both of them.

I thought the emotional hug fit the situation, and the lack of a kiss at the end was quite refreshing!

 

[Machine Man 1992]

I was glad there wasn't a romantic subplot.

On the other hand, after you've spent several hours in someone else's mind, feeling what they feel, seeing what they saw, wouldn't physical intimacy be redundant?

 

[BabySinclair]

They wouldn't have to kiss each other to know how much they feel for one another, they've literally been inside the head of the other. Kissing to show affection would be rather moot, regardless of any sexual or non-sexual attraction between the two. The voice over at one point sums it up (Paraphrasing) "After you've been in the drift with someone you realize there isn't much that needs to be said as you know what the other is thinking."

 

[Abomination]

I was glad there wasn't a romantic subplot.

Remember how Bob said how they were: there's a giant monster, we have no time for sappy shit, go punch it in the face.

You don't have time to get your shaft wet or your field plowed when you're trying to save the world from monsters of the great beyond. You got other things on your mind, like punching monsters in the face.

It's actually quite strange, I can't think of a single AAA action movie that didn't have some shoehorned romantic subplot... Pacific Rim has actually broken ground.

 

[Pebkio]

This was actually a big discussion in my household. One of the first things out of my mouth when we were leaving the theatre: "Wow, they didn't kiss". It was all extremely natural.

I mean, there was a romantic subplot, kind-of, but it was so subtle; so natural. Near the end the guy just kinda drops that he's interested. And then they go gut a monster and blow up the future. At the end, they act like REAL people and just hug to stop the adrenaline shakes. Most people don't start slobbering over each other after they get out of a near-death situation.

So yeah, I liked the movie.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I keep telling my friends and co-workers who have not seen Pacific Rim that it's all the "little things" that aren't Jaegers punching Kaiju that make this movie so good and the relationship between Beckett and Mori is a perfect example of that.

I love that their romantic interest is there, but not a strong focal point. I love the fact that she's the one who, on the rare occasion that any attraction is acknowledged, is the one who is showing interest instead of just succumbing to the overbearing presence of his masculinity.

I like that their relationship feels natural. I've heard a lot of people grumble anout The Drift as being a catch all explanation and excuse for not providing a framework for character development and...while that's not entirely untrue, at no point did the movie make me feel like these two weren't "compatible."

 

[Souplex]

I felt it could work either way.
On the one hand; all the stuff you said.
On the other hand: There's obviously some mutual attraction, they just saved the day so it would be the ideal time to cut loose, and they've literally been in each other's heads.
Being in someone's head must be like a million conversations and a hundred dates.