The Big Picture: The New Originals

[RyQ_TMC]

Hmm, wasn't this the movie where they "borrowed" the voice of GLaDOS, from Portal?

Only for one of the early trailers. To generate buzz, presumably. Ellen McLain, who voiced GLaDOS, will be voicing an AI in the movie, but they used a different filter, so she won't sound gladosy.

OT: I was actually going to see it because I'm aching for a big, dumb action flick I can use as an excuse to stuff myself full of popcorn. I don't go to the theaters a lot and whenever I do, it's usually for some artsy film (as my wife won't watch anything else). I haven't tasted a blockbuster since Avatar. And Pacific Rim sounds like a good excuse.

I don't think supporting stuff regardless of quality is a good idea though. I can trust a specific creator and go see their stuff expecting a good job - which is why I will go see Elysium for Neill Blomkamp, even though the trailer looks less than appealing. I can understand the same working for Del Toro and Pacific Rim.

 

[bigdork]

The first thing I thought when I saw the Pacific Rim trailer was "Look, Hollywood's ripping off 90s anime sensation Evangelion now". The two pilots who have to synchronize exactly, with a native-market male and an exotically foreign female, is specific and implausible enough that it can't be coincidence.

I'll still see it. I like a good giant monster movie, and I love a terrible giant monster movie.

 

[RatherDashing89]

I think videogames could benefit from the same speech.
We need some more new IPs. Even something flawed like Remember Me is preferable to the same generic grey and brown FPS that comes out of the pipeline.

With that said, I find it ironic that MovieBob is the one saying it. He is the guy that constantly defends Nintendo redoing (because they are not really reboots or remakes) the same games for the last 15 years and calling Mario with a raccoon costume "originality". It also makes his advertisement of his SMB3 book extra ironic, since that game (while a masterpiece at its time) has been remade so many times that Nintendo has a group of people constantly employed in creating 2D Mario levels.

If I remember correctly, his argument was not that the Mario iterations were original, but that Nintendo has earned the right to "rest on their laurels" instead of being expected to knock it out of the park every time. Which shouldn't prevent us from criticizing the games themselves, IMO, but anyway. Going to MovieBob for opinions regarding modern games reminds me of the AVGN at E3 a few years back commenting (genuinely) "Hey, there's a new Sonic game coming out! Should be cool." Both guys have a vast knowledge of older games but aren't really interested in modern gaming and thankfully don't comment on them much. (Yes, I know about the Game Overthinker. What I've watched of that doesn't really seem to address modern games a whole lot except to compare them to older stuff.)

 

[Raesvelg]

While I certainly plan on seeing Pacific Rim as soon as is physically possible (ie, slightly before midnight on this coming Thursday), to be honest I do take issue with the statement describing it as "original".

Because it's not.

It's basically a fusion of a handful of very common tropes in Japanese anime & kaiju films.

It's certainly new to Hollywood, but much as Bob resents the America-centric productions of Hollywood and embraces the more global perspective apparently ensconced within Pacific Rim, his piece here betrays that he suffers from that Hollywood-centric perspective in filmmaking.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I wanna see it purely cause its giant robots VS giant monsters.

that's pretty much the only reason to in all honesty

 

[Funcakes]

Well, supposedly, but it's by the District 9 guy.

Since humans have been telling stories for most of our existence, originality generally comes in the form of the telling rather than the theme. I'm pretty sure nearly every theme has been done.

Besides, class disparity is still pretty topical.

I forgot it was the District 9 guy. That makes it worth seeing.

The fact it's topical is what gives me pause. It seems like a lot of movies and the lot have included class disparity as of late. Most of the time they do so with little to say on the subject. So hopefully this one actually does have things to say instead of just being a revenge-fantasy flick.

 

[GnomeChompsky]

It may be a new property, but I fail to see what's new in any way about Pacific Rim. Or Elysium, for that matter...

The issue I see, moreso than retreading established franchises, is that the order of the day in filmmaking tends to be loud 'splosions and overwrought spectacle with nothing relatable. Always bigger, ever more "epic" and vacuous.

Pan's Labyrinth was fascinating - will Del Toro ever again get to make another movie on that scale with that sort of intent? Doubtful.

How about we try to steer filmmaking away from the current Bay/Emmerich status quo by voting with our wallets? Anybody?

*tumbleweeds*

 

[Ishigami]

The World's End? Hell yes!
Pacific Rim? - Meh...

Seems just not very appealing to me. Of the movies del Toro made and I have seen I only consider Pans Labyrinth good. Then despite that there is probably something else going on the trailers very much concentrate on the giant robot action that would give Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay a giant boner.
The technology will probably lead to some neat development within the movie (some sort of memory melting stuff?) but the mere concept of having a robot that gets controlled by synchronized pilot just seems so very inefficient that it stops my suspension of disbelieve right before it gets even going.
And then it seems like the movie build up enough of buzz so it ain?t going to miss my 7 Euros...

 

[hermes]

I think videogames could benefit from the same speech.
We need some more new IPs. Even something flawed like Remember Me is preferable to the same generic grey and brown FPS that comes out of the pipeline.

With that said, I find it ironic that MovieBob is the one saying it. He is the guy that constantly defends Nintendo redoing (because they are not really reboots or remakes) the same games for the last 15 years and calling Mario with a raccoon costume "originality". It also makes his advertisement of his SMB3 book extra ironic, since that game (while a masterpiece at its time) has been remade so many times that Nintendo has a group of people constantly employed in creating 2D Mario levels.

If I remember correctly, his argument was not that the Mario iterations were original, but that Nintendo has earned the right to "rest on their laurels" instead of being expected to knock it out of the park every time. Which shouldn't prevent us from criticizing the games themselves, IMO, but anyway. Going to MovieBob for opinions regarding modern games reminds me of the AVGN at E3 a few years back commenting (genuinely) "Hey, there's a new Sonic game coming out! Should be cool." Both guys have a vast knowledge of older games but aren't really interested in modern gaming and thankfully don't comment on them much. (Yes, I know about the Game Overthinker. What I've watched of that doesn't really seem to address modern games a whole lot except to compare them to older stuff.)

He made a big picture recently on Bioshock Infinite, so I guess that, even when he has the fondest memories on past games, he keep himself relatively up to date with new games.
I know he might not be the best source of criticism concerning modern videogames, and I think videogames in general has been more successful at remaking or rebooting old franchises than movies (like Deus Ex, Tomb Raider or XCOM). I just can't help to point out the irony of someone ranting about the lack of original ideas and content in one medium, and then pulling a 180 to praise a game that started a trend of remaking itself constantly, and a company "resting on their laurels" for 25 years, in another medium (fair enough, the game is still a masterpiece, and its unfair to put blame on it for the reaction the creators took from its success, but its not like an entire book dedicated to it could forget to address the elephant in the room).
I guess it wouldn't be as noticeable if it wasn't because one video starts immediately after the other, but still...

 

[IkeGreil29]

Thank you for this episode, it's something that's been bothering me for a while now; no new exciting IPs being released first as movies. They're all loosely based on something, like current books or video games and the reboot and re-imagining that so many pieces of media are getting is making me throw up. Definitely will support Pacific Rim as much as I can.

 

[Grimh]

I'd love to watch Pacific Rim this weekend but apparently it's gonna take the bicycle deliveryman three more weeks to tug that heavy movie reel all the way to a theatre near me.

 

[General Vagueness]

I'm all for supporting original works, but I think it would've been better to do more of that instead of saying "Go see Pacific Rim! Go see it because it's an original work! Watch it because it's also probably good! Pacific Rim, new stuff, both good things! You should totally watch Pacific Rim (oh BTW movies x, y, and z are also original, go see them too) but seriously you guys, Pacific Rim!". I will say that it intrigues me despite a few things that would normally really bother me (mostly the two-person system, WTF, shouldn't it be 3 or 4 if it's more than one?). Personally I'm notably more excited for "The World's End" though.

 

[bificommander]

Well, a friend invited me, and it'll be during my vacation, so I'm going. I was never feeling the hype though. I guess I haven't gotten over my boundless contempt for Hellboy 2.

So I'm not going for newness, but hey, I didn't see any of the reboots or whatever this summer either, so...

 

[TransEquus]

While I am really hoping to see this, it is derivative:

1) Evangellion

2) Robot Jox http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102800/

Robot Jox was a terrible, horrible movie but the control scheme for the robots from Pacific Rim are stolen directly from it.

 

[TransEquus]

If Robot Jox is as good a Giant Robot movies as we are going to get, we should never make another giant robot movie again. That film was an abomination.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I'm kinda surprised, I expected people to be complaining that Bob was encouraging originality for the sake of originality. I agree with him though, and I plan on seeing Pacific Rim with my friends when it comes out. Its getting ridiculous the amount of sequels and reboots in hollywood. We complain about it in video games but there are practically no movies coming out that aren't based on something, even if they are good

I almost feel asleep.

Not sure if genuine typo or cleaver Metal Gear joke

Spoiler

 

[theApoc]

Bravo Bob. Great OP ED piece.

 

[Count_A'ight]

This statement goes against what Bob was preaching but oh well. Everybody see Pacific Rim! Yeah it looks great and it has very positive buzz behind it but I'm seeing it for a different reason. If Pacific Rim does big business, Hollywood will scoop up any mech property that is ripe for a live action movie, like Gundam or Battletech or Robotech. Speaking of Robotech, Toby Maguire already bought the rights to live action Robotech, with plans to produce it. He got Lawrence Kasdan to write the script for the first movie. If Pacific Rim does good business, we will be seeing a live action Robotech soon after.

Has it occurred to anyone this in fact might be a terrible idea? Hollywood doing Robotech.
I mean it could be done anyone ever see Robo Jox. It's as good to a giant robot movie as your ever gonna get guys.

Ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Jox

Oh I agree that Hollywood would probably screw up a Robotech movie. Battletech/Mechwarrior would best work as a series...and not the semi-crappy cartoon they made a while back. A serious take on Mechwarrior would be like Game of Thrones with giant robots.

Robot Jox was awesome when I was a kid. It is appalling now. Seriously, Alexander's mech at the end had a chainsaw dick. That sounds awesome, but it is not. Though Robot Wars made Robot Jox look like a masterpiece.

 

[Smurf McSmurfington]

YES! A great big stonking YES to this. YES!!!!!

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Elysium? Isn't that just another class disparity movie? Am I missing something?

Depends if you liked District 9 or not. You may also have had to survive the tedious agony that is In Time.

OT: You mention stagnation and regurgitation and then bring up The World's End? Simon Pegg being Simon Pegg in yet another Simon Pegg Movie isn't regurgitation?

Though you'll be happy to hear I'm going to be seeing Pacific Rim with my Father. Booking the tickets however has been nightmarish. I have a suspicion it's not going to be shown anywhere near us.

To sign off in four words - "Fuck you Odeon Cinema" X3