Pacific Rim - Grading and Discussion

[Shanndee]

OMG I have an unreasonable amount of love for this movie!

It was just such fun. I can't remember the last time I had a goofy grin on my face for the entire running time of a movie!

Sure, the writing and characterization were "lacking", but the movie was done in the style of all the Godzilla and Harryhausen movies that I loved as a kid. And you can see the love del Toro has for those movies in every frame of this one.

It was awesome watching a little boy walking out with his dad after the movie He was waving his arms around, acting out a specific scene (already described in spoiler tags in this thread), and hopping up and down in his excitement. His Dad was watching him with a happy grin, nodding vigorously.

So. Much. Fun.

 

[davejames]

Sigh. Looks like Grown Ups 2 is going to win the weekend after all. PR will be lucky to get $40 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3701&p=.htm

 

[Agent Richard07]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNwECmiJNFw[/yt]

Spoiler: Spoilers

Jax/Mako appeared in their Jaeger, when they go to fight the second monster and are holding the ship to use as a weapon, when the monster suddenly grows wings then they pull out a fucking sword out of no where then it lands and appears from the dust

Spoiler: stuff.

That ship did look kind of small. And yeah, that chain sword that came out of the arm was pretty cool.

 

[RAMA]

Sigh. Looks like Grown Ups 2 is going to win the weekend after all. PR will be lucky to get $40 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3701&p=.htm

What a shame, no one is going to see it, and it's the best summer movie in years.

RAMA

 

[sojourner]

Hopefully word of mouth will kick in and give it new life.

 

[cbspock]

I guess they marketed the movie wrong. I have no desire to see the movie myself. The trailers alone just smelled of "battleship" type lame movie.

Word of mouth - even on the good "fanwank" reviews -- movie too long, plot holes, etc.

So why bother.

Grown ups 2 sucks as well... looks like a weekend to skip the movies.

Despicable Me 2 was funny at least.

-Chris

 

[DarKush]

I enjoyed this film. The story wasn't the most original and the humor was mostly flat for me, however the film delivered on the promise of giant robots versus giant monsters. This is the film Transformers should've been IMO.

Mild spoilers below...







In an earlier post someone felt that the kaiju looked too similar, but I thought that was something of an explanation for that in the film. I did like how the film gave something of a reason for why the kaiju were invading Earth. It sets him a potential sequel. Hopefully the film will make enough to warrant one.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Sigh. Looks like Grown Ups 2 is going to win the weekend after all. PR will be lucky to get $40 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3701&p=.htm

What a shame, no one is going to see it, and it's the best summer movie in years.

RAMA

It is a shame that people aren't going to see it. I think it's a bigger shame that people are going to see Grown Ups 2, though.

 

[Admiral2]

I gave it an A, cause there was just buttloads of awesome in this movie. This is the live action movie for everybody who's ever actually liked a giant robo anime...this was the live-action giant robo anime!!!

Those of you who hate anime won't understand or care.

 

[davejames]

In an earlier post someone felt that the kaiju looked too similar, but I thought that was something of an explanation for that in the film. I did like how the film gave something of a reason for why the kaiju were invading Earth. It sets him a potential sequel. Hopefully the film will make enough to warrant one.

Yeah I understood the reasoning they gave, but I still think there was room in that explanation for more variety in design than we got.

Besides, it's the kind of movie where you kinda expect them to break a few rules for the sake of having something really cool on screen.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

If you just want an EXTREMELY fun night at the cinema, without all the emo hand-wringing and annoying self-importance of Nolan's films where very clear good battle very clear evil...

It appears that's not what people want. This one looks to finish behind both Sandler's movie and the second week of Despicable Me 2.

 

[sojourner]

What a shame.

 

[Admiral2]

^^^It's not too depressing for me. I really liked Despicable Me 2.

However, even if no one even considers a sequel for this movie, I'm extremely happy to have gotten even one like it.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I think the marketing for this movie was terrible. Only geeks who got excited about the very concept of "mechs" fighting monsters and knew about the director, had any enthusiasm. I got absolutely no vibe or buzz from this from the non-geek casual audience. Watching the trailers, I see nothing that distinguishes this from Battleship or any other generic action flop, it comes across as a movie trying to cash in on Transformers with giant robots. It needed either better marketing/trailers, or a big name actor.

 

[Tulin]

Sigh. Looks like Grown Ups 2 is going to win the weekend after all. PR will be lucky to get $40 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3701&p=.htm

What a shame, no one is going to see it, and it's the best summer movie in years.

RAMA

It's a sad state of affairs when Adam fucking Sandler and "Grown Ups 2" beats this film.

 

[Tulin]

I gave it an A, cause there was just buttloads of awesome in this movie. This is the live action movie for everybody who's ever actually liked a giant robo anime...this was the live-action giant robo anime!!!

Those of you who hate anime won't understand or care.

I have no love for animé(hate is too strong a word), yet I LOVED PR, so your point is kind of nullified.

 

[Admiral2]

I think the marketing for this movie was terrible. Only geeks who got excited about the very concept of "mechs" fighting monsters and knew about the director, had any enthusiasm. I got absolutely no vibe or buzz from this from the non-geek casual audience. Watching the trailers, I see nothing that distinguishes this from Battleship or any other generic action flop. It needed either better marketing/trailers, or a big name actor.

Seriously?

Battleship was a movie about destroyers fighting giant alien robots, a scenario that had jack shit to do with the game it was supposed to be based on. This was a giant battlesuit fighting giant monster movie, following in a grand tradition of similar classic movies and animations.

A flop, sure, but hardly generic. Like you said, this film was always going to appeal only to a very small segment of the audience, and that small segment appreciated it.

Battleship was just badly written shit. That's the difference.

Those of you who hate anime won't understand or care.

I have no love for animé(hate is too strong a word), yet I LOVED PR, so your point is kind of nullified.

Or, you're the exception to the rule. I'll wait for more responses that are similar before I abandon my hypothesis.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I think the marketing for this movie was terrible. Only geeks who got excited about the very concept of "mechs" fighting monsters and knew about the director, had any enthusiasm. I got absolutely no vibe or buzz from this from the non-geek casual audience. Watching the trailers, I see nothing that distinguishes this from Battleship or any other generic action flop. It needed either better marketing/trailers, or a big name actor.

Seriously?

Battleship was a movie about destroyers fighting giant alien robots, a scenario that had jack shit to do with the game it was supposed to be based on. This was a giant battlesuit fighting giant monster movie, following in a grand tradition of similar classic movies and animations.

A flop, sure, but hardly generic. Like you said, this film was always going to appeal only to a very small segment of the audience, and that small segment appreciated it.

Battleship was just badly written shit. That's the difference.
.

A difference that's completely invisible when you just watch the trailers and other marketing material. Which is what I'm talking about.

I'm not talking about the actual quality of either film. I'm talking what the trailers and marketing project.

"Battleship was a movie about destroyers fighting giant alien robots, a scenario that had jack shit to do with the game it was supposed to be based on. This was a giant battlesuit fighting giant monster movie, following in a grand tradition of similar classic movies and animations."

To the casual audience, they're both generic-looking action movies about giant robots, which feel like "we're trying to be like Transformers".

(this is the part where someone jumps in to point out that they're not actually sentient robots in Pacific Rim and that humans are controlling them and that the robots in Battleship are aliens, and WHOOSH you just totally missed the point that these distinctions don't mean anything really to the non-geek audience when they're choosing what movie to see)

 

[Admiral2]

I think the marketing for this movie was terrible. Only geeks who got excited about the very concept of "mechs" fighting monsters and knew about the director, had any enthusiasm. I got absolutely no vibe or buzz from this from the non-geek casual audience. Watching the trailers, I see nothing that distinguishes this from Battleship or any other generic action flop. It needed either better marketing/trailers, or a big name actor.

Seriously?

Battleship was a movie about destroyers fighting giant alien robots, a scenario that had jack shit to do with the game it was supposed to be based on. This was a giant battlesuit fighting giant monster movie, following in a grand tradition of similar classic movies and animations.

A flop, sure, but hardly generic. Like you said, this film was always going to appeal only to a very small segment of the audience, and that small segment appreciated it.

Battleship was just badly written shit. That's the difference.
.

A difference that's completely invisible when you just watch the trailers and other marketing material. Which is what I'm talking about.

I'm not talking about the actual quality of either film. I'm talking what the trailers and marketing project.

"Battleship was a movie about destroyers fighting giant alien robots, a scenario that had jack shit to do with the game it was supposed to be based on. This was a giant battlesuit fighting giant monster movie, following in a grand tradition of similar classic movies and animations."

To the casual audience, they're both generic-looking action movies about giant robots, which feel like "we're trying to be like Transformers".

(this is the part where someone jumps in to point out that they're not actually sentient robots in Pacific Rim and that humans are controlling them and that the robots in Battleship are aliens, and WHOOSH you just totally missed the point that these distinctions don't mean anything really to the non-geek audience when they're choosing what movie to see)

Fair enough, but what do you expect the studio to do about that? Having big names didn't actually help Battleship, did it? Neither did what marketing it got. Using that as an example, your only hope is to attract people who like to see big mechanical things stomping down the street (and Transformers' detractors always seem to forget that, drek storytelling or no, all three of those freaking movies made ridiculous bank).

Big names don't help. Broad marketing won't help. Giant robots make bajillions. You're the guy that has to promote PR. How the hell else would you do it?

 

[Shanndee]

Those of you who hate anime won't understand or care.

I have no love for animé(hate is too strong a word), yet I LOVED PR, so your point is kind of nullified.

Or, you're the exception to the rule. I'll wait for more responses that are similar before I abandon my hypothesis.

I am not really familiar with any anime. Other than "Spirited Away" (which I loved), I have no knowledge of it.

My love for this movies stems from the Ray Harryhausen and Godzilla movies that I loved as a child.

One more exception I guess!