Pacific Rim - Grading and Discussion

[sojourner]

^I get the feeling that the wings were a new development.

Saw the movie today. Great fun. Had a big grin all the way through. Would have liked at least couple shots of the fights from above though, maybe from a helicopter pilot's POV.


Man I hope this manages to drag out enough profit for a sequel.

 

[RAMA]

Government boondoggles like the wall would fill up more than several times the running time of the movie. That's not hard to belive... If you go by the logic of the movie, the Jaeger program was a failure too... Once there were hundreds, only four were left... They were no longer effective as the aliens adapted their monsters. It's likely only a new Jaeger program with improved systems would have worked.

 

[RAMA]

^I get the feeling that the wings were a new development.

Saw the movie today. Great fun. Had a big grin all the way through. Would have liked at least couple shots of the fights from above though, maybe from a helicopter pilot's POV.


Man I hope this manages to drag out enough profit for a sequel.

We're talking about a sequel here.. The appearance of wings negates the wall and makes a new Jaeger program inevitable.

 

[Noname Given]

Government boondoggles like the wall would fill up more than several times the running time of the movie. That's not hard to belive... If you go by the logic of the movie, the Jaeger program was a failure too... Once there were hundreds, only four were left... They were no longer effective as the aliens adapted their monsters. It's likely only a new Jaeger program with improved systems would have worked.

Well, remember; the reason given in the film was that the Kaiju were destroying the Jaegers faster than they could be built. That said; after they had an incident where a Kaiju breached a wall like it was nothing (and was defeated by the one (and only) Jaeger Mk V; you would have thought someone, somewhere would say:

"Hey, maybe we SHOULD start funding the program again? It may be a loosing battle, but it still works better than these walls."

(But again, applying any logic to this film really ruins the fun of stuff like: "Where the hell's my shoe??!!")

[And I'm said to see the film underperforming in the U.S. -- although indications show it opened very strong overseas and should really be a hit in japan as this is the kind of film (with these level of digital effects) they would love to make, but just don't have the budget resources as spending that much locally would net zero profit for them.]

 

[DWF]

^Haven't seen the film yet, but isn't the point of the story that the defense walls are a bad idea, that the governments are fooling themselves to believe they're a better solution? It seems to me that hiding behind walls is pretty symbolic of living in denial.

After 12 years of warfare and the fact that the Jaegers were losing so to some people a wall was a good idea. Then one Kaiju blew though the wall and made some workers on the wall think otherwise.

 

[davejames]

Well, remember; the reason given in the film was that the Kaiju were destroying the Jaegers faster than they could be built. That said; after they had an incident where a Kaiju breached a wall like it was nothing (and was defeated by the one (and only) Jaeger Mk V; you would have thought someone, somewhere would say:

"Hey, maybe we SHOULD start funding the program again? It may be a loosing battle, but it still works better than these walls."

Yeah if they want to build a wall, fine. But it's kinda strange that they'd decide to give up on the Jaeger program as well, considering it was the most effective defense they had.

 

[Christopher]

^But didn't he just say that the Jaegers were losing their effectiveness as a defense? That all but four had been destroyed? That doesn't exactly strike me as a rousing success story.

 

[Corran Horn]

^But didn't he just say that the Jaegers were losing their effectiveness as a defense? That all but four had been destroyed? That doesn't exactly strike me as a rousing success story.

More were getting destroyed--it's implied due to the recklessness of their pilot teams. Also, as time goes on the kaiju are getting harder to take down for other spoiler-ish reasons.

 

[RAMA]

Government boondoggles like the wall would fill up more than several times the running time of the movie. That's not hard to belive... If you go by the logic of the movie, the Jaeger program was a failure too... Once there were hundreds, only four were left... They were no longer effective as the aliens adapted their monsters. It's likely only a new Jaeger program with improved systems would have worked.

ell, remember; the reason given in the film was that the Kaiju were destroying the Jaegers faster than they could be built. That said; after they had an incident where a Kaiju breached a wall like it was nothing (and was defeated by the one (and only) Jaeger Mk V; you would have thought someone, somewhere would say:

"Hey, maybe we SHOULD start funding the program again? It may be a loosing battle, but it still works better than these walls."

(But again, applying any logic to this film really ruins the fun of stuff like: "Where the hell's my shoe??!!")

[And I'm said to see the film underperforming in the U.S. -- although indications show it opened very strong overseas and should really be a hit in japan as this is the kind of film (with these level of digital effects) they would love to make, but just don't have the budget resources as spending that much locally would net zero profit for them.]

The Jaeger were losing because they didn't realize the fired citing intelligence was learning and adapting their creations. It may well have seemed a wall would work till a kaiju-robot proved otherwise. Then a new program could begin where the Jaeger designers might make them bigger and more adaptable, or with weapons with more ammo, as the misses and cannons seemed effective.

 

[mr.peany]

So just saw it. I loved it. A visual spectacle and one I was totally immersed in from beginning to end. Stunning is a word that came to mind. The story, although simple, was effective enough to get the job done.

Pros: CGI was out of this world.
The creature design was amazing.
Despite the run of the mill plot it created characters that I genuinely cared for.
The action was involving and to me, easy enough to follow.

Cons: The accents. Boy, wtf?? Those aussie accents were atrocities. Surely, they could have found 2 actual Australians to be cast in those roles. Everyone in our theatre either groaned or laughed when they spoke.
The 2 scientists. Quite possibly the most pain inducing characters I've had to endure in any movie. Ever. Worse than Jar Jar. I had to close my eyes and block my ears whenever they appeared. Makes me wonder how no one picked up on this before the movie was released.
Charlie Hunnam's body. I don't have it.

A solid B+. Points deducted for the accents and the scientists.

 

[The Doctor]

So just saw it. I loved it. A visual spectacle and one I was totally immersed in from beginning to end. Stunning is a word that came to mind. The story, although simple, was effective enough to get the job done.

Pros: CGI was out of this world.
The creature design was amazing.
Despite the run of the mill plot it created characters that I genuinely cared for.
The action was involving and to me, easy enough to follow.

Cons: The accents. Boy, wtf?? Those aussie accents were atrocities. Surely, they could have found 2 actual Australians to be cast in those roles. Everyone in our theatre either groaned or laughed when they spoke.
The 2 scientists. Quite possibly the most pain inducing characters I've had to endure in any movie. Ever. Worse than Jar Jar. I had to close my eyes and block my ears whenever they appeared. Makes me wonder how no one picked up on this before the movie was released.
Charlie Hunnam's body. I don't have it.

A solid B+. Points deducted for the accents and the scientists.

I thought the two scientists were just the right kind of comic relief. Burn Gorman, in particular, was hilarious. I enjoyed this movie completely: it had jaw-dropping robot-on-monster action that I could actually see, enough meat behind the Miko-Ralleigh relationship to be believable and a world that felt real enough to forgive the ridiculous conceit of 100-foot mechas.

I came for the action, but the story and people inhabiting this movie weren't half bad. I'll definitely find this movie again for a re-watch when it's out on video.

 

[Jono]

Saw it tonight, a solid B+.

Biggest complaint was the Australian characters. The son wasn't too bad, but the dad was hard to understand at times. Find it hard to understand how they couldn't get at least one Australian for the roles (particularly the son), we seem to have half our acting community over there.

Quite cliched, but that didn't matter so much because it was a lot of awesome. A bit disappointed in the Chinese and Russian Jaeger. They were sold as pretty great but they went down like punks. Also in the montages would have loved to see more Jaegers.

I didn't mind the scientists. Use to seeing the guy from Torchwood in that kind of role, but Charlie Day did seem a bit too manic, but they did make me laugh.

The wall seemed like an insane idea. I guess it makes sense since they believed the monsters were just mindless creatures and if they came up against the wall and it didn't immediately fall (I think it took an hour for the one to get into Sydney...though if I remember correctly the wall was right next to the Opera house, which doesn't make sense geographically) they would lose interest and just go play in the ocean.

All in all, enjoyed the film.

 

[KGator]

I didn't mind the scientists. Use to seeing the guy from Torchwood in that kind of role, but Charlie Day did seem a bit too manic, but they did make me laugh.

All in all, enjoyed the film.

Agreed on the scientists, they did seem out of place but did add some humor to the film.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ Anime usually has comic relief like that, so their inclusion was a must.

People say they want intelligent and good sci-fi films, and yet, instead of supporting them, they support shit like Grown Ups 2?

Looks like most people just want to have a good time and laugh. If you think about it, Grown Ups 2 did well for the same reason Pacific Rim is popular here.

 

[davejames]

Yeah I wasn't really crazy about the scientists either. I realize they were supposed to be the "wacky, eccentric scientists" you often see in anime, but I'm not sure that really translated well here.

 

[Goji]

I liked the crazy scientists subplot and didn't see anything uniquely "anime" about it. They were pretty standard comedic relief that worked well enough, though I liked Charlie Day's scenes with Ron Perlman better than with the other scientist.

Charlie Day's character reminded me a lot of Harper from Andromeda, obscure and entirely unrelated though that is.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Cons: The accents. Boy, wtf?? Those aussie accents were atrocities. Surely, they could have found 2 actual Australians to be cast in those roles.

I'm not sure about the actors playing Australians, but many of the actors in the film were British. Idris Elba's accent seemed to bounce between American and British. I had no idea what country his character was supposed to be from.

The 2 scientists. Quite possibly the most pain inducing characters I've had to endure in any movie. Ever. Worse than Jar Jar.

Surely you exaggerate. No character is worse than Jar Jar.

 

[mr.peany]

Cons: The accents. Boy, wtf?? Those aussie accents were atrocities. Surely, they could have found 2 actual Australians to be cast in those roles.

I'm not sure about the actors playing Australians, but many of the actors in the film were British. Idris Elba's accent seemed to bounce between American and British. I had no idea what country his character was supposed to be from.

The 2 scientists. Quite possibly the most pain inducing characters I've had to endure in any movie. Ever. Worse than Jar Jar.

Surely you exaggerate. No character is worse than Jar Jar.

Oh how I wish. I'm seeing it again later today, perhaps a second viewing may change my mind. Or further cement it.

Another like I had was the subtle humour. Worked very well. And the score I thought was fairly decent. Hopefully this makes enough to warrant a sequel. Would love to return to this world that Del Toro has helped create.

 

[Aldo]

The whole bit with Newt (Charlie Day's character) melding with the monster will be a major plot point if Del Toro makes a sequel. So he is a pretty important character.

 

[mr.peany]

^ Awww crap.

Hopefully they'll make him less....manic.