Pacific Rim - Grading and Discussion
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Great movie! Really cool action scenes (though the ocean battle was a little hard to follow).
I really would have liked to have seen the very first kaiju attack as a full sequence rather than a recap. The shock and terror and the scrambling of conventional weapons to take it down.
I have two questions that might be be plot holes, or maybe I wasn't paying attention:
--why in the world did they think that building a huge wall around the Pacific Rim instead of building Jaegers would do anything? what's to stop the kaiju from breaking through the wall? what happens when it gets to the wall and manages to climb over it? even if it can't get past the wall, how are they going to kill it? if you shoot a bunch of missiles and nukes at it, won't you end up destroying the wall it's up against?
--at the end of the movie they establish that the portal only opens for kaiju, so for them to go through they had to have a kaiju corpse with them. then why did the life pods get through alone? I went into that scene assuming they were on a suicide mission. then they eject, and I wonder what's the point of that? you're still trapped in the hostile alien dimension. then they go through the portal, and I scratch my head.
I really would have liked to have seen the very first kaiju attack as a full sequence rather than a recap. The shock and terror and the scrambling of conventional weapons to take it down.
I have two questions that might be be plot holes, or maybe I wasn't paying attention:
--why in the world did they think that building a huge wall around the Pacific Rim instead of building Jaegers would do anything? what's to stop the kaiju from breaking through the wall? what happens when it gets to the wall and manages to climb over it? even if it can't get past the wall, how are they going to kill it? if you shoot a bunch of missiles and nukes at it, won't you end up destroying the wall it's up against?
--at the end of the movie they establish that the portal only opens for kaiju, so for them to go through they had to have a kaiju corpse with them. then why did the life pods get through alone? I went into that scene assuming they were on a suicide mission. then they eject, and I wonder what's the point of that? you're still trapped in the hostile alien dimension. then they go through the portal, and I scratch my head.
The same reason some people and politicians want to build a wall along the Southern border of the US. They're stupid and it's a stupid idea. Pacific Rim made a joke.
I assumed to 'return' through the portal, backwards, you needed Kaiju DNA. To go forwards, to Earth, there was no safeguard.
<<I assumed to 'return' through the portal, backwards, you needed Kaiju DNA. To go forwards, to Earth, there was no safeguard. >>
that appears to be the case, but it really needed a single line in the movie to establish that. Charlie Day could have said the barrier was only on the Earth side. or when they eject, they could have said let's just pray the barrier isn't on this side too!
that appears to be the case, but it really needed a single line in the movie to establish that. Charlie Day could have said the barrier was only on the Earth side. or when they eject, they could have said let's just pray the barrier isn't on this side too!
My problem with the escape pods is that Our Hero waits to eject until about 5 seconds before detonation!
I thought it was funny when he and the girl battle for real the first time they exhausted their weapons and the monster was taking them into higher altitudes and the guy is all, "Well we've used our weapons. We're fucked." And the girl says, "No! We still have the sword!" And I was like: "Well why weren't you using that all along as opposed to punching and shooting?! It seems pretty damn effective and why was it such an after-thought?!"
I think it ends up with $95-105 million domestic and $240-290 overseas. I think $375-400 million WW will be enough for them to consider doing a sequel. The movie will still be a big money loser based on box office receipts though.
A $100-120 take for Japan and China combined would go a long way to proving any value as a franchise as it was tailored to those fanbases. It has performed well in Asia so far so that is entirely within the realm of possibility.
This doesn't bode well for Pacific Rim in China.
If we're counting on Asian ticket sales to bolster the weak box office performances seen in the west, this might doom the movie.
It's a shame. I got more fun and entertainment out of this movie than anything else that came out this year. I wouldn't have minded a sequel, and felt this upped the game for next year's Godzilla.
If we're counting on Asian ticket sales to bolster the weak box office performances seen in the west, this might doom the movie.
It's a shame. I got more fun and entertainment out of this movie than anything else that came out this year. I wouldn't have minded a sequel, and felt this upped the game for next year's Godzilla.
This is a trade grievance that affects ALL hollywood films. China wants to take another 2% off the profits. If Hollywood doesn't make a stand China will keep trying to lower the profits going to the Studios. Man of Steel, Iron Man, Fast and Furious 6, Monsters University, etc, are all in the same boat.
This will get resolved. Hollywood will probably give a little because China cannot lose face but the line will be drawn.
Legendary also is partnered with China Film Group. Sometimes the Chinese company will kick in money ($15-20 million) for production and then keep the box office receipts (although I'm not sure that was the case for PR).
Either way the previous poster was right, it will be resolved eventually and isn't a long term issue.
Given that the article referenced a number of big summer movies, I should think that much is obvious. But they're not in an entirely equal position. Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Fast and Furious 6, etc. have all done very well domestically. Pacific Rim has not and fans of the film are hoping a strong Asian performance will increase the chance of a follow-up. If, as the article mentions, films start getting pulled from Chinese distribution, Pacific Rim will get nothing from China. On top of that, this article seems to indicate that Hollywood studios only get 25% of the money made in Chinese theaters. If that's true, even if Pacific Rim pulls in $200m in China, that would only contribute $50m to the film's worldwide box office.
Oh, most likely. But there is the chance that tempers will flare before everything is resolved and if films start getting pulled, then Pacific Rim might become a casualty.
So much for Voltron then, I mean whenever they'd run into a robobeast why not form the blazing sword to start out with? And in the end in Pacific Rim the sword was broken and useless in the final fight.
The Editing Room's take on Pacific Rim.
Here's some good news (if true):
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/aug/01/pacific-rim-hit-china-sequel
The story refers to the box-office take we've discussed above.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/aug/01/pacific-rim-hit-china-sequel
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The story refers to the box-office take we've discussed above.
If Legendary makes a sequel to Pacific Rim it will probably not be affected by the current profit squabbling as they have since partnered with a Chinese Film Group (state run) and would likely do a joint venture leaving them unaffected by the limits on how many Hollywood films can be shown in China and the Hollywood profit sharing plan. They would essentially have bypassed all that muck.
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