Pacific Rim (Post-release)

Just watched this last night. I was pretty amped up to see this by the time I got it and I should have gone with my original instinct of "don't get your hopes up".

I wish they would have just done a live action Evangelion movie. That story has a lot more depth and the Eva-Units are infinitely cooler than the Jaegers.

The basic story of giant alien monsters invading and giant mechs is cool... everything else was unecessary fluff. The two-pilot bridge thing was dumb. Every time I saw a Jaeger being dropped into the ocean by a bunch of helicopters I was like "Really... those things have to way tons of tons..." and "so they're dropped in what I can only imagine is at least 800' of water... and yet they're only up to their knees?" I could be grossly overestimating the depth and their relative height though. Hated how they kind of glossed over so much with the beginning narrative. I'd much rather have seen a lot of the early battles and the monster destruction. And definitely more during the day, on land, and not so much close-ups.

Eh.......everyone complains about the two scientists. It was Perlman who took ME out of the movie. Way overboard. I like the guy, but he's on my list of actors who are a sign of a bad movie. Anthony Zerbe being another (Steel Dawn, Matrix Rev., Star Trek Ins.)

Agreed on Perlman. I don't know if they brought him on because he's worked with del Toro before or to make the SOA connection having brough Hunnam on.

Add Clifton Collins Jr. He's about 25% hit and 75% miss with me. This was definitely a miss for him. And what was with the goofy hairdo and outfit for him 10 or so years later.

The casting for this movie, overall, was pretty weak.

For one, I think they should have left Charlie Hunnam in TV. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt as an actor because he's great on SOA, but he was blah in this.

I really like Idris Elba... probably the only good choice for this movie. He was very cool in Prometheus and the more I see him in his previous work the more I like him. But I think his talent was slightly wasted in this.

I think the actor directing was awful. So much of the dialogue and lines felt forced and hollow... almost like watching a Star Wars prequel. I don't know if del Toro is to blame or not. He's made some incredible movies, this is probably one of his weaker ones despite the amazing visual effects.

Overall... it was moderately fun to watch but also a disappointment.

I've said my piece.
 
Finally got a chance to see this the other day.

While there were some not-so-great moments (weak acting, and clunky dialogue), the jaegers and kaiju are exactly what I wanted to see in a "giant robot vs monsters" movie. I hope they can make a live=action voltron that looks this good.

-Fred
 
Well, for a "Go-bots vs Godzilla" movie it was okay. I'm not really into giant mechs but me and my bowl of popcorn took it for what it was and had a good time. The only problem was that the entire movie is almost an exact rip off of an episode of Dexter's Laboratory. Even the monsters are the EXACT axe-headed monsters Dexter fought and defeated in 7 minutes.
 
Well, for a "Go-bots vs Godzilla" movie it was okay. I'm not really into giant mechs but me and my bowl of popcorn took it for what it was and had a good time. The only problem was that the entire movie is almost an exact rip off of an episode of Dexter's Laboratory. Even the monsters are the EXACT axe-headed monsters Dexter fought and defeated in 7 minutes.

Well, Voltron was a giant mech, beating up monsters, long before Dexter, did it. And Guiron was a knife-headed kaiju from back in the ToHo Godzilla/Gamera days.


What really would have been kick-ass, is if they made a first-person video game, utilizing the control pad from Steel Battalion, on the X-box. I realize that the Jaegers were controlled differently, but it could have been an easy-to-explain difference (older/newer model, or manufacturer).

-Fred
 
Well, Voltron was a giant mech, beating up monsters, long before Dexter, did it. And Guiron was a knife-headed kaiju from back in the ToHo Godzilla/Gamera days.-Fred

Okay, I'll accept that. As I said I'm not really into that stuff so I'm sure there's tons of stuff I don't know. To me it was just funny that as soon as the first monster came on screen my mind went instantly to that Dexter's Lab episode. I was was like WTF? It didn't upset me or anything, I just thought it was kinda funny.
 
Watched this last night with my kid. It bored both of us to death. Too long, too slow, and too much back story without enough front story. It looked good but otherwise a mess. Del Torro's worst film.
 
I watched this on Netflix.

The action was fun, but I felt it was...hmm....I guess "uneven" is the best word.

On the one hand, I wanted a lot more back story, character exploration, character development, etc.

On the other, I felt like that ate up a lot of time that could've been used to showcase the Jaegers vs. Kaiju more. Of the four surviving Jaegers in the film, you really only get to see two do any serious fighting. The Crimson Whatever (Permanent Assurance?) three-armed one got taken out in a heartbeat. The old but reliable one was just old and knocked out fast. I mean, I fully expected the non-name crews to get taken out, but I thought after spending time showing us how cool these Jaegers were, they'd actually...y'know...use them. Instead, they threw a few punches, then got munched.

I will say that this film perfectly captured my reactions to similar concepts in sci-fi, particularly the sequence where Gypsy Danger first uses the sword arm. "Deploy sword!" "WHAT?! What sword?! You're only deploying it NOW?! Why the hell didn't you just stab or slice the sucker to begin with?!" Which was a lot like my responses to watching Voltron as a kid. "Why do they always 'form blazing sword' after trying to punch the monster for an hour? Why not just spot the monster, form the sword, and slice it in half from the start?!"
 
I watched this on Netflix.

The action was fun, but I felt it was...hmm....I guess "uneven" is the best word.

On the one hand, I wanted a lot more back story, character exploration, character development, etc.

On the other, I felt like that ate up a lot of time that could've been used to showcase the Jaegers vs. Kaiju more. Of the four surviving Jaegers in the film, you really only get to see two do any serious fighting. The Crimson Whatever (Permanent Assurance?) three-armed one got taken out in a heartbeat. The old but reliable one was just old and knocked out fast. I mean, I fully expected the non-name crews to get taken out, but I thought after spending time showing us how cool these Jaegers were, they'd actually...y'know...use them. Instead, they threw a few punches, then got munched.

I will say that this film perfectly captured my reactions to similar concepts in sci-fi, particularly the sequence where Gypsy Danger first uses the sword arm. "Deploy sword!" "WHAT?! What sword?! You're only deploying it NOW?! Why the hell didn't you just stab or slice the sucker to begin with?!" Which was a lot like my responses to watching Voltron as a kid. "Why do they always 'form blazing sword' after trying to punch the monster for an hour? Why not just spot the monster, form the sword, and slice it in half from the start?!"

Who knows, I was wondering the same thing, why spend all that time and effort punching the thing to death when you have a nifty sword to slice it with? For that matter, you have to wonder why no one thought of mounting heavy weapons on the Jaegers, those things should be able to carry at least a 120mm tank gun as a small rifle or maybe even as a pistol or SMG, just modify to be carried in the hands of a Jaeger with auto-loading capability. Why rely solely on punching these stupid kaiju to death when you could easily mount all sorts of nasty weapons on the Jaegers?
 
Who knows, I was wondering the same thing, why spend all that time and effort punching the thing to death when you have a nifty sword to slice it with? For that matter, you have to wonder why no one thought of mounting heavy weapons on the Jaegers, those things should be able to carry at least a 120mm tank gun as a small rifle or maybe even as a pistol or SMG, just modify to be carried in the hands of a Jaeger with auto-loading capability. Why rely solely on punching these stupid kaiju to death when you could easily mount all sorts of nasty weapons on the Jaegers?

Exactly. So I figured, in the last analysis, the answer would almost always be "Because it looks cooler this way." So, that was the way I approached the movie.

I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong. I just think it could've been better. I do, however, also KNOW it could've been worse. I mean, it could've been Michael Bayformers, in which case not only would it have had a few cool action sequences, but also incomprehensible robot designs, and really BAD acting when the robots weren't knocking down buildings.

If you went in just wanting a cool action flick with big robots beating up on big monsters, this was pretty good. If you wanted anything deeper...uh...keep looking. I decided early on when I heard about this that I'd watch for the spectacle, and hope that the rest was decent. It was, and that was enough for me.
 
I thought Idris Elba was awesome.

Stacker Pentecost: One, don't you ever touch me again. Two, don't you ever touch me again. Now, you have no idea who the hell I am, or where I have come from. And I'm not about to tell you my whole life story. All I need to be to you and everybody in this dome is a fixed point. The last man standing. I do not need your sympathy or your admiration. All I need is your compliance and your fighting skills. And if I can't get that, then you can go back to the wall that I found you crawling on. Do I make myself clear?
[turns his head away and gestures to his ear. Beckett grimaces, leans closer, and speaks]
Raleigh Becket: Yes, sir!
 
Why punch me to death?

Because it makes for better entertainment and an exciting climax to the fight.
A lot of films do this.

Did Luke and the rebels really need to fly 500 miles through a trench when they could have gone directly to the exhaust port?
No, but it makes for a more exciting scene.
 
Why punch me to death?

Because it makes for better entertainment and an exciting climax to the fight.
A lot of films do this.

Did Luke and the rebels really need to fly 500 miles through a trench when they could have gone directly to the exhaust port?
No, but it makes for a more exciting scene.

Uh, I don't think that's the right kind of comparison. Whether you shoot Proton Torpedoes in the trench or out of the trench, you're still shooting Proton Torpedoes. The X-Wings aren't flying into the reactor core with the pilots ejecting out of their ships so they can punch it.

I think the problem with Pacific Rim is that it didn't really do a good job at explaining why melee combat was essential. When you watch the part where three of the mechs (I forgot what they called them already) are deployed, which of the two are taken out with considerable ease? The ones that were restricted to only Melee combat. The one that actually has ranged weaponry is the one that survives.

A film that did a much, MUCH better job at showing why melee combat was needed even though the characters had access to powerful ranged weapons was ALIENS. Throughout the first three acts of the film, our characters have been using ranged weaponry with a certain degree of success and failure. They couldn't resort to melee combat because that would have been suicide since the Xenos were all about melee. It's not till the end when the Queen Alien is on the Sulaco that Ripley has to resort to melee combat because simply blowing up the Queen would no doubt kill everyone in the hanger. If a small cut of a face hugger's finger was enough to eat through two whole decks of a spaceship, imagine what explosive tipped ammunition would do to a full sized queen in a hanger where there are no below decks. It makes sense.
 
Why punch me to death?

Because it makes for better entertainment and an exciting climax to the fight.
A lot of films do this.

Did Luke and the rebels really need to fly 500 miles through a trench when they could have gone directly to the exhaust port?
No, but it makes for a more exciting scene.

In one sense, yes, I agree that it makes for a more tense and drawn-out fight. But they could also explain within the context of the film why melee is the primary approach. Maybe in the early days, taht's all that was required, so Jaeger tactics have been primarily oriented around melee. Maybe previous Kaiju showed critical weaknesss to concussive force. Or, more likely, maybe the power requirements for ranged weaponry or swords were so high that they were effectively limited-use weapons, so they were to be used as last resorts.

None of that was addressed, though. It was just the old Voltron cliche of "Form blazing sword!!" >SLICE< >WIN< "Why the hell didn't they 'form blazing sword' first?!"
 
This thread is more than 5 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top