Pacific Rim *2013 and spoilers*

[daveblackeye15]

I didn't see a topic for this so...

When I first heard of this I wasn't too excited until I learned del Toro was directing so I was glad Michael Bay wasn't doing it. Unlike Transformers it's really enjoyable and it is an actual love letter to giant monsters and mechas, unlike 1998 Godzilla or Bayformers. I mean for one thing you can actually see what is going on when there's a fight.

It's not perfect, my biggest beef is that the Russian and Chinese Jaegers, with really cool designs, don't get to do much and get destroyed pretty quickly. I should have known better but still I hoped to see a big battle with four Jaegers on one side and a bunch of monsters on the other.

I had a blast at this and unlike Man of Steel I was ready to watch it again and I plan to on Sunday with a friend. Now I'm trying to get as many people to see it.

I love monster movies, so much that I nearly have a book finished of my own, and I love mechas and I still can't belive this film was made.

[Jim H]

I also enjoy kaiju films quite a bit...  But I'm less positive.

Some good designs and visuals, one good major character, and passable action scenes (compare it to Final Wars kaiju action, which is far superior.). 

I was let down.  It's also like a half hour too long.

Watchable and I don't regret seeing it, but 6/10.

[indianasmith]

I am planning on seeing this one this weekend.

[Zapranoth]

Did see it.  I rate it better than Akira did.  Character arcs were stripped to a bare minimum.  No real love interest waste of time..  Very large smack downs, awesome fun.  :)

[akiratubo]

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,141024.msg502697.html#msg502697

I agree with Jim H for the most part, except that I think Pacific Rim was probably an entire hour too long.

Also ... why did the Aussie kid have to die?  Idris Alba's character already established that he was capable of piloting a Jaeger solo.  He could have ejected the kid and made the kamikaze run by himself.  Not that I liked the Aussie, or anything, but the more I think about that the more it bugs me.  It's sloppy.

I'd have cut out the two scientists, as well.  They contributed nothing to the plot (especially the mathematician) besides wackiness, and the bit about not being able to go through the fissure unless you went along with a monster had little to no effect on anything.

It also made little sense to me that the monsters were being manufactured and sent through in highly predictable patterns.  Couldn't the aliens have just built a bunch of them and sent them all through at once?  I liked the idea of the fissure just randomly sucking in monsters from some other dimension better.

I'll rate it 5/10.  I would have said 6/10 before I had a couple of days to mull it over.  I'm glad I watched it but I doubt I'll ever want to see it a second time.

[daveblackeye15]

Just saw it again the second time. Lord, I may see it again, last time I saw a film three times was Iron Man I think.

[SynapticBoomstick]

This is all I have ever asked from the film industry. I can now retire the phrase, "If I want to see the kind of movies I want to watch in theaters, I'll have to make them myself.

[WingedSerpent]

Saw this during G-Fest and really liked it.  Wouldn't call it a perfect movie, but it was the most fun I've had seeing a movie in theaters in a while.  I would have liked at least one more monster action scene though. 

Favorite human character had to be Ron Pearlman, but then again he's awesome in just about anything he does. 


*SPOILERS*
Did anyone else notice the ending is almost identical to the end of ID4,  just the way they defeat the creatures?
*END SPOILERS*

[afra147]

Pacific Rim is a 2013 American knowledge fancy pellicle. The pellicle is set in the 2020s, when Globe is under spring upon by Kaiju, cyclopean monsters which have emerged from a passage-way on the sea cover with a floor. To fight the monsters, human nature unites to call into existence the Jaegers: prodigious humanoid mecha, each controlled by two pilots whose minds are joined by a neural build a bridge over or upon. Focusing on the war's later days, the chronicle follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger helmsman called out of departure and teamed with rookie helmsman Mako Mori in a last-trench essay to downfall the Kaiju.

[Andrew]

Took the kids to see it, and I did enjoy the film, but have to agree with a lot of what akiratubo says.  The story did some things that I found awkward, and would have preferred either omitted or done differently.  I admit, that is something that I could say about a great many films.

The battles between the jaegers and the kaiju were a lot of fun, especially the absolutely massive encounter at Hong Kong.  My kids enjoyed the movie a lot, but not as much as "The Avengers" or "Captain America" (the newer "Captain America," they haven't seen the older films yet).

[Archivist]

I wasn't expecting a huge amount, but I was extremely impressed, as were the friends who saw it with me.  One was a bit of Japanese monster fan, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.  The other knew nothing about kaiju and mecha movies but still enjoyed it.  Me, I thought it was very nicely crafted and we came away talking about it for hours afterwards.

@akiratubo - I know what you mean about the Aussie kid; the thing is, he was an arrogant a***ole throughout the movie, and his final, heroic death redeemed his character, and justified his father's love for him.

I kept trying to decide whether the wacky scientist worked for me, and I'm still on the fence.  As comic relief for an otherwise fairly serious tone, they kind of worked, although I'm not sure if they should have been so over the top.  They were archetypal geeky scientists in a world of hard but flawed soldiers, a bit of a cliche, and still not quite sure if it worked.

But overall, I was very pleasantly surprised.  There was more of a plot than I expected, the visual were super, and everything moved along very nicely.