Pacific Rim
- Thread starter robot monkey
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Just watched it.
Judging it by the standards of an action film, I'd give it a 8/10.
The beginning was weak but I thought the rest of the film held up very well. I was engaged the whole way through. The pacing played a big role in this. It didn't feel like too much was being crammed in and the overall mood was exactly right. Also, I actually cared whether the characters succeeded or failed. Definately better than Superman and Star Trek.
However, I don't for a second believe Del Torro wasn't influenced by Evangelion. My brother (who's not an anime fan and has only watched Eva once) said this like 5 minutes after it had ended. I think the most concrete similarity is how the robots are piloted (and the fact that they can go crazy from a bad connection).
Having said that, I was much more engaged by PR, than the most recent Eva Rebuild film.
Judging it by the standards of an action film, I'd give it a 8/10.
The beginning was weak but I thought the rest of the film held up very well. I was engaged the whole way through. The pacing played a big role in this. It didn't feel like too much was being crammed in and the overall mood was exactly right. Also, I actually cared whether the characters succeeded or failed. Definately better than Superman and Star Trek.
However, I don't for a second believe Del Torro wasn't influenced by Evangelion. My brother (who's not an anime fan and has only watched Eva once) said this like 5 minutes after it had ended. I think the most concrete similarity is how the robots are piloted (and the fact that they can go crazy from a bad connection).
Having said that, I was much more engaged by PR, than the most recent Eva Rebuild film.
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MaxonTreik
Chuunibyou
People who make remarks about Evangelion influencing the movie have never seen other mecha shows. Mazinger Z looked to have more influence anyway.Ark said:
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MaxonTreik said:
Mazinger Z is about a mad scientist who sends out giant robots to take over the world. He is opposed by a boy who pilots a giant robot without any assistance, from other robots or the government. As far as I can tell, there isn't any need for the pilot to synchronise with the machine or another pilot, to control the Mazinger.
Don't see the similarity.
robot monkey
Hunter
Seen it & its not too bad. But the first half of the film is far too slow & the human drama doesn't really in comparison to the fights.
MaxonTreik
Chuunibyou
I didn't say they were similar. I said "influence". Learn to read.Ark said:
Ath
Pokémon Master
I saw this yesterday, I had an absolute blast. Del Toro knows how to direct large-scale action scenes. The characters and story were good enough to make me care as well. I liked the the way the partnership between Raleigh and Mako developed and of course, we had Idris Elba cancelling the apocalypse. The pacing was excellent, I never felt like it dragged, and the way the movie kept on escalating the stakes was breathtaking.
Ath said:
I'm glad people are taking note of this, because the problem with most action films right now is they just throw narrative structure out of the window, because it's "just an action film". In this aspect PR clearly stood out from recent action films like Stark Trek and Man of Steel.
Genkina Hito
映画男！！！
Ark said:
Pretty much this. Great designs, great characters and excellent pacing made this one of the most easily watchable and enjoyable films I have seen in a looong time.
20thCenturyBoy
Thousand Master
Genkina Hito said:
Having finally gotten round to see it today this is a point I'd really like to highlight. This film is just over 2 hours long, but it does move along nicely so you never feel like you're being dragged along.
Overall it was pretty good. Not as great as perhaps it's basic premise should have been, though. Despite loving del Toro as a director, I actually felt this film lacked what I've come to love him for. Namely his style of dark, fantasy, horror. I perhaps would've expected him to give us some more scenes of the terrifying effects of the Kaiju, not just smashing buildings and things but more stuff like Mako's flashback in the drift. That unnerving impending sense of doom and fear. Really, some more psychological horror, which surely should've been a no brainer (hooray for puns!) given the mind meld plot element. Best thing about this film though, was of course Ron Perlman.
I actually thought to myself 'aww, not Perlman!' when he got killed, but was laughing away at it anyway.
I thought the ending was a bit 'meh', and actually had a wee moment were I thought
'oh, it's Independence Day'. Not just the sneaking into the enemy base 'disguised' as them, because of course that happens all the time in movies, but the small moment where the Kaiju sees the Jaeger just before it's going to explode and has the 'oh crap' look on its face. It was almost identical to the same seen in Independence Day. And it might have been better had Raleigh died, but that's just me.
I came out of this with bigger questions though: Given it's poor performance will this have a hindrance on the soon to be released Godzilla remake? Your average cinema goer is going to see the two things as being very similar and may wish to steer clear of Godzilla if they didn't enjoy this. Does it spell the end of any possible live action Eva or Gundam adaptation? Eva is apparently tied up in horrible legal wrangles that have prevented any live action adaptation from taking place, but even if those were resolved today I think the failure of Pacific Rim would be enough to ward off any studios (unless they feel they could do it on a much smaller budget...Maybe they'd resort to the same tactics Gainax did :lol: ). This is also another 'fanboy' film which has failed to deliver. Much like the rightfully panned Sucker Punch, among others, this film had the basic elements that should've made it a winner with geeks and casuals alike; giant robots vs aliens, a much loved director. Could this mean that in the future studios might want to try and stay away from the more sci-fi/fantasy based projects and instead focus their productions on smaller, more 'realistic' and cheaper fare? Ultimately the biggest flaw with this film was through no fault of its own: timing.
This summer has been absolutely packed to the gills with huge, multi million dollar franchise tent poles and the studios have suffered for it. Instead of having maybe one a month from May to August, it's practically one every week and the public is tired of it. Instead of everyone going to see the one movie people are picking and choosing one over another. This film came out in the same time span as Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University, and not long after Man of Steel or before The Wolverine, it stood absolutely no chance. An ideal date for this would've been September, but studios have seen in recent years how insane the money can get during the summer months and so have put a lot of their eggs into that basket. There's been an unprecedented number of huge failures so far; this, Hangover 3, The Lone Ranger, Jack the Giant Slayer, White House Down, After Earth, The Internship. Man of Steel even underperformed on its expectations. Ultimately I think studios will scale back, but considering the number of films that are already being rushed into production and have summer release dates (seriously, look at summer 2015 already) before they've even cast anyone then we have another few years of it yet.
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