Okay, let’s be honest here. There’s one real reason anybody would want to go see Pacific Rim. The one and only reason people could possibly be attracted by trailers to go see this film.
It’s got giant robots fighting giant monsters
That’s really the only fact people need to know about Pacific Rim in order to figure out if they want (or don’t want) to go see it. Right from the trailers you can tell that Pacific Rim will be one of those, “don’t ask questions, just enjoy the action” type of films. Anyone going to see Pacific Rim and expecting an intelligent, well thought out plot is either insane (and will be corrected in the first ten minutes) or never saw any of the trailers and has no idea what the film’s about (in which case, this begs the question of why that person’s going to see it).
For those few people who actually fit that tiny category, let me summarize the plot in a nutshell; alien monsters known as Kaijus use an interdimensional portal (formed at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean) to attack Earth. The countries of Earth strike back by teaming up and building giant robots called Jaegers to fight and subdue the Kaijus. The rest of the film consists of the Jaegers fighting the Kaijus while the humans try to figure out how to permanently stop them by destroying their portal (oh and also there’s characters with back-story and stuff…but that doesn't really matter in this film). I’m really split on how I feel about Pacific Rim; so I've decided to list my own personal positives and negatives for seeing it:
Positive reasons for seeing Pacific Rim:
1. The main reason: It’s got giant robots (Jaegers) fighting giant monsters (Kaijus).
2. The Jaeger designs are awesome looking; using all sorts of creative and neat weaponry to battle against the Kaijus (such as laser guns, saw blades, cannons, giant swords, etc…). The film also captures the size and magnitude of these machines; using various angles and comparisons to impact the audiences’ perspective of them.
3. The Kaijus also look awesome; each coming with their own specific design based on another creature but with a twisted look (such as crabs, gorillas, dragons, sharks, lizards, etc…) Like the Jaegers, they also possess their own abilities for battle; for example, one Kaiju has wings used to fly and can spit acid to break through the Jaegers’ armor.
4. The battles are well choreographed and complete eye candy to watch. Various battles occur off the coast of cities, in the cities, at night, during storms, under the sea, and even in the air. Like the fighters themselves the battles capture the magnitude of just how large they are (punches thrown at each other move slowly but have powerful impacts). There’s this one underwater scene involving a bomb that, while I won’t give completely away, shows an amazing use of imagination and creativity.
5. The artistic design, scenery, cities, and visuals all possess director Guillermo del Toro’s unique charm. Cities are lit up with various colors at night, ocean storms rage during the battle with waves crashing upon the fighters, buildings are designed with unique textures and artistic design (just observe how Toro makes Hong Kong look less like the actual city and more like a giant sized version of the magical Troll Market from Hellboy II).
6. It has some great comedy thanks to both Charlie Day and Burn Gorman as two rival scientists forced to work together to try and uncover more about the Kaijus. Both actors play very funny scientists that work well both individually and off one another; becoming two of the more memorable characters on screen and a blast to watch as the film progresses. Also as a special treat, Ellen McLain (the voice of GLaDOS from the Portal series) voices the Jaeger’s AI systems throughout the film which it just such an unexpected delight!
Sounds pretty good so far right…well brace yourselves because I’m about to get bashing.
Negative reasons for seeing Pacific Rim:
1. There are certain kinds of films that you solely go see for the action, adventure, and eye candy, not for the plot and character development (Taken, The Expendables, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, etc…). These are the films where you don’t care to see how the main character became a bitter soul, or his/her relationship with family, or the growing romance between the leads; these are the films where you go to see stuff blow up, see awesome action scenes, see people’s heads explode, see one man take on an army of ninjas/robots/bears/etc. They are pure popcorn flicks (if you don’t like that, then you’ll most likely not be going to see it), where plot only ends up slowing the film down; lessening the amount of action you get to see…this is one of Pacific Rim’s major issues; it has a plot, and it has character development.
2. The plot and character development are both uninteresting and exceptionally dull. They take up a considerable amount of the films running time; leaving little for the Jaegers and Kaijus to battle royal it out (and keep in mind that this is the reason I and many others went to see this film). There’s actually a scene where they tease the audience with a brief TV clip of a battle going on in Sydney, only to cut back to well over 45 minutes worth of bland, cliché ridden plot.
3. The movie’s time frame of 132 minutes (or 2 hours and 12 minutes) is itself a flaw of the film. Pacific Rim could have easily been cut down by 30-40 minutes, discarding unnecessary exposition in exchange for a faster, better flowing monster fighting film.
4. As mentioned earlier, the movie’s plot is FILLED with every single cliché imaginable; not to mention nearly every character is a complete and total stereotype. A brother loses has brother in a tragic battle and leaves the force in self-disgrace until his commanding officer finds him and says things like “we need you now more than ever” and “you’re my last option” to which the brother comes back and has to learn to cope with a new partner despite his brother’s death haunting him. The stereotypes are off the chart as well; our brother’s partner ends up being a Japanese girl whose amazing at martial arts, incredibly shy, follows a code of honor, and out to avenge her deceased family.
5. The main cast (aside from the scientists) are a complete bore to watch. They feel like cardboard cutouts; saying their lines and adding nothing more to remember then by other than the stereotypes and clichés they represent.
6. Then of course there’s the main reason; that the film makes absolutely no sense when you get right down to thinking about it. I bet you could find dozens of plot holes and nitpicks if you took the time to look closely. However (as noted) that’s not the point of Pacific Rim, and if you’re the type to get boiled up over the nonsense then you've probably already decided not to see it anyway.
But if you’re not the nitpicking type, should you go see Pacific Rim? Personally while I did thoroughly enjoy the action, battles, visuals and comedy, the lethargic pacing, lackluster characters, cliché ridden storyline and overlong buildup to the fights ended up making this an “Ehhhh” film for me. But hey if you’re capable of enduring the plot and characters (or even end up enjoying them) in exchange for some great action scenes, then maybe you’ll end up enjoying it more than I did…or perhaps you’ll end up hating it instead...that’s for you to find out.
No comments:
Post a Comment