Pacific Rim

Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 3 of 5 stars Average: 3.5 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: Pacific Rim pits giant alien monsters known as Kaiju (Japanese, lit. “Giant Monster of the Godzilla-Class or Larger”) against giant earth robots, known as Jaeger, driven by two pilots, or Jaeger masters (Jaegermeisters?).

What did you think of Pacific Rim, Nick?

Nick: Disappointed pretty much sums it up. The only thing that will stay in my mind a week after seeing this film was how much Idris Elba stood out as Stacker Pentecost.

Dustin: I have to disagree. I was impressed with the visuals, found a lot of fun elements, and enjoyed the character development. I liked that this was an original film, rather than a sequel or reboot of an established franchise.

Nick: Character development? The characters had sap-filled cliché sayings and just fought whenever in disagreement. What development was there? Who changed from when we first met them in the film?

Dustin: There were the two scientists with irreconcilable differences who finally managed to work together. The Australian son, who was an arrogant prick at the beginning, finally learned humility, but without doing a complete 180, which would have been unbelievable for his character.

I also liked the development of the relationship between Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako (Rinko Kikuchi). It never turns into a romantic relationship, even though it looks like there may be a mutual attraction because Mako-chan stares at Raleigh when he has his shirt off, and he speaks Japanese, implying an Asian fetish. But we really only see them hug and almost touch hands in a distant shot. I liked that this film didn't have a love story in a cynical attempt to appeal to female audience members.

My favorite element was the Kaiju (which, coincidentally, is also the nickname of the yakuza boss, Kaizu Akira, in my upcoming novella, Antisocial Forces [Yakuza Dynasty, Part 4], available later this month from the Amazon Kindle store for the amazingly low price of $1.99... OK, I’m done plugging my shit). I thought the CGI was well done, and the scenes of them trampling through cities Godzilla-style were exciting. I would have liked even more of them, and more shots of them from a distance to give an appreciation of their scale.

Nick: The CGI was especially spectacular when robots or aliens were being thrown through the cities. Only complaint there is I would have enjoyed at least one fight scene that took place during daytime. The only day shots we got were short segments of the initial attacks, and that was when the CGI looked the best. When it was dark it was difficult to tell what was going on, and I wasn't sure what I was seeing half of the time. The editing during the action wasn't as bad as most of the summer blockbusters this year as I could at least somewhat tell what was happening.

Dustin: I would have liked more day fights too, not just for variety of shots, but, like you said, it can be hard to make out action in dark scenes. Especially when half of movie theaters these days are too lazy or incompetent to switch out the projector lenses from 3-D movies when they play 2-D movies, so the movie already looks about 50 percent darker.

Nick: I assume that the reasoning behind the night scenes is that it’s probably cheaper to CGI huge fight scenes with dark lighting rather than bright lighting.

Dustin: I wouldn't know. But how expensive can it be to have two actors in rubber suits staging a fight?

Nick: One thing that worked for me was the visuals when the pilots neural linked and we were given glimpses of their lives cut together with those of whomever they were neural linked with. The artistic direction there was wonderful with blacks and whites and shades of blue. Looked perty!

Dustin: I really liked the concept of the neural linking. When they said two minds would be controlling one Transformer, I was worried it would be too much like this stupid scene from NCIS:

Nick: I just watched that clip and I’m thankful I've never seen that show.

I try to notice everything, so one of the biggest disappointments to me was the character and the costume design. Charlie Day’s character had an expensive jacket, pants, glasses and shoes, yet his collared shirt and tie were pieces of shit. There were many more examples I have in the back of my mind, but one character which stood out to me and didn't get as much screen time as the he deserved was Hannibal (Ron Perlman). So much more could have been done with his character. Hannibal is a black market dealer of all things Kaiju.

Dustin: I also thought he wasn't given enough to do. I liked the idea of the Kaiju black market, much like the Kaizu black market in my third novella, The Black Market (Yakuza Dynasty, Part 3), which I’m practically giving away for $1.99 on the Amazon Kindle store. (OK, NOW I’m done.)

Nick: You whore!

Pacific Rim felt more like a sequel than I think a first installment should. Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite directors, and he, with Peter Jackson, is one of the best at building worlds you wholly believe in. But I was left feeling like I was on the outside never getting a chance to really feel fear for this world he has concocted.

FUN FACT: Guillermo del Toro is Spanish for “Guillermo from the Bull.”

Nick: Anything else I want to say might be considered spoilers. When you have nifty looking Asians and Russians putting themselves into dangerous situations, but are never given names and/or things to do, chances are they will probably die. So chances are you won’t and shouldn't give a fuck.

Dustin: While I liked this movie overall, there were a couple things I didn't really like. One was the references to Independence Day, which sort of broke the fourth wall for me. Day’s character’s explanation of the aliens’ motive was almost word-for-word the same as the explanation given in Independence Day, which felt more like lazy writing than homage. And Idris Elba’s inspirational speech also felt too much like the president’s speech at the end of Independence Day.

The one other thing I didn't like was the casting of Hunnam. He isn't exactly the highest caliber actor, and he has such a generic, forgettably good-looking face that I actually forgot who he was supposed to be... several times. When we meet him again after the opening sequence, it took me awhile to realize he was the former Jaeger pilot, and there were a couple other times when I was like, “Is this a new character? Oh, it’s THAT guy.”

Nick: That would have more to do with the poor evolution of the plot than it would be poor Hunnam’s fault. The film should have set up its characters better before thrusting them into battle so you'd know who he was, and then you would know right away IT’S THAT GUY! Hunnam isn't given much to do on an emotional level in Pacific Rim, but in the film Green Street Hooligans he delivers an amazing performance.

Dustin: Would you recommend Pacific Rim?

Nick: To be honest it’s hard to make a recommendation considering I have never seen a film like Pacific Rim. In saying that, since I have never seen a film like it, I think it should be seen. This film will be most enjoyable to people who like the mecha anime genre, which is the only kind of anime I don’t enjoy. But as my friend pointed out, once he turned off his brain, he sure liked it a lot more.

Dustin: The others in the theater I saw it in definitely had their brains shut off, which I think was their default mode. As I was leaving the movie, I heard a jock-type behind me saying, “Dude, imagine if that really happened.”

Nick: Did you turn around and try to convince them that mechas were used in the War of 1812, but the government hid that fact? Of course, you would address them in a formal manner with “Bra”?

Dustin: No. I explained the movie was obviously an allegorical tale about the Pacific Theater in World War II, in which the Kaiju represented Japan (hence the Japanese name) and the Jaeger represented the atomic bomb as the consequences of taking down a Kaiju meant destroying a section of a city and causing an unacceptable number of civilian casualties.

Nick: What, Bra?

Dustin: I hope the Kaiju do wipe out humanity after all.