Other than the CGI mechas and budget, this was essentially a Japanese live action mecha movie. Heck, Gipsy's sword attack is incredibly conservative compared to what they do all the time in Toku.
I watched this last week and hated it just as much as I hated the Hellboy films. It felt like I was watching a Power Rangers movie. It was so cheesy, boring and poorly acted that I fell asleep near the very end. The "scientists" were the only thing halfway decent in the whole film. I think you have to either really like Gozilla-type movies or be of a younger generation to have an affinity for Pacific Rim.
Very glad I didn't go to see this in the theater as I would have been pissed.
I don't know why but I thought this movie would be a lot more of a serious humans vs. monsters movie and have less of a cornball low budget kiddie flick feel. I was expecting something like a mix of Alien/Prometheus movies mixed with The Host and Cloverfield. I guess I was hoping this movie would be a lot more grounded in reality.
Pan's Labyrinth is still the only good movie Guillermo del Toro has directed.
I don't know why but I thought this movie would be a lot more of a serious humans vs. monsters movie and have less of a cornball low budget kiddie flick feel. I was expecting something like a mix of Alien/Prometheus movies mixed with The Host and Cloverfield. I guess I was hoping this movie would be a lot more grounded in reality.
There's a reason why this kind of movie works - it's because it knows it's impossible to apply stuff like this with "realism" or "being grounded". Right off the bat the premise is already too out there. I'd argue even that among all of the similarly-themed titles this is more grounded (yes, more grounded than Evangelion).
Also Cloverfield is a bad monster movie.
Also Power Rangers movie got NOTHING on this. Even Sentai films aren't as well as this. /tokunerd
There's a reason why this kind of movie works - it's because it knows it's impossible to apply stuff like this with "realism" or "being grounded". Right off the bat the premise is already too out there. I'd argue even that among all of the similarly-themed titles this is more grounded (yes, more grounded than Evangelion).
I am a sucker for found footage movies so I really like Cloverfield . For me a movie like Cloverfield or even Starship Troopers as poorly acted as they are they have a lot more weight to them because you actually feel an impending sense of danger from the monsters. Pacific Rim was dull because it was just two giant things punching and biting each other repeatedly. When there is no sense of danger or mortality why do I care? I could forgive the bad acting in this film if they actually made me feel like it wasn't just a rubber CG world; even bad drama is better than no drama.
I am a sucker for found footage movies so I really like Cloverfield. For me a movie like Cloverfield or even Starship Troopers as poorly acted as they are have a lot more weight to them because you actually feel an impending sense of danger. Pacific Rim was dull because it was just two giant things punching and biting each other. When there is no sense of danger or mortality why do I care? I could forgive the bad acting in this film if they actually made me feel like it wasn't just a rubber CG world; even bad drama is better than no drama.
I couldn't stand Cloverfield because for a supposed "realistic"/"cam" recording of a monster, they act so unrealistic and more like moving cameramen than actual victims/bystanders.
Pacific Rim works because it knows what it's about - A mecha and a kaijuu fighting. And what are you talking about - they always show near death situations and pretty much killed every main character save a few in the film.
I couldn't stand Cloverfield because for a supposed "realistic"/"cam" recording of a monster, they act so unrealistic and more like moving cameramen than actual victims/bystanders.
Pacific Rim works because it knows what it's about - A mecha and a kaijuu fighting. And what are you talking about - they always show near death situations and pretty much killed every main character save a few in the film.
Well this is coming from someone who never heard the word "kaiju" before this movie and refers to mecha as robots. And it's not that I'm opposed to Asian monster movies because I really like The Host and the way they made you actually care about the characters.
The characters that died in Pacific Rim were so poorly developed, generic and introduced in such a cheeseball way that when they vanish from the screen you can hardly be expected to feel anything. Oh no the two generic ethnic character's robot got destroyed. Am I supposed to feel sad or shocked at that moment? Or am I supposed to just be so enthralled by giant things punching each other; cause the Transformers movies kind of beat that experience into the ground for me. Am I supposed to remember the names of the monsters and robots in this movie? To me it just looked like a lot of generic monsters and robots fighting.
I guess after Pan's Labyrinth I expected something better than this from del Toro, but he is responsible for the terrible Hellboy movies so it makes sense that he would make this.
Well this is coming from someone who never heard the word "kaiju" before this movie and refers to mecha as robots. And it's not that I'm opposed to Asian monster movies because I really like The Host and the way they made you actually care about the characters.
The characters that died in Pacific Rim were so poorly developed, generic and introduced in such a cheeseball way that when they vanish from the screen you can hardly be expected to feel anything. Oh no the two generic ethnic character's robot got destroyed. Am I supposed to feel sad or shocked at that moment? Or am I supposed to just be so enthralled by giant things punching each other; cause the Transformers movies kind of beat that experience into the ground for me.
I guess after Pan's Labyrinth I expected something better than this from del Toro, but he is responsible for the terrible Hellboy movies so it makes sense that he would make this.
I was talking more about the important death of the commander guy and the brother.
But yeah the characterization is the lowest point of Pacific Rim, but it personally doesn't tarnish much of the movie because it doesn't conflict with its focus (mecha fighting kaijuu). It's not something like Cloverfield where characters were important in its focus, but were terribly done.
