Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim

[Monday]

Took my kid to it. It was good as far as these kind of movies go. Beats the hell out of the Transformers movies, which is faint praise.

Charlie Day's parts were my favorite, even though it felt like they rushed or tacked in that part of the story. Charlie superlatively charming and adorable. He makes everything funnier than it has any right to be.

Jax was better than usual, but still meh. Mako was lifeless. I like the dynamic they were going for with them, but the lack of charisma those two had (especially Mako) made it pretty uncompelling. The young Aussie guy was ho-hum too. Overall a lack of personality where we needed it most, especially juxtaposed with some of the supporting cast.

Stringer Bell was alright. Ron Pearlman was ok but his stuff overlapped with Day's and like I said, that part felt tacked on or rushed or something. The CGI was good and the 3d didn't feel forced. It was what it was WRT plot.

[RedEyedGhost]

My absolute favorite bit, and I haven't seen this mentioned here or elsewhere, was Charlie Day's brilliant Louis Tully impersonation about halfway through. So fucking awesome.

I'm quoting myself because I just saw this Conan interview with Charlie from last night, and apparently he noticed some similarities too. The side-by-side pic was hilarious. :lol:

[karaddin]

No one has mentioned the most important cast member yet, without spoilers how was GladOS?!

[AndrewBaelish]

GLaDOS is just kind of there. They don't make a big deal out of it. I think it was kind of cool how they did it. If you get it, you get it.

[Honey Badger]

Just watched it and enjoyed it thoroughly. A stupid big robot movie, so don't expect anything else. If you nitpick it you'll realize how dumb it is, but that's your fault for trying to analyze a summer blockbuster.

I love Rinko Kikuchi because she's so adorable in this. Didn't care about the acting or story. Jax was awesome being awesome, and I always enjoy Idris Ilba. For whatever reason his character limped a bit like Luther does.

Only complaint was I wished there were more missiles, lasers, and guns on the robots. The punching was pretty cool, but became quickly repetitive.

If "giant robots punching monsters in the face" makes you say "hell yeah." Go watch it. If it makes you say "that doesn't make sense!" Then don't watch it. It's just impossible to make "let's build giant robots so that we can punch the monsters that are attacking us in the face!" make more sense than "let's shoot missiles at them from over the horizon" so you've just got to roll with the premise and enjoy it. As my son said "robots and monsters fighting is fun!"

No doubt. American technology has gotten to the point that missile runs consist of parking carriers hundreds of miles off shore so planes can fire at targets 300 miles away. They track everything by GPS and it's boring as fuck to watch, even if it's strategically sound. That's why punching aliens in the face with robot fists is the way to go.

I wish they had anime swarm missiles though. You know, that shit they do in Macross or Eva where they fire 50 missiles at once with a bunch of smoke trails.

[Independent George]

Why fight monsters with robots? I have no patience for such inquiries; you may as well ask 'why strap rockets to a pair or roller skates?'.

[ExBruinsFan]

Okay. I saw it yesterday. Dumb premise, honestly laughable moments ("elbow rocket!"), but - I DID enjoy it.

Surprised me, but this is a kick-ass action movie. Even if you hate giant robots, like I do.

[The Anti-Targ]

This movie could have been really bad, and cheesy. It did have some pretty terrible, cheesy, Hollywood moments but it worked, such as it is. So kudos to Guillermo for making this movie not suck.

[Honey Badger]

Okay. I saw it yesterday. Dumb premise, honestly laughable moments ("elbow rocket!"), but - I DID enjoy it.

Surprised me, but this is a kick-ass action movie. Even if you hate giant robots, like I do.

I laughed when they showed an elbow rocket allowing the robot to punch harder. That's just awesome on multiple levels.

[ExBruinsFan]

I laughed when they showed an elbow rocket allowing the robot to punch harder. That's just awesome on multiple levels.

Oh, yes! I laughed out loud. I was expecting that moment, because someone here or elsewhere had mentioned it.

I laughed a lot in the first half, but hell - FUN movie, for sure.

I am probably going to see it again. Maybe 3D this time, which I usually dislike.

When you see me going to a 3D giant robot movie, you KNOW Del Toro has made a gem.

[Spring Bass]

Why fight monsters with robots? I have no patience for such inquiries; you may as well ask 'why strap rockets to a pair or roller skates?'.

Me neither, to an extent.

The sort-of rationale for it would be that they really want to get away from killing the Kaiju by blowing them up, which spreads their toxic blood and guts all over the coastal areas of the Pacific. Of course, that's why they should give the Jaegers giant baseball bats. ;) Or just hit them over and over again with unfused bombs/missiles to bludgeon them to death.

[Crazydog7]

I enjoyed it and I don't care. It actually reminded me alot of Twister, Independence Day or any one of a number of summer movies over the years. I liked it but in a few years I'm going to go "Did I see that when it came out?....I think I did."

[Fez]

I ended up seeing it. It was fun, in a really stupid sort of way. I don't regret seeing it, I just wish it wasn't quite so cheesy. I also wish Ron Pearlman's role was larger, and that any of the pilots had a more interesting personality.

The visuals were cool though, and the first appearance of the sword was pretty damn epic (there was more than one person in the theater who yelled "oh hell yeah" when that happened).

[Merentha]

I ended up seeing it. It was fun, in a really stupid sort of way. I don't regret seeing it, I just wish it wasn't quite so cheesy. I also wish Ron Pearlman's role was larger, and that any of the pilots had a more interesting personality.

Apparently they had an hour more of character arc stuff that they ended up cutting out because it messed with the pacing a little too much, as well as making the movie drag on a bit. I'm hoping it comes out as extra features on a DVD release.

[Honey Badger]

The film also introduced me to Rinko Kikuchi, who turns out to be a fantastic actress. I've been catching up with her work on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. She's really good.

[Weeping Sore]

I saw Pacific Rim opening night, and for some reason I can't stop thinking about it.

It's stunning how vividly Del Toro created another reality, just a totally original look and feel. Never seen another movie like it.

Yes the dialogue and characterizations were corny. Made me feel like I was 8 years old again, glued to the TV with Robotech tuned in on the UHF dial.

Love.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

The more I think about this the more I think I should have hated it. I should have thought it was cheesy and stupid, and a transformers knock-off. But I didn't. It had this certain something that made me feel like I was 11 years old again and thought it was the most bad-ass thing I ever saw in my life. I literally giggled with excitement at certain points in the movie (when the 3 Jaegers were deployed at once, when the sword came out, when Gypsy was walking down the street wielding the boat).

[Raja]

One of the big things this film had over say a movie like Transformers ( 2 and 3 specifically ) is that the battles in this movie seemed to actually matter. It's like in the first Matrix, most of the fight scenes were fairly memorable, whereas in Reloded, there were several more fight scenes, but none of them were very memorable.

And yes, some, if not most of the characters were fairly one note but the movie gave you so many things to latch onto if you didn't like a particular part of it. I thought the whole syncing thing with the pilots was fascinating as were the little peeks into how the Kaiju had infiltrated into our culture. It's been a very long time since I've actually enjoyed an action film as much as I enjoyed Pacific Rim.

[Slurktan]

Visually kind of entertaining I will admit.

But my thoughts on the movie are condensed in one quote from a film much, much, much smarter than Pacific Rim. That being Billy Madison:

What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

[Martini Sigil]

My favorite review geek offers her two cents....