Pacific Rim

[Gerry]

I went to see "Pacific Rim" with my co-worker Randy. We'd been reading the reviews and we both had mixed feelings, prepared to be let down.

 

Were we ever wrong! This is a seriously entertaining "B" movie that wears the label proudly, in a lot of ways like "Starship Troopers" or "Independence Day". Two and a half hours and it never lagged, not for a moment. It references everything from "Star Wars" to "Avatar" and draws a lot of inspiration from video games and anime, but I can't find any fault with any of its homages. It never references other movies in a way that makes you think "I've seen this movie before," it's more in the structure. The character types are drawn more from a Japanese tradition, but in a good way, and I'm not a particular fan of either anime or manga.

 

In particular are the two mad scientist characters (TWO! And they're brothers!) who I could actually picture as drawn in an exaggerated anime style even while watching the screen. Ron Perlman has a very funny small but key role.

 

I was completely taken by the hardware and the way it's rendered/realized, and the intense texturing of nearly every surface, to the point where one character is wearing a plain blue topcoat, and in contrast to all the heavily textured machinery and environments, all I could think was "What a GREAT-LOOKING blue coat!"

 

The girl character, who is Japanese, is the main non-anglo character, and the simply shot scene where she first comes on screen has her framed by an enormous black umbrella in a heavy rainstorm, and the water running off the umbrella was so beautifully rendered and hyper-real it was like you could touch it.

 

Speaking of which, I've been getting jaded by 3D and having to wear those stupid glasses, but this movie uses the 3D to awesome effect in nearly every shot. As for minuses, the soundtrack is too loud in spots, but I found as I let the wholeness of the movie envelop me, the volume was just part of the experience. They also use this technology where your seats actually rumble when there's a big crash or explosion.

 

The monsters are awesomely great, the robots are great, and I'm ready to go see it again.

[Shelton]

Gerry

 

I got my wife to go it and she was glad she did. It was a fun movie and I felt the same way. There were a couple if shots that reminded me of some of the first movies I saw in a theater, Godzilla vs Mothra. But all in all I would go see it again!

 

Steve