Pacific Rim

[Mattemeo]

I cannot believe I'm about to say that a Kaiju movie, and a western-made one at that, is easily my favourite film of the year so far and I have doubts it will be knocked off the top spot in my estimation soon...
...But I did just say that. Because it is.

[luckton]

Best movie of the summer. Absolutely full of fun and awesome without insulting my intelligence except the digital analog thing. Grinned like a damn fool or laughed like a jackal through the whole thing. Idris Elba stole the show and he deserves a hit. This is a nearly flawless movie. If you can't enjoy this movie, you are actively trying to destroy the concept of fun.

Where are my goddamn shoes?

+1.  I really have nothing more to add.  Even the Mrs. enjoyed it.

[Ard]

This movie was everything I wanted it to be.   

[MahrinSkel]

Thanks, you bastards, now I've got to go see this in theaters instead of waiting.  

--Dave

Edit because why not: Pacific Rim saves Stock Market.

[HaemishM]

I cannot believe I'm about to say that a Kaiju movie, and a western-made one at that

Here's the rub. This is totally a Godzilla vs. Giant Robots movie. And yet, it has more pure skill, talent and heart put into it than any of the movies I've seen this year. It's certainly better visually than everything else. I loved Man of Steel but it had its flaws. This one... I can't see any. It is a top to bottom masterpiece about goddamn giant robots vs. monsters. It will also be a better film than any movie nominated for an Oscar this year, or any movie that will make more money this year.

J.J. Abrams should see this movie and hate himself because this is how you do big budget summer action movies. Michael Bay should go on a fucking cocaine bender ending in his suicide (well, he should do that anyway).

[Rendakor]

Loved every minute.

[Ghambit]

I kid you not, this movie had not a single flaw.  It was perfection for the genre.  Also has my vote for movie of the year easy and I rank it up there tied with Avengers.  You guys know how I obsess over large IMAX and 3D so check this out... this is easily the BEST "made for 3D movie" EVER MADE.  There I said it.  Seriously, as if I thought they couldn't do any better then the special trailer in "Man of Steel," they went and just blew my mind even more.  I don't really understand what processes Guillermo did in filming, but it really blew the lid off 3D production.  If you have to drive 50+ miles to a full IMAX 3D theatre, do it.  Picture the "wow" factor of the first minutes on Pandora and extend that to the end credits and you have Pacific Rim.

Also, the most visceral robot and/or monster movie I've ever seen aside from old-school live action b-movie stuff.  There was a lot going on, but you could easily follow it.  It felt real.  Alive.  It had my nephew air boxing through half the movie (I had to convince him jaegers werent real - yet, and we havent found any aliens - yet; but he still wants to be an alien-hunting supersoldier when he grows up).  Even the sets had life whether indoors or out, inside a bot or out.  Whatever.  Whole movie had gravitas.

Christ, I cant find a flaw aside from Hunman being a tad newb in a few dialogue scenes, but I can forgive 'cause he kicked so much arse in the stunt scenes.  Even the lead female role; flawless as was her script.  An ingenius hire too btw; she's a real up and comer (didnt realize she was oscar nominated for Babel).  And I'll echo the praises for Idris; the man has sick talent but it was no surprise.  The smaller roles? played perfectly.

I'll probably see this again and go buy some fan shwag.  So yah, Jon Carter this will not be.  I'll be surprised if it doesn't have a Matrix-like 2nd week; then again, I dont have much faith in society these days so I won't hold my breath.  Theatre was mostly empty too btw, as I suspected, on a Friday night during primetime in the Summer no less.  Honestly I've never seen a movie that good be that empty on opening weekend.

Are we that geeky or something?  I dont get it.  Maybe we're broken and everyone else isn't.  

[Stormwaltz]

I'll be realistic. A lot of the dialogue was corny as hell, and there were significant plot holes.

And zero is the amount of fucks I give, because HA HA HA HA HA! DID YOU SEE THAT? MOTHERFUCKER! EEEEEEEE!

*ahem*

Also, as a comfortable straight guy, I kind of wish I looked like Max Martini (daddy Australia). Can I get an "oh my" Mr. Takei?

[luckton]

Some further thoughts, now that I'm awake and calmed down from post-movie excitement...

This is the movie I would make if I was trying to combine the multi-national themed mechs of G Gundam with the alien attacks of NG: Evangelion.  Alternatively, if they ever made RL movies of those series, they should be at least this good if not better.

[SurfD]

Seriously?  DO WANT.  

[Ghambit]

[luckton]

I'm pretty sure del Toro told Charlie Day "I want you to pretend that you're an obnoxious/hyper J.J. Abrams.  And ACTION!"   

[Ghambit]

I'm pretty sure del Toro told Charlie Day "I want you to pretend that you're an obnoxious/hyper J.J. Abrams.  And ACTION!"   

Fixed.   

[Merusk]

Yeah, so I'll agree. Totally amazing.  Saw it in IMAX-3d as suggested and it was fan. fucking. tastic. 

I giggled at a few scenes.  Literally.  Robot punches monster, I giggled.

I'm going to have to force my son to go.  He wasn't excited by the movie but, yeah, he needs to see it.

I really wanted to see more of the team fighting, or at least more of the Russian and Chinese.  But at nearly 2 1/2 hours I'm not sure what you can cut to get some of that in there. 

Seriously?  DO WANT. 

[HaemishM]

If there is a director's cut with more of the Chinese and Russian robots, goddamn I am so in. Both of those needed more screen time, damn the consequences!

[Khaldun]

It's pretty damn good.

I had only two minor complaints.

1) I actually liked the world-building shit as much as the big robot fights. Not the prologue so much (though the quick shots of what the world does once they get used to jaegers beating the shit out of kaiju before things go sour are great) but the Bone Town and criminal trade in kaiju parts and the worshippers who think the kaiju are God's judgment and so on stuff is fantastic. Much like the Goblin Market in Hellboy 2--when Del Toro does that kind of quiet stuff to built great, weird worlds that imagine what's going on away from the main action, he just shines so much and makes you realize how utterly impoverished most blockbuster films really are. I could have done with thirty more minutes of that and some slightly tighter editing on the action, honestly.

2) Idris Elba's "Henry V" speech was pretty weaksauce--about the only time the cheese got a bit too cheesy for me. I would be happy for no more Henry V speeches in these flicks ever again--or for a film that has this much heart otherwise to play against type and give us something other than the rote version.

[Ghambit]

The worldbuilding part felt a lot like gutterspeak Bladerunner meets Zion APU dock.  And yah, I too wanted more.  It's a potentially fascinating realm he created in a small span of time.

[Ruvaldt]

Saw this a few hours ago in IMAX 3D.  It's unbelievably good.  I can't add anything that people haven't said already.  I'm just joining the chorus.  I may see it again next weekend...

[Lakov_Sanite]

The last scene.

[Ghambit]

The last scene.

[Ratman_tf]

Aight. I'm convinced by all the buzz to go see it in the theater. Not because of giant robots punching monsters, but because peoples is saying that 1. It's not pants on head retarted "Turn your brain off". and 2. It's got some actual suspense and tension instead of just tossing action at the screen until the audience is numb.

[MahrinSkel]

Okay, fucking awesome.  I just wanted a good robots vs. monsters, and it was definitely that.  But probably the best sci-fi movie since the original Matrix.

--Dave

[Khaldun]

The effort that was put into making a world and tech and stuff is reason 1 that it's not just Michael Bay tits and explosions; reason 2 is the Drift as an idea and plot construct; reason 3 is the pacing, which has some very interesting downtime; reason 4 is that the action itself is generally well-choreographed and that there's some work being put into making small and large scales relate visually (the pigeons flapping at the end of the pier, the fistpunch through the office building). Reason 5 is that Del Toro actually bothers to get his civilians out of harm's way in the main portion of the film so that you can enjoy the property destruction without thinking of all the people who just died when Gypsy Danger punched through a building.

Reason 6 is also that there isn't a gratitutious tits character. And for that matter that there isn't an irritating teenage-male surrogate character.

[Merusk]

Reason 7; no pointless sex scene.  It would have undercut the idea that the drift made you closer to your partner than anything else.

I forgot to ask if anyone stayed through the 1st part of the credits.  I did only because the background was a series of detailed, un-skinned stills of the models.  It was the first really good look at some of the modeling and pretty fantastic.  To my surprise there was a 'stinger' scene.

For those who missed it:

[eldaec]

I kid you not, this movie had not a single flaw.  It was perfection for the genre.  Also has my vote for movie of the year easy and I rank it up there tied with Avengers.  You guys know how I obsess over large IMAX and 3D so check this out... this is easily the BEST "made for 3D movie" EVER MADE.  There I said it.

I guess it tells you how inherently terrible 3D is when I've seen any number of people say this despite the fact that Pacific Rim is a post-conversion job rather than made for 3D, and the director has outright said his preference was for 2D because 3D makes everything smaller.

[HaemishM]

I will say that the 3D was pretty good. There was only one scene where it "got in the way" and that was such a short, minor thing (actor in foreground covering 1/4 of the screen while actor in background is the main focus). 3D usually bugs the fuck out of me, but this just happened and didn't detract so kudos to it. Beat the pants off the forced perspective and things flying at the screen that was Star Trek Into Darkness.

[eldaec]

Only one scene where it got in the way, but unable to think of anything it helped, suggests you are setting a very low bar for "pretty good".

The way you describe it sounds a lot more like "worthless and occasionally irritating".

I accept this counts as "much better than average".

[MahrinSkel]

Oddly enough, even though a fridge-logic analysis shows many physical impossibilities, the only one that made me go "WTF?" in the theater was the scene where she's holding an open umbrella as the helicopter lands 50 feet away.

--Dave

[Ginaz]

Fuck people are dumb.  Grown Ups 2 made more money this past weekend than Pacific Rim.  Hopefully word of mouth can get more people to see it because its the most fun I've had watching a movie in the theater this year.

[Malakili]

Fuck people are dumb.  Grown Ups 2 made more money this past weekend than Pacific Rim.  Hopefully word of mouth can get more people to see it because its the most fun I've had watching a movie in the theater this year.

I just think a lot of people aren't interested in seeing a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters from an IP they have never heard of.  Despite the quality, everything about this - on the surface - has the hallmarks of a bad sci-fi channel movie.  del Toro is a draw (if a niche one), but the cast doesn't have any big names to draw people in either. I suspect that is why people aren't lining up to see it.

[HaemishM]

The way you describe it sounds a lot more like "worthless and occasionally irritating".

Considering I think 3D is a goddamn waste of money and total and utter horseshit, then you have my feelings on 3D encapsulated perfectly.

EDIT: It also seems to have made $38 million, in 3rd place behind Grown Ups 2 and Despicable Me 2. It probably won't make its budget back domestically, but international will probably make it break even.

[Ratman_tf]

Saw it. Loved it. It had the best climax in an action movie I've seen in probably a decade. Ramped up the tension very well. The two hours flew by.

My nerd nitpick moment, funny enough, was the comment about the dinosaurs being the first attempt at invasion by Kaiju.
Who the fuck fought off that attack? Why are the dinosaurs so perfectly fitted to our ecology at the time? No dinosaur had 4 eyes or bat wings on a tyrannosaurs?
Why did it fail and why did they wait milliions of years to try again?

But I'll let it slide, like the digital/analog and the tanker used as a club, because the movie is good and little details like that don't bring a good movie down.

[Ard]

Yeah, the umbrella and the digital/analog thing bugged me also, but the tanker was used for awesome, so everything else is forgiven, amirite?

[Ratman_tf]

Ok. I had it pointed out to me that the aliens didn't make the dinosaurs. They made contact then and the world wasn't 'ready', which makes a lot more sense.

Yeah, the umbrella and the digital/analog thing bugged me also, but the tanker was used for awesome, so everything else is forgiven, amirite?

Totally! I can forgive the little nit picks if the movie is good. If the story is great and the characters are great. When the story is bad and the characters are poor, then I'm gonna get mean with the nitpicking, because goddamnit, I spend money and I want to get something out of it! 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Saw it. Loved it. It had the best climax in an action movie I've seen in probably a decade. Ramped up the tension very well. The two hours flew by.

My nerd nitpick moment, funny enough, was the comment about the dinosaurs being the first attempt at invasion by Kaiju.
Who the fuck fought off that attack? Why are the dinosaurs so perfectly fitted to our ecology at the time? No dinosaur had 4 eyes or bat wings on a tyrannosaurs?
Why did it fail and why did they wait milliions of years to try again?

But I'll let it slide, like the digital/analog and the tanker used as a club, because the movie is good and little details like that don't bring a good movie down.

They explained it right after. Earths atmosphere wasn't suitable for terraforming at the time, too pure or some such, so that as we started to pollute, it became a more hospitable climate for aliens.