Pacific Rim

[Paelos]

Michelle Rodriguez is no slouch either.

[Evildrider]

Yeah but she only eats "tacos".   

[MediumHigh]

Or it's possible this kind of thing, even if done exceptionally well, has absolutely no appeal to a large swath of the public. You could tell me this movie was the absolute best movie done of all time on monsters, robots, or both. I'm still not dropping $12 on it.

What did Avatar have that this movie doesn't? Other than that Cameron is a bigger name than del Toro.

Sigourney Weaver in a movie by the guy who made Aliens comes to mind.

Sexy aliens, gimmcky 3D, crap love story, environmental message thicker then a soup kitchen. Oh and did I mention a big pretty world full of sexy aliens?

[Aez]

Great movie. Did not understand why they built giant robots instead of giant tank. Much more efficient per pound.

[Evildrider]

You can't really brawl in a tank. 

[Sir T]

If it was properly made the aliens would have crushed the tanks with their tits.

[Khaldun]

On the how WB is making the point to Legendary, it's not just that they're not running standard ads, they apparently cut off all sorts of secondary promotions that were planned six months ago and are normal for a 'big' summer film. A lot of that stuff is so background noise that we don't notice it, and most of the people here don't make their decisions to see films on that basis anyway, but it is one of the ways you build a big opening for a film that isn't a sequel or doesn't have a well-known star.

[Surlyboi]

What were you watching?  They were pretty regular on Fox, CBS and CN in the week running-up but I haven't seen one on any of those since Thursday.

Longmire

[Ghambit]

Great movie. Did not understand why they built giant robots instead of giant tank. Much more efficient per pound.

Tanks cant walk underwater, which was necessary to deal with the rift.  Stop.

[Ard]

The whole tanks vs mechs thing is just a government coverup for the wall boondoggle.  What they really should have done is taken all that concrete from the wall and poured it into the breach.

I almost want to go see this again next weekend.

[Ragnoros]

Great movie. Still don't like 3D, IMAX or no. A couple cool shots/sequences don't make up for making 95% of the movie worse.

I want to see it again, but in IMAX 2D. Sans stupid glasses.

[Triforcer]

More Rinko Kikuchi (or other Japanese actresses) in American movies please.  That was my only thought after seeing this.

[Margalis]

It's probably worth considering at this point that cultivating buzz as a nerd movie may be counter-productive. The messaging there may be coming across as "this movie is only for nerds." Kind of like how gay/lesbian movies tend to exist in a ghetto.

[rk47]

Yeah I'm amazed at the lack of enthusiasm from movie goers. A few of the complaints are petty as fuck - basically 'It's not as awesome as that drill anime I saw last year'
Fucking weaboos.

[Teleku]

No, I believe viewers are just really dumb.

Or it's possible this kind of thing, even if done exceptionally well, has absolutely no appeal to a large swath of the public. You could tell me this movie was the absolute best movie done of all time on monsters, robots, or both. I'm still not dropping $12 on it.

My main concern was my friend on the financing side, and whether or not the thing would make back the budget.

This doesn't gel with the fact that the Transformer's movies are very successfull (also horrible).  Those movies are exactly nothing but giant nerd robots punching each other with explosions (even using an existing nerd-IP), yet they were all highly profitable.  Hell, most people I've talked to said the trailer for this made it look like another transformers movie.

[eldaec]

Transformers had dumb nostalgia and Shia LeBoeuf.

This film has no bankable assets. This thread appears to dramatically underestimate how much box office is driven by the name of the IP and the name of the star.

I'd agree the trailers were awful. They were putting me off before the reviews came in.

[Margalis]

Transformers checks a lot of boxes. That's sort of the formula for a successful blockbuster these days, a long movie that includes stuff that appeals to every audience.

Transformers has action, military porn, an IP, racial comedy, Megan Fox leaning over a motorcycle, wacky hijinks...it has shitty characters, a shitty plot and a shitty script but it has a lot of stuff designed to appeal to a lot of different people.

On a movie like that you know there are people sitting at a table saying things like "maybe we should include a scene where such and such happens - that will really play with 14-18 year old females!"

[MediumHigh]

Shia LeBoeuf wasn't a big name, or a name before transformers.

Transformers had; crappy target audience point of view character, slutty size zero with big boobs, extensive scenes with average soldiers shouting incoherently into the air, more slutty-size-zero-with-big-boobs jingling-bending over-posing like a WWE diva in the foreground, more chase the crappy audience point of view character through half the city, more explaining how important the crappy audience point of view character is to the central plot and how everyone gives a shit about is nerdy-awkward-off brand blandness including the resident slutty-size-zero-with-big-boobs.

Its a formula, you can sell anything with those key points. The fact that they sold millions of giant robots kicking other giant robot tickets, is coincidental. Everybody saw it to see Megan Fox come out of a mud wrestling competition, to see Merica troops fight for Merica, and to see themselves flail around as you get the girl, the respect of people with 10 times your importance, and oh yeah you saved the world.

Pacific Rim proves that nerd culture isn't mainstream, just the pretty up doll versions of our favorite franchises.

Transformers checks a lot of boxes. That's sort of the formula for a successful blockbuster these days, a long movie that includes stuff that appeals to every audience.

Transformers has action, military porn, an IP, racial comedy, Megan Fox leaning over a motorcycle, wacky hijinks...it has shitty characters, a shitty plot and a shitty script but it has a lot of stuff designed to appeal to a lot of different people.

On a movie like that you know there are people sitting at a table saying things like "maybe we should include a scene where such and such happens - that will really play with 14-18 year old females!"

You beat me to it bastard.

[Paelos]

Transformers isn't a nerd IP. It's a reference point for most people growing up in the 80s.

[MediumHigh]

Don't say that...we may get a He-Man movie...

[Merusk]

Too late.

http://screenrant.com/he-man-masters-universe-movie-jon-chu-gi-joe-2-3d/
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/chu-heman-film-in-early-stages-29172517.html

Chu's going to do to He-Man what he did to GI-Joe. Enjoy!

[Lakov_Sanite]

Don't say that...we may get a He-Man movie...

Dolph is crying.

[Ghambit]

I will agree that the marketing has been stale.  I mean, if you're of teh nerd culture then yah, just watching an 80m Jaeger punch with a rocket-fist is enough.  But for most, it would've helped to have seen a bit more of the setpieces that make the movie stand out.  I applaud Del Toro for not giving up the ghost in the marketing and maintaining surprise, but that's a risky ploy.

Also, this is the worst movie ever for translation onto a TV, if you're going to focus on the bots and monsters.

[Paelos]

Have they tried a live action Thundercats yet?

[Merusk]

What were you watching?  They were pretty regular on Fox, CBS and CN in the week running-up but I haven't seen one on any of those since Thursday.

Longmire

Hum.  I don't watch A&E much I'll see what comes up.  Still nothing on network or CN over the last day.  Adult Swim is all about RIPD right now.

[Ironwood]

Have they tried a live action Thundercats yet?

No, but they redid it for animation and actually it was ok.

[luckton]

Have they tried a live action Thundercats yet?

No, but they redid it for animation and actually it was ok.

Yeah, and then they canned that too 

[Merusk]

Anthropomorphic animals aren't as rare as they were when we were kids, so no novelty to get them watching.  My son showed a vague interest in it, then flipped back over to Adventure Time and Lego Ninjago.

[Ironwood]

Have they tried a live action Thundercats yet?

No, but they redid it for animation and actually it was ok.

Yeah, and then they canned that too 

They did ?  The bastards, I was enjoying that with the Gurl.

Also, new Cheetara had great jugs.

[luckton]

It was another high-quality but high-priced animation.  Like the Boondocks.  Unfortunately, in the wake of the dozen or so Ben 10 series' they have, it'd couldn't bring in the money.

[tazelbain]

Surprisingly whiny teenage cats are just as annoying whiny teenage humans.

[schild]

I just saw this.

It was kind of shitty. It was note-for-note Independence Day with fights that were about the same level of rad but with no actors nearly as fun to watch.

Hollywood might be trying to kill it for bucking the trend, but there's also no reason to keep it alive.

ALSO:

[Surlyboi]

Anthropomorphic animals aren't as rare as they were when we were kids.

Fuckin' furries...

[tazelbain]

I just saw this.

Ya, but you knew going in that realism isn't what a giant-fighting-robot-movie was about.

[Paelos]

Anthropomorphic animals aren't as rare as they were when we were kids, so no novelty to get them watching.  My son showed a vague interest in it, then flipped back over to Adventure Time and Lego Ninjago.

In terms of novelty, they need to make a Quantum Leap movie happen before Bakula gets too damned old to do it.