Pacific Rim

[WayAbvPar]

Michael Bay world? 

Worst Star Trek ep EVAR.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Spock Vulcan neck pinched a tribble because it peed on his boot and it exploded right next to a scantily clad Uhura leaning against a shuttle. 

[Typhon]

Mountains of Madness

It should be this. x1000

x1000! but only if GDT is given enough license to not include a love story.  In general, people wanting a romance are not going to see this.  Just tell the story.

[Lakov_Sanite]

The heartwarming story of a man and a shoggoth finding each other in the coldest place on earth, only to have their hearts keep each other warm.

[Venkman]

It is apparently getting a sequel - which disappoints me.  I'd rather see them learn from the mistakes (lacking story or characterer development) and try again.  The genre deserves a chance to have a real story told in it rather than rushing to stormy monster battles with superficial and nonsensical storytelling.

Maybe they'll take the opportunity to make a sequel and making a better story and character development. Not like they can they can do worse in both categories 

I'm glad it's done well. This has stroked a nerdrage in me but only if I allow myself to think about it for a second. And we now have TWO (count 'em TWO) threads for that outlet.

In the end, they could make franchise out of this that are just IMAX 3D showcase pieces. I'd pay for that. I go to the movies like three times a year because whatever isn't worth an iTunes rental on a flight I can see in on my 7.1/projector setup. But I ain't gettin' no IMAX (way big) nor 3D (mostly stupid) in my house anytime soon. So more mechs and monsters? Bring it on!

[eldaec]

To be fair I don't think the nerdrage is primarily aimed at the movie.

Before the movie launched the advertising told us it was a just an exercise in big CGI. Then some nerds went along and told everyone it was more than that, the nerdrage seems primarily aimed at those claiming this is a good film. Which is not something the filmmakers or trailers ever claimed.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Oh fuck right off, it's a perfectly fine film.  YOU don't like it, that is fine, I'm not going to argue your taste but again....

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pacific_rim_2013/

By any metric it's a good movie, it's doing well, not great but it's making money and people who watch it mostly enjoy it.  So stop with all the movie forum trolling with wild exagerrations and presumptions of quality pulled from your asses.

[lamaros]

Do you deny that nerds all over the Internet were saying 'it is one of us!'?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Not at all, there was a ton of hype and it did fall short of most expectations BUT to call it objectively a bad movie is some egregious fucking hyperbole.  Many were expecting robot jesus but got a flawed but fun action movie instead.

[eldaec]

Were people expecting robot jesus before it hit cinemas? The trailers made it look like transformers.

Opinion around this thing has been on an unusally wild ride even for the f13 movie forum.

[Ironwood]

More that I was all like 'Geez, that looks cheesy and kinda lame' and then everyone was like 'Wow, it's not cheesy and lame, it's deep and awesome and moving and whatnot'.

And then I went and it was cheesy and lame.  No-one fooled me, except those I usually listen to.

BASTARDS.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'll just speak for myself, I've been a fan of anime and giant robots punching things since voltron.  I was in no way expecting anything but cheesy acting and robots punching giant monsters. I got what I came for and I had fun.  I like to think I'm in the majority, now whether the majority has good taste or not is up for debate(Hint: it usually doesn't) but even most critics seem to think it was a decent flick caveat: for a summer blockbuster.

I think much of the vitriol around this movie is because of people on the internet and not really an accurate reading on the film itself.

[Merusk]

More that I was all like 'Geez, that looks cheesy and kinda lame' and then everyone was like 'Wow, it's not cheesy and lame, it's deep and awesome and moving and whatnot'.

And then I went and it was cheesy and lame.  No-one fooled me, except those I usually listen to.

BASTARDS.

Who the hell was calling it deep? Did I miss some other conversation?  It was cheesy with robots punching monsters, but that's all I wanted out of it.  It appeased the 12 year old in me.

[Miasma]

I went to see it yesterday mostly because of the glowing reviews in this thread.  But I interpreted the reviews as "it's really good for a robot versus monster movie" so that's all I expected and it's what I got.  It is far and away the best robot versus monster movie I've ever seen, that doesn't actually mean it ranks as a good movie when compared to all others.

It was also the first movie where the 3D actually added to the movie, made it better instead of worse.  Every other 3D movie I've ever seen the effects were not worth the price of having to wear and deal with the annoying glasses.  I include Avatar in that.  Speaking of, this movie was still better than the essentially robot versus monster Avatar (which I also liked).

[HaemishM]

More that I was all like 'Geez, that looks cheesy and kinda lame' and then everyone was like 'Wow, it's not cheesy and lame, it's deep and awesome and moving and whatnot'.

And then I went and it was cheesy and lame.  No-one fooled me, except those I usually listen to.

And I still can't understand for the life of me why you wouldn't enjoy the fuck out of this film. I thought it was fantastic... but you know, people's opinions differ.

Giant robots fighting giant monsters doesn't actually require a lot of effort to be good, and it likely won't ever ascend above cheesy because as we've all discussed ad nauseum, giant robots are a really dumb idea. But if you buy the premise that giant robots work, the level of craft of this movie is transcendent compared to 1) normal giant robot vs. giant monster movies, 2) most of the action movies I've seen this summer,  and 3) most of the movies I've seen this year.

Maybe I set the bar too low because let's face it, Hollywood has been setting the bar pretty goddamn low and going lower every year. But I honestly can't understand why people who buy the premise of giant robots hitting giant monsters wouldn't like this movie.

[Ironwood]

The Giant Robots hitting hte Giant Monsters bits were fine.

It was the rest that sucked fetid cock.

[Samwise]

And I still can't understand for the life of me why you wouldn't enjoy the fuck out of this film.

He did, by his own admission, he's just being a cranky Scot about it.

Enjoyable, but not very good.

 

[Ironwood]

I still stand by that.  It was the Robots Hitting The Monsters that made it enjoyable.

The rest of it didn't even register in my head and was forgotten five minutes out the theatre.  I challenge anyone to remember any actual dialogue beyond the King Richard Speech.    The Characters were pish.  Especially Hannibal Chau.  Jesus Wept.

[Ratman_tf]

I still stand by that.  It was the Robots Hitting The Monsters that made it enjoyable.

The rest of it didn't even register in my head and was forgotten five minutes out the theatre.  I challenge anyone to remember any actual dialogue beyond the King Richard Speech.    The Characters were pish.  Especially Hannibal Chau.  Jesus Wept.

I don't remember the exact dialoge from a lot of good movies, unless I watch it over and over and over again.

Really, everyone thinks that some movie SUCKS FETID STANK GREASY NERD COCK! It's practically required to take a fucking massive dump on movies if people seem to be enjoying them.

I liked the robot punching, and I also thoroughly enjoyed the world and the characters. A lot more than most recent movies. If you didn't, well, too bad for you, boyo.

[Ironwood]

ID4 with Transformers/Battleship special effects.

Leaving it there.

[eldaec]

King Henry was the one with the speech. Richard is the one with the hunchback.

[Samwise]

ID4 with Transformers/Battleship special effects.

That's doing a pretty severe disservice to Pacific Rim's visuals IMO.  The fact that I could actually tell what the fuck was happening on the screen puts it in an entirely different category from Transformers, despite both of them having giant robots.

[Teleku]

Yeah, ditto, but in pretty much every way than just visuals.  I loved Pacific Rim.  All of the transforms movies are unwatchable to me.  I cannot watch them in one go, and can literally only stand a short a amount of time before I get up, go away, then eventually come back later in the day to try again.  They hurt me to watch.

The acting and character development was just fine and is what helped to make the whole movie a nice fun experience.  Yes, nothing deep, but it worked great and was fun to watch.  It wasn't the abomination of acting transformers and the like were.

[Khaldun]

Richard has a good speech too. It's generally not one you give to rouse the troops for the final battle, though.

[Simond]

ID4 with Transformers/Battleship special effects.

Leaving it there.

Nah. Live-action shonen mecha, right down to Gipsy Danger being Mazinger Z with the serial numbers filed off and a coat of blue paint and the closest thing to romance being a hug at the end.

[HaemishM]

You know one of the reasons I dug it so much is that all the shit that Transformers and Battleship and most of the other shitty summer action blockbuster movies had it completely ignored.

Romance subplot with gratuitous shots of some tart? The romantic subplot was almost entirely fucking subtext, displayed only through the actors reactions to each other. Idiotic banter and forced comedy? Pretty much relegated to the comic relief scientist characters and their interactions with guys like Chau. Over the top nationalistic rah rah military wankfest? Not even hinted at and certainly not focused on the US military. Ok, it had a "rousing ID4 speech" but even that wasn't too bad. All the beats we expect to see in summer action movies thanks to that cockgobbler Michael Bay were absent or turned on their head.

[Ingmar]

ID4 with Transformers/Battleship special effects.

That's doing a pretty severe disservice to Pacific Rim's visuals IMO.  The fact that I could actually tell what the fuck was happening on the screen puts it in an entirely different category from Transformers, despite both of them having giant robots.

Not being able to tell wtf is going on in Transformers is not an effects problem, it's a director problem.

[MediumHigh]

No its an effects problem when your "robots" look like trash cans glued together by homeless people.

[Khaldun]

Actually even with a skilled director, there's a really challenging visual problem with relating different scales of action--having a person and a giant robot in the same frame of action is hard, because you either are looking at the person closely (and hence just a small piece of the robot) or at the robot closely (and hence the person's expressions are not very visible). If you're doing CGI, you also have to be mindful--if there were giant robots and giant monsters, if the camera is imitating a close-up human perspective, their texture would look really different than it would from far away, as would the look or pacing of any motion.

Del Toro mostly dealt with this pretty well, save a few murky or dark scenes. Bay deals with it horribly throughout all of the Transformers movies.

[Sir T]

This thread has AVATAR being used as an example of good character development. 

[Ratman_tf]

This thread has AVATAR being used as an example of good character development. 

I think there's some good objective things to critique movies on, but I think a ton of it is personal preference and mood.
Get up on the right side of the bed? Avatar is ok. Had a rough week? Avatar is shitty mcshit.

[Hoax]

Saw it in 70mm IMAX 3d and yeah the dialogue and characters were pretty weak but its still one of the best movie tickets I've ever bought even at $20. Quite a spectacle and seeing it on a small screen would probably be a complete waste of time.

[angry.bob]

Can we discuss why giant submersible tanks would have been way more effective?

Seriously Hollywood or even some anime studio, make a fucking BOLO movie already.

[Sir T]

You do realize that will spark the discussion on why Bolo's were totally unrealistic and would not have worked.

[angry.bob]

You do realize that will spark the discussion on why Bolo's were totally unrealistic and would not have worked.

What? I'll concede the AI, but we could have built one half a century ago. They're certainly more viable than an anthropomorphic robot with joints that are impossible to protect.