15th July 2013, 5:50 PM
I had forgotten that "blockbusters" could have well written characters. Are they deep? Not particularly, but neither are the characters in, say, Indiana Jones. More importantly, they are well written, understandable, and interesting. Remember that? Remember when characters were giant personalities in movies? Now everyone's trying to "tone it all down", well I have real life for that thank you.
Oh yes! There's no dogs humping! No random pot brownie nonsense with idiot parents! The humans matter, but every scene with the people is about developing the plot, every scene has a purpose. There IS comic relief, and it is funny, but it is meant to further the story, not just random stupidity inserted for no good reason.
Also, they don't spend an hour setting up the premise. There's no long crawl towards an EVENTUAL monster invasion that leads, eventually, to a single robot fighting that single monster at the VERY end, the rest of the movie just serving as a build up to actually SEEING the robot fighting. Nope, they spend all of 5 minutes telling you "the story so far" and then you're dumped into the world with the invasion in progress for several years now. Yes! That's how movies USED to do this stuff! Hey directors, it's a movie! You don't have time to slowly "build up" an ENTIRE UNIVERSE, you have to get us in there right from the start!
This movie is something I want to watch again and again. In fact, I plan to next weekend.
The only problem? Who the hell thought up "Pacific Rim" as a title? That's not very marketable, and it really says next to nothing about the movie. The movie does REFERENCE the pacific rim throughout the whole thing, because major plot points take place there, and that's good, but really, the "rift" between worlds could have been anywhere.
More to the point, I think this movie could spawn all sorts of toys and get all the kids excited, but that title! How the heck are kids supposed to be gung-ho about a name like that? Pan's Labyrinth, that's got intrigue! Hellboy, well hell boy that's a fun title right there! "Pacific Rim" is one of those "do nothing" titles that some marketing executive forced on this movie I'll wager. I really suspect had it been something cool like "Gypsy Danger" (the name of the mech the main characters pilot in this movie), or even "Giant Hunters", it'd have got more attention.
As it is, can't wait to see it again.
Oh yes! There's no dogs humping! No random pot brownie nonsense with idiot parents! The humans matter, but every scene with the people is about developing the plot, every scene has a purpose. There IS comic relief, and it is funny, but it is meant to further the story, not just random stupidity inserted for no good reason.
Also, they don't spend an hour setting up the premise. There's no long crawl towards an EVENTUAL monster invasion that leads, eventually, to a single robot fighting that single monster at the VERY end, the rest of the movie just serving as a build up to actually SEEING the robot fighting. Nope, they spend all of 5 minutes telling you "the story so far" and then you're dumped into the world with the invasion in progress for several years now. Yes! That's how movies USED to do this stuff! Hey directors, it's a movie! You don't have time to slowly "build up" an ENTIRE UNIVERSE, you have to get us in there right from the start!
This movie is something I want to watch again and again. In fact, I plan to next weekend.
The only problem? Who the hell thought up "Pacific Rim" as a title? That's not very marketable, and it really says next to nothing about the movie. The movie does REFERENCE the pacific rim throughout the whole thing, because major plot points take place there, and that's good, but really, the "rift" between worlds could have been anywhere.
More to the point, I think this movie could spawn all sorts of toys and get all the kids excited, but that title! How the heck are kids supposed to be gung-ho about a name like that? Pan's Labyrinth, that's got intrigue! Hellboy, well hell boy that's a fun title right there! "Pacific Rim" is one of those "do nothing" titles that some marketing executive forced on this movie I'll wager. I really suspect had it been something cool like "Gypsy Danger" (the name of the mech the main characters pilot in this movie), or even "Giant Hunters", it'd have got more attention.
As it is, can't wait to see it again.