Pacific Rim is my first exposure to Guillermo Del Toro. He made a name for himself for directing some Mexican horror movies before crossing the border and solidifying his unique directorial style. It’s evident that his taste pays tribute on the classic horror films and with Japanese pop culture like for instance the kaiju films. Just to get it out of the way, this is one of many definitions of a summer blockbuster.
1. 2500 Pound of Awesome
As I mentioned before, the film pays tribute to the classic Japanese monster films. More or less, the film explains that the kaiju appeared when an interdimensional rift opens in the bottom of the Pacific. As more monsters crawled out, The Pacific Countries cooperated and created the Jaegers, a mechanized weapon with two pilots.
The creativity in the film is such a thing to see. Obviously, a lot went in with creating the entire world and with the idea of using two pilots to control the machine. I must give credits to visual effects team at Industrial Light and Magic. Every gear and raindrop give the film a distinct look. While it was a complaint since some people didn’t like how the main fight took place at night during a storm. I believe that it showcased just how unique the monsters look alongside the Jaegers.
One complaint that is expected with this movie is the characters. While they're not entirely deep, they're serviceable. Like we have Raleigh who's a former pilot, only to be roped in when monster attacks spike. We have the two scientists who study the monsters, with one of them being obsessed that he wants to make a neural connection to mimic the Jaeger pilots.
I sound like a broken record, but creativity is the key thing with this movie. Not one Jaeger or Kaiju looks the same. Throughout the movie, we see the different Kaiju that harkens back to how some of the Japanese monsters looked like. For instance, one is called Knifehead and the first monster our main character Raleigh faces off with his brother. The monster looks like one of Japan’s Gamera’s villains.
I really want to talk about just how the action absolutely works, but I must talk about the Jaegers. I’m glad that the film didn’t have one of the models look like another. Each that we see are of different versions and tailer made to the pilots. With one of them being piloted with triplets and a recent model being the faster one with a high kill count. What gives Gypsy Danger its uniqueness is that it manages to put up a fight. It can still stand with one of it’s limbs being removed.
2. How to Make a Monster and Robot Fight
It’s very easy to make the action completely unreadable. Every failing of a giant monster film or giant robot is to have the action be too close. With the camera constantly changing positions, it can really confuse an audience and not be engaging in the least bit. With how the film was shot when focusing on both monsters and machines. The camera is mostly shot at ground level. It’s a classic way to show just how massive the two subjects are.
Now, I can understand that there’s shots where the camera is focusing on the two subjects in unreal positions. But it can be inferred that it’s where a helicopter is at, since there’s moments where the helicopter is hovering above the action to help out the mission control for the Jaegers.
With all that, the secret sauce for the action is that both bodies need to have weight. Now what do I mean by that. Well, whenever a Jaeger or Kaiju crash into a building, it doesn’t just knock over like it’s cardboard. When the collision happens, they only knock out parts of a building, not much to demolish it to oblivion. Each movement that the Jaeger makes is also slow. Since it’s a hundred something ton machine with moving parts that is colliding with an alien monster. Having it be too fast would ruin the immersion that one would expect when watching the movie. It's grounded in a way, but c’mon. Seeing Gypsy Danger drag a barge ship and using it as a baseball bat is a classic shot in cinema.
3. The Sequel is Trash
It took 5 years for a sequel to be made. Del Toro already moved on to other projects and even winning an Oscar. Universal Studios at this point had the rights to the film since the production company Legendary had made deal with the Comcast company. Just seeing the trailer, something was amiss. None of the characters came back, some did but something was wrong.
The Jaegers looked the same and the monsters looked generic. Even the action was too kinetic. Well it takes place during the sun shining, but it lacked that distinct look. This was a massive failure of a movie. Seeing snippets of the movie out of context sealed it that I didn’t want to watch it. Such as why would one of the characters have a son, and just not mention him in this movie. And I don’t blame it for bombing in the box office and being eviscerated. Some day I’ll watch it.
4. Overall
Regardless how the sequel was made, Pacific Rim kicks major Kaiju butt. And I thoroughly enjoy it.
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