Pacific Rim

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 1:05pm

Caught an early showing of this today and I was kind of disappointed, but did love the visuals. Of all the action movies this summer this one benefited from the 3D IMAX most. The aliens were pretty awesome and I liked all the fight sequences.

The problem for me was that the story just wasn't that good and the characters were dull. Charlie Day annoyed me as the comic relief and although Charlie Hunnam is a fine piece of meat I want to do nasty, raunchy things with, he played a hero we never really got to know. Idris Elba did the best with this character and was kind of a badass. I wish he has been the main focus and not Hunnam.

In a way this felt like a sequel to a movie we never got to see. The first five minutes give a narrated explanation to how the aliens got to Earth, how the government developed and built Robots to combat them using human controllers, etc. All of this could have been a film in and of itself.

Anyone else have thoughts? Taz? Jordan? (This seems like it would be up both your alleys.)

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 1:43pm

I'm seeing this tomorrow. If the 3D is as good as you say, I'll go for that.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 1:50pm

You have MoviePass, don't you?

[canmark]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 2:38pm

While the plot was thin and the characters one-dimensional, I thought it was enjoyable in a retro Japanese monster movie way (I loved those movies as a kid). They throw in a bit of scientific mumbo jumbo (loved Charlie Day's enthusiastic nerd scientist Newton), but at the end of the day it's about giant robots fighting giant monsters in the cities and the sea.

MINOR SPOILERS. At times the music seemed too recall those Godzilla movie scores, and the slow-motion fighting echoed those rubber-suited monster battles. The monsters would reveal a special 'weapon' (this one spits acid! that one can unleash an electric shock wave!) just like in those vintage Japanese films. And even though there is some gratuitous shirtlessness, it's all very chaste--some oggling, but not so much as a kiss to be seen. And surprisingly few actual human deaths.

Featurette on the kaiju (monsters): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lcWnGXBST8A

Updated On: 7/13/13 at 02:38 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 4:13pm

Whizzer, yeah I have MoviePass. I get my ticket then go to customer service and say I meant to get a 3D ticket and jus pay the difference.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 4:53pm

Caught it today also in 3D. I really liked it, but I agree with everything Whizzer said. I walked out

However, this is the kind of movie I'll get on BD and watch again for the smackdowns. And I find that the more I watch a movie the more tolerant I become of its flaws.

Idris Elba is one of my favorite actors and he was great in this. (I would be so delighted if he's the next Bond after Craig....there's chatter).

And anything Ron Perlman does I'll watch.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 5:09pm

Jordan, Here's a trick. I saw it in 3D IMAX with MoviePass and didn't pay an extra cent. It only works at AMC theaters in the morning though.

Instead of checking in at the 10:30am showing on the app, check in to an evening showing. This will load your card with the evening price, although when you go to purchase the ticket at the kiosk you will only be paying the morning price. There will be enough money loaded for you to see any 3D or 3D IMAX showing.

Likewise, if you want to see a movie twice, the second time you want to see it just check in to a movie you know you're never going to see and load the card.

Taz, Isn't Idris Elba frickin' awesome?! I would LOVE for him to be Bond.

Updated On: 7/13/13 at 05:09 PM

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 7/13/13 at 5:44pm

I liked it - but I did hope Del Toro would twist the genre around a little bit. It was EXACTLY what I was expecting and nothing more. The characters were deadly bland, which didn't help, except Idris Elba who seems to make anything he does interesting. By the end, even the fights were boring, mostly because between the dark and the water they were tough to follow. It was just really loud.

I'd still just rather see a Godzilla movie.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 2:01am

The trailer make it look like every scene with creatures, was in the rain. Is it? Because, I'm skipping. That's what they did with the American version of GODZILLA. Every frigging monster scene, it was raining. That's an effects cheat.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 4:12pm

I saw it this afternoon. I thought it was exactly what a summer popcorn movie should be - mindless 2 hours of cities being destroyed and the good guys winning in the end with a good old fashioned "WE WILL SURVIVE! WE WILL LIVE ON!" speech thrown in there. It's not a movie I'm probably going to own but I'm sure I'll see it again when I get in the mood for a perfectly good monster/disaster flick.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 8:56pm

There needed to be more scenes with Charlie Hunnam shirtless. Holy moly!