Pacific Rim redux

Today, in Pacific Rim World, the first Kaiju emerged from the rift and trashed San Francisco.

Today, in our world, I went to see Pacific Rim for the third time.

I love this goddamn movie.

Why Pacific Rim is so huge

I think one of the reasons various works take off in fandom is directly related to how much there is to 'unpack' in the work, whether in the characters (hellooo Avengers fandom), the plot, or the world. It's one of the reasons why some works, though I like them, don't really stick with me because they don't give me much to work with: it's all been worked out and delivered. And that's fine, but when a work delivers a story and leaves a lot more up to individual imagination, the work takes off in fandom as though someone strapped rockets to it. It's the reason Harry Potter became such a huge fandom, and it's the reason Pacific Rim is going up right now. This article writes:

There's more to say, but I'm realizing first that this article is reaching Kaijulike proportions already, and second that I really need to watch the film once more before digging into some of the ideas more easily. This is by no means a comprehensive catalog of the various visual language/metaphor components of Pacific Rim. It barely even scratches the surface, in fact. Like, we could talk about:

• The way costuming is used to portray character


• The fact that the Australians are the only pilots to mark their kills on their armor


• The crazy closing sequence in the rift


• The red shoe and the symbolism there


• Moving beyond images, the fact that Mako's freakout in the first test run happened because she was forced to experience Raleigh's brother's death both from Raleigh's perspective and his own perspective and how she would have been fine if she wasn't hit by a double dose of Raleigh's bad memories


• The images we see of Herman and Newt's memories when they drift together

There is just so much to unpack in that film, and it's the reason I'm so hyped at the chance of a sequel: After humanity closes the rift and stops the kaiju, what's the next logical step? Taking the war to the kaiju homeworld and showing them why you never, ever, ever mess with muthafucking humanity *screams, flails, beats head on desk* HOLY SHIT PLEASE DO THIS DEL TORO

But really, I just want to spend time in that world, and with these characters. There's so much there, even a two hour film isn't nearly enough.

But until then, we've got fanfic.