Pacific Rim
Jul. 15th, 2013 01:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skull_bearerYes.
Just Yes.
I tweeted just after coming out of this movie that the biggest thing about it was not the monsters, or the robots, but it's heart. This movie is all heart, all the time.
I was unsure on going in, I've been getting mixed reviews and wasn't too sure what to expect. Moviebob gave it a great review, but I knew how much he wanted this movie to do well, and he'd liked Avatar, so I still wasn't sold.
In fact, the thing I loved most about Pacific Rim was the thing that killed Avatar dead for me. It's a personal thing, but any movie that expects me to root against my own species is barking up the wrong bitch. Fortunately, Pacific Rim isn't asking me to do that. In fact it's the opposite. The whole thing is a screaming love-letter to humanity at large, it's like Independance Day if Independance Day was for everyone instead of just Americans.
It has to be seen on the big screen, because there are so many glorious money-shots of machines (and people) being pure unmitigated awesome that a huge screen is the only way to do it justice. See it in 3D, see it in Imax. Worth the money. Rather than having big patriotic moments with flags and national iccons and such, the movie replaces these with the simple symbols of the human robots. This is a movie that is saying in every frame, in every shot: humanity is awesome, all of us. We are barking mad and stupid and brave and dumb and brilliant and only we are stupid enough to do this and think it might work.
The characters are detailed and engaging, although maintaining broad-stroke appeal. All of them clash against each other at times, but all of them have their own motivations and have their hearts in the right place. And of course, they all work together at the end to bring on one of the most cathartic glorious climaxes ever.
I could go on about the characters in this film for hours, but I will focus on Idris Elba's character because I want to start a meme going 'Idris Elba is so awesome...'
Idris Elba is so awesome he can be seen from space
Idris Elba is so awesome he makes Chuck Norris cry like a little baby
Idris Elba is so awesome Old Spice Guy wants to market his scent
Idris Elba is so awesome that racists cannot explain his existance
There is a moment in this movie that encapsulates the meme so perfectly (you'll know it when you see it), that I really need to make a .gif set. He plays the guy in charge of the Jager (giant robot) program, and has to deal with the nominal main character who is a bit of a marverick (ps, if you are sick of maverick characters getting their own way all the time, and want to see one get owned, watch this film). I say nominal main character because about halfway through the film it too realises the wonder of Idris Elba and it becomes all about him for about half the movie. Particularly his relationship with Rinko Kikuchi's character, which is kinda the driving force of the movie.
Rinko Kikuchi is wonderful in this too. She and the main character have a good chemistry which never quite wanders into the realm of romance. It's left ambiguous at the end if they see each other as lovers, friends, or siblings. Either way, they love each other a lot.
The giant robot fights don't really come in until after the first third or so of the movie. They are a bit hit and miss. Sometiems they are absolutely amazing, sometimes they're a bit too loud and confusing. However, despite the 3D it didn't give me a headache, and I could usually understand where everything was and what everyone was doing. It also had a dearth of Idiot Balls, with characters quickly doing sensible things such as targetting their enemy's main weapon, and using a giant oil tanker as a baseball bat (it was completely reaosnable at the time, I swear).
It also dedicates a substantial amount of the movie to the Jager science devision, two absolutely adorable nerds, one of whom reminded me of a not annoying (or rather, appropriately annoying) version fo the scientist guy in Godzilla and the other who was like Patrick Moore at age thirty. They clash over everything, argue and bitch and are both actually proven right at the end. The film dedicates a lot of it's time to following their attempts to understand the Kaiju monsters and how this helps the Jager controllers.
The Jagers are pure wonderful. This is an example of this story having so many ideas that they're bleeding all over the place. The concept of piloting a Jager is that one is too big for a person to control by themselves without basically dying. Instead, two people are required to maintain a connection. These people mind-meld and become so in synch that they can control the machine as a single entity. The closer these people are, the better the Jager fights.
The film gives us fight scenes based on people being nice and loving to each other.
It also means we get no 'I go my own way' Lone Wolf characters. Nope, everyone's fighting in this together. It's the end of the world, and people shouldn't be that petty (if they are anyway, they're called on it).
Look, I loved this film. I'll see it again soon. I had a wonderful tiem and so should you. This film makes you happy to be human.
While this film doesn't pass the Bechdel test, only having one real female character, it does pass the version where two people of colour talk about something that isn't a white character. You will be holding back tears at that speech, I'm serious.
So much love, right here.
Just Yes.
I tweeted just after coming out of this movie that the biggest thing about it was not the monsters, or the robots, but it's heart. This movie is all heart, all the time.
I was unsure on going in, I've been getting mixed reviews and wasn't too sure what to expect. Moviebob gave it a great review, but I knew how much he wanted this movie to do well, and he'd liked Avatar, so I still wasn't sold.
In fact, the thing I loved most about Pacific Rim was the thing that killed Avatar dead for me. It's a personal thing, but any movie that expects me to root against my own species is barking up the wrong bitch. Fortunately, Pacific Rim isn't asking me to do that. In fact it's the opposite. The whole thing is a screaming love-letter to humanity at large, it's like Independance Day if Independance Day was for everyone instead of just Americans.
It has to be seen on the big screen, because there are so many glorious money-shots of machines (and people) being pure unmitigated awesome that a huge screen is the only way to do it justice. See it in 3D, see it in Imax. Worth the money. Rather than having big patriotic moments with flags and national iccons and such, the movie replaces these with the simple symbols of the human robots. This is a movie that is saying in every frame, in every shot: humanity is awesome, all of us. We are barking mad and stupid and brave and dumb and brilliant and only we are stupid enough to do this and think it might work.
The characters are detailed and engaging, although maintaining broad-stroke appeal. All of them clash against each other at times, but all of them have their own motivations and have their hearts in the right place. And of course, they all work together at the end to bring on one of the most cathartic glorious climaxes ever.
I could go on about the characters in this film for hours, but I will focus on Idris Elba's character because I want to start a meme going 'Idris Elba is so awesome...'
Idris Elba is so awesome he can be seen from space
Idris Elba is so awesome he makes Chuck Norris cry like a little baby
Idris Elba is so awesome Old Spice Guy wants to market his scent
Idris Elba is so awesome that racists cannot explain his existance
There is a moment in this movie that encapsulates the meme so perfectly (you'll know it when you see it), that I really need to make a .gif set. He plays the guy in charge of the Jager (giant robot) program, and has to deal with the nominal main character who is a bit of a marverick (ps, if you are sick of maverick characters getting their own way all the time, and want to see one get owned, watch this film). I say nominal main character because about halfway through the film it too realises the wonder of Idris Elba and it becomes all about him for about half the movie. Particularly his relationship with Rinko Kikuchi's character, which is kinda the driving force of the movie.
Rinko Kikuchi is wonderful in this too. She and the main character have a good chemistry which never quite wanders into the realm of romance. It's left ambiguous at the end if they see each other as lovers, friends, or siblings. Either way, they love each other a lot.
The giant robot fights don't really come in until after the first third or so of the movie. They are a bit hit and miss. Sometiems they are absolutely amazing, sometimes they're a bit too loud and confusing. However, despite the 3D it didn't give me a headache, and I could usually understand where everything was and what everyone was doing. It also had a dearth of Idiot Balls, with characters quickly doing sensible things such as targetting their enemy's main weapon, and using a giant oil tanker as a baseball bat (it was completely reaosnable at the time, I swear).
It also dedicates a substantial amount of the movie to the Jager science devision, two absolutely adorable nerds, one of whom reminded me of a not annoying (or rather, appropriately annoying) version fo the scientist guy in Godzilla and the other who was like Patrick Moore at age thirty. They clash over everything, argue and bitch and are both actually proven right at the end. The film dedicates a lot of it's time to following their attempts to understand the Kaiju monsters and how this helps the Jager controllers.
The Jagers are pure wonderful. This is an example of this story having so many ideas that they're bleeding all over the place. The concept of piloting a Jager is that one is too big for a person to control by themselves without basically dying. Instead, two people are required to maintain a connection. These people mind-meld and become so in synch that they can control the machine as a single entity. The closer these people are, the better the Jager fights.
The film gives us fight scenes based on people being nice and loving to each other.
It also means we get no 'I go my own way' Lone Wolf characters. Nope, everyone's fighting in this together. It's the end of the world, and people shouldn't be that petty (if they are anyway, they're called on it).
Look, I loved this film. I'll see it again soon. I had a wonderful tiem and so should you. This film makes you happy to be human.
While this film doesn't pass the Bechdel test, only having one real female character, it does pass the version where two people of colour talk about something that isn't a white character. You will be holding back tears at that speech, I'm serious.
So much love, right here.
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Date: 2013-07-15 12:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-15 03:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-15 03:01 pm (UTC)