If the sword was so kick-arse, why wasn’t it used earlier in the Hong Kong battle?
Was there a reason why Aussie Punk and Pentecost didn’t eject?
I though the whole plan was to explode the nuke inside the bridge, not on the other side.
After all the drama of how drift comparability is critical, Pentecost just jumps in?
I guess they just said “Fuck it, the more dialogue we have, the longer the audience has to wait until the battle scenes”. Giant robots fighting giant monsters goes a long way towards papering over the plot-holes.
What I should have said was that despite of those nit picks, I actually had a fun time. If it was any other movie premise those nitpicks would have killed it for me, but actually seeing anime robots fighting Godzilla’ish monsters in a triple A Hollywood was a massive buzz. I was grinning like a loon at every hero shot of the robots.
I saw it this afternoon and thought it was a lot of fun! I thought it was pretty well done, both with the action and with the characters. I would recommend it to pretty much anyone who likes sci-fi action movies.
I really liked that too. It was nicely done, and helped show the stakes. They could have done more, like I was wondering how many people had been killed over the years, and how many people were still in the coastal cities. With that many monsters had come up from the seas I would think as many people as possible would have already fled from Hong Kong, but it sounded like they called it a city of 10 million people. But that’s nitpicking, because they still did better world building than a lot of movies.
Well I think the nose-bleeds was just to show how much stress the early Jaegers put on the body before they updated the design. So it set us up for Idris Elba being sick, but deciding to go fight anyway. I wasn’t really expecting any more than that.
But there was a different plot point I was waiting on a resolution for- the scientist drifted with a monster, then Ron Perlman said the monster would be coming for him, then it looked like it was. The new kaiju busted into the shelter, waved his glow-in-the-dark tentacles around, but then did nothing else. I realize that his attention was soon taken by the Jaeger walking up, but I was still wondering what was going on. And then nothing came of it. The two scientists drifted with the baby monster, but the fact that the hive mind could see them didn’t affect anything. Maybe it was a point that was dropped to make things simpler, or maybe I just missed something, but it was something I was wondering about.
The action wasn’t perfect, but I was mostly able to tell what was going on. Or maybe I’m just comparing it to lesser movies where I couldn’t tell at all what was going on. Like in Transformers I could never tell who or what was fighting, or who was winning, or even who was who. So compared to that, Pacific Rim was crystal clear. It would have helped if they weren’t in the water and/or dark most of the time, but I can understand the reasons for that. And even with that I could still mostly tell who was fighting, who was winning, and where the fighters were. Not to criticize you or others who thought it wasn’t clear, it obviously could have been clearer if y’all were bothered by it, but it just wasn’t something I had an issue with.
That is a good point about the helicopters. The Jaegers would weigh a massive amount. Here’san interesting article estimating how many helicopters it would take.
That is perfect! It is a very Charlie plan to do that.
And on a shallow side note, I have to say Charlie Day looked real good in this movie. The glasses, leather jacket, and tattoos really worked for me.
Saw it. Liked it. Lots of fun, great action. However, the kaiju were hard to see … the battle scenes were almost all dark and/or very rainy, obscuring them. Surely a CGI thing.
Would not pay to watch it again, but am very OK with having paid to watch it in a theater once.
Had same question. If you have a massively effective sword, why was that a weapon of last resort? It’s not like it isn’t reusable and needs to be conserved.
Because the story was done with them. And Mako’s “teacher, I love you” would have been less poignant if he’d survived.
I believe it was, but if you nuke the source of the portal it would be just as good, it seems to me.
Hadn’t he drifted with the father and so since the father and son were drift compatible they were? And he brings nothing to the drift. He’s a drift ninja.
The one question (I enjoyed the movie about as much as I think I could enjoy this type of movie) I’d like to have seen addressed was the fact that the portal wasn’t some random natural event, it was a result of alien technology and intent. Won’t they just open another portal? Or 100 of them?
That, and the wildly variable corrosiveness of the aliens blood were my major nitpicks.
Probably because the robot didn’t have a sword when Raleigh Beckett was originally the pilot and he either didn’t know about it, or if he had been told he forgot about it in the heat of battle.
I was under the impression that was why the plan changed from blowing the nuke in the tunnel vs. on the other end of the tunnel. It was the difference between closing the portal and getting rid of the source of the portal.
But I’m not sure if that is supported by the dialogue or I just made it up
These are all explained in the movie. Maybe not stated outright in the text in some cases (although it is for two of your nitpicks), but certainly in the subtext.
As someone else pointed out, it’s implied that Gipsy Danger didn’t have a sword in her first iteration, which explains why Mako knew it existed but Raleigh didn’t. I also didn’t get the impression it was supposed to be “so kick-arse.” It was a weapon of last resort - note that even in the last battle, when Gipsy Danger pulls out both swords from the get go, they aren’t actually that effective until the one kaiju charges straight at them, bringing enough momentum that it basically slices itself in half.
They were timing the detonation of the nuke to ensure that it took out both kaiju. It wasn’t like the bridge where a detonation anytime within (or on the other side of) the bridge would fulfill the objective - they needed to time it to within a second.
That was the plan, but the malfunction that prevents the automated self-destruct prevents Raleigh from doing it in time. He specifically initiates the auto self-destruct immediately upon entering the bridge, then has to spend the entire descent pulling the manual override when the automated system fails.
There is a dialogue scene in the movie that literally does nothing but address this issue - the “you’re your father’s son” scene. It establishes instantly that Pentecost has sufficient connection with Aussie Punk to Drift, having been his commander for years now. Not to mention that as a veteran Jaeger pilot himself, who was one of the only ones ever to “fly solo,” Pentecost already spent the entire movie establishing that he’s the one badass who could possibly step in for an injured Jaeger pilot.
I thought it was great for a big dumb summer giant monster movie. I really liked the steam punk touches throughout.
There is something odd in about the visibility (?) of the monsters in movies like this today. Back in ye olden days, the giant, obviously fake monsters weren’t “hidden” in darkness or rain. We got to see Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, the Gargantuas, etc clearly and in full daylight. Now, when the technology is so much better, why are giant monsters so much harder to see?
OK, I dig it. Kaiju fighting giant mechs is fucking awesome. And I’d bet most anything that’s how del Toro pitched the picture. If I was an exec, I’d whip out the cocaine and checkbook.
But it’s like they never got past the 100,000 foot concept level.
Because beyond the fights and the visuals every other thing in this movie (I can’t call it a film, that gives it too much dignity) stunk. I mean stunk like a ditch digger in a South Carolina summer covered in two-week-old fish.
Characterization? Cliche and unplottable.
Plot? Ludicrous and stupid. Frankly, just the design of the mechs was pitiful. There’s a REASON we build armored fortresses with treads instead of legs.
Dialog? Horribly trite.
I can hear the objections that it’s just a summer movie. But it is not WRONG to expect more. Hell, Independence Day was better done and that wasn’t actually a great movie.
My 12-year-old daughter, upon seeing Idris Elba talking, “I bet he gets an inspirational speech.”
my only complaint is the “self destruct fails, must use manual override which includes hanging over a pit of chomping gears” which is used ALL THE FRACKING TIME NOW - its like they look for an excuse to put it in the movie.
The other major cliche - “hero is dead, hero is not dead” - but I can live with that.
Enjoyed it overall. The battle scenes were lots of fun and I enjoyed the feeling of watching a classic rubber suit monster movie. Just enough plot to tie the battle scenes together.
Have to check my brain when it comes to the military side of these things. Like others, was amazed none of the Jaegers had penetrating weapons to use on something that bleeds out. The movie seem to forget the sheer destructiveness of modern conventional weapons.
But I guess the movie would be over in about 10 minutes if the dialogue went something like this:
Sir, a Category 5 Kaiju spotted on the surface swimming towards Los Angeles!
Any assets in the area?
Yes sir, one attack aircraft with a full load-out of Bunker Busters.
Well, son, send them the coordinates and have them drop one on the critter. I’m going back to sleep.
And it was very hard to keep the eye rolls from happening when they had 8 Chinook type aircraft toting a Jaeger around.
