I wasn’t thinking of this as involving moral ambiguity or shades of gray. Just that it turned out the kaiju were piloted.
It was classic Calvin and Hobbes style make believe!
I went for the Ellen McLain (yaay GLaDOS! Drift failed… Would you like to try again?) But stayed for Mako (not really, it was a good movie, but didn’t anyone else find her cute?). Things that affected my enjoyment were why were they fighting in hand-to-hand combat when they usually used their cannons in the end (in the other thread someone mentioned the monsters have corrosive blood, but this wasn’t mentioned), and I couldn’t make out some fight scenes. Glad I’m not the only one. It does seem a waste, though, to choreograph and animate them, when people can’t see them clearly? Surely they can tell what speed and angle viewpoint to use so people can see what’s going on? It reminds me of AVP2, which was much worse. Also like AVP, the first one this time, we have 4/3 machines/predators and immediately lose 2 in the first fight.
I know this is going to be sacrilege in a thread like this, but I NEVER love the action scenes in movies, because I can’t ever make out what’s going on. Kung fu is an exception…that is usually edited more clearly. I like seeing and hearing the monsters and the robots, but when the real action gets popping, I am lost until things slow down again.
You know, usually I have trouble making out busy action scenes, but I didn’t have trouble with the ones in Pacific Rim. I wonder if it’s because I saw it in IMAX so everything was just that much huger.
I think it was easier to make out what was going one because of the contrast between robot and monster. If it had been monster on monster or robot on robot it would have been impossible. Which is another reason Transformers sucked.
In addition, unlike Transformers, the robot and monster designs in Pacific Rim have distinctive silhouettes and color schemes, and don’t have whirling gears and tiny plates moving over every micron of their surfaces. It’s always very clear when Gipsy Danger is in frame versus Cherno Alpha, and you never confuse the ape-like Leatherback with the lizard-pterodactyl Otachi either.
Also, did they call it “slide” in the movie as well? I only remember “drift”.
it was drift - a sliding drifting kind of mind thingy -
Because some people are calling it “slide” so I’m wondering who’s confused.
Would either term be actually explicative?
Just got back from seeing it again. It was only “drift”, and mostly as a noun. I only remember “when you’re in the drift”, not “when you’re drifting”.
Also, the Pit of Chompy Doom in Gipsy’s cockpit was a bit more goofy on the rewatch. I kinda wanted Sigourney Weaver to show up pointing out that it made no logical sense to be there.
Music was still awesome, though.
Oh good lord yes. But then, I recently watched the Doctor Who episode The End of the World and felt the same way about the giant fans crossing the walk way. 
Saw this last night! Robots fighting monsters! Wooo!
Wrong on many levels.
First of all, the robots had to be approximately as mobile as the kaiju. Treads wouldn’t cut it.
Second, the mechs were supposed to be extensions of the pilots, mimicking and amplifying their movements. They had to be humanoid in shape. Sure, they could have had a different pilot/machine interface, but that would have been an entirely different movie.
Third, by making the robots humanoid, the audience could relate to them and root for them more directly than if they were in some other shape. This device has been used in one way or another since forever.
Fourth, and most importantly, the entire plot, purpose, and raison d’etre of this movie was “Robots fighting monsters! Wooo!” If the robots didn’t look like stereotypical robots, it wouldn’t have worked as well.
I think they did do that originally. The monsters got bigger in relation to the existing Jaegers. Why they didn’t build bigger Jaegers or send them out in pairs as a matter of course, I dunno.
My thoughts:
The Good:
– Robots fighting monsters! Wooo!
– Good casting. I liked the use of lesser-known actors. They were far from “unknowns,” but the only one I recognized right off the bat was Ron Perlman. I liked that.
– Like others, I liked the world-building and the way the deterioration of the economy and society was shown to us without making a big deal of it. I also agree that the story of that deterioration would make a fascinating movie in and of itself. It would have to be a very different sort of movie. I wonder if that sort of thing has ever been done.
The Bad:
– The scientists. Just badly acted and overdone all around. I can just imagine the director shouting “clutch at your glasses more!” I did like how Newt was a kaiju fanboi at heart. I could see that happening in real life.
– I wanted to see how the Chinese triplets handled that third arm on their robot, dammit!
And a question–maybe I missed it but if they discontinued the Jaeger program, what were they doing in its place? They surely weren’t going to depend on those walls, were they? And whatever the new system was, why was it completely absent from the fights shown after the Jaeger program was put on notice. Narratively, the fights needed to be Jaeger-only, but a throwaway line of explanation would have been nice.
As others have said above, this movie was a kids’ cartoon. You have to judge this stuff in that light.
Yes, the wall was the entire plan.
shocka, the walls fell.
Seems to me that squadrons of A10 Warthogs Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II - Wikipedia would tear a whole army of the monsters to pieces with their 30 mm depleted uranium rounds served up on a Gatling cannon. But that would spoil the giant monsters vs. giant robots cartoon.
Tearing the monsters to pieces is what they were trying to avoid by making Jaegers. That was the whole point of Kaiju Blue.
Presumably, the Jaegers draw Kaiju into a limited engagement area, rather than roaming around bleeding while the aircraft come round for another strafing run. (Since Strike Eureka has missiles, and Crimson Typhoon has buzzsaws, they’re obviously not designed to limit monster bleeding.)
Thank you for telling me how to watch a movie. :rolleyes:
Did you even READ the rest of my post?