the Powers That Be in this world, politicians and whatnot, think the Jaeger Program doesn\'t work anymore and that all of mankind needs to put up huge walls to survive. Even before the wall is destroyed, this plan simply does not make sense. Even if it\'s expensive, why would you get rid of a working solution? Even the subtle political commentary that it\'s to protect the rich and powerful doesn\'t work because the Kaiju are gonna get inland eventually anyway.
I dunno, an effective scientific solution becoming gradually less effective against mutating variants and a changing climate, and the powers that be deciding they’d rather let the the disasters chew through the poor first rather than spend money and research to help them, and convince themselves without any evidence that it will end on its own before it reaches them, sounds pretty realistic to me.
Fair enough, still though for a movie it\'s a litle contrived.
Find the Light in the DarkLeave a Comment:
Pacific Rim is certainly a movie.
When I first saw this amazing spectacle in theaters I remember being very excited by the trailers, that excitement immediately turned to shock and disappointment when it was revealed in the first few minutes that the Jaeger-Titan war had already happened and the trailer had indeed lied to us. That's my first problem, which doesn't go away because the film insists on teasing us with all these awesome battles that took place which we don't get to see. Then after a while, I remember feeling sleepy because the movie had gone on way too long.
Guillermo Del Toro's Atlantic Edge is a film about giant robots fighting monsters which somehow ends up being boring as shit. I assume this is because the movie spends about an hour setting up it's dumbass anime premise and one dimensional characters before we actually get to the monster fights. My second problem with the film takes place after the timeskip, where the story demands we accept that the Powers That Be in this world, politicians and whatnot, think the Jaeger Program doesn't work anymore and that all of mankind needs to put up huge walls to survive. Even before the wall is destroyed, this plan simply does not make sense. Even if it's expensive, why would you get rid of a working solution? Even the subtle political commentary that it's to protect the rich and powerful doesn't work because the Kaiju are gonna get inland eventually anyway.
Anyway, to summarize quickly the film eventually does pick up late into the Second Act where the Kaiju fighting begins. It's very cool, and the effects are top notch. Although I hate how they killed Cherno Alpha and Red Typhoon almost immediately after hyping up how cool their pilots were. Just seems like a waste to me. Especially when you consider that the purpose of this movie was to kickstart a huge franchise, wouldn't you need more toys? Anyway, the rest of the film goes by smoothly as it ends up being as cliche as humanly possible with the token mentor heroic sacrifice and happy fun times are had by all.
My criticisms of the characters is ultimately as I said before, they're very hollow archetypes. The two scientist guys, Newt and Gottlieb are straight up cartoons. I do like them, but they create a tonal clash in every scene their in because the film suddenly becomes a buddy comedy. My biggest beef is with the character of Mako Mori and her relationship with Raleigh. Now, the film claims that it's purely platonic and Del Toro has openly said that he wanted them to end the film as friends but here's the thing, and please hear me out, that is a lie. Every. Last. Interaction they have during the film is romantic. You have Mako checking Raleigh out, you have these multiple scenes where they have these longing, loving looks at each other and there is indeed a tension there. Ending that story arc with an awkward, silent hug does not cancel that out.
Overall it's not a terrible movie but it does not in any way deserve it's reputation as the epic live action mecha film that blazed new trails and created an iconic franchise. Because, you know, that didn't happen outside of a sequel that didn't perform very well and a Netflic series. 6/10