Movie of the Week: Pacific Rim (2D)
Jul. 17th, 2013 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyBrenda Clough's review of Pacific Rim says it all and better than I could. See here. Yes it's full of plot holes, it defies the laws of physics and materials science and it's full of cliches, just as she says. There's something deeply weird going on with the scale of the monster machines. In the hangar (or whatever they call the base) they look pretty big. Outside they look enormous - much bigger than they seemed before. It could have been Cineworld's speaker system, but the sound is terrible. As soon as the action starts, everyone seems to communicate by shouting at each other and that loses clarity, so on occasions I pieced together the plot (plot?) by hearing one word in three and guessing the rest.
Having said all that, it wasn't actually as bad as I expected it to be.
Why did I go if I expected it to be bad? Well, H and I do the Wednesday twofers whenever we can and this week was a thin week. It was either Pacific Rim or one of the animations (Monsters University or Despicable Me 2, and we missed DM1). Besides that H said she was curious enough to want to see it. So...
I expected Transfiormers-on-speed, but there was a plot... sort of...
The writeup says: When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot and an untested trainee who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.
Rinko Kikuchi was fine as the female lead, the only female in the film, in fact (another gripe). Charlie Hunnam is an engaging enough lead, but Idris Elba's East End accent felt out of place. Charlie Day was quite sweet as one of the geeky scientist researchers, in a double act with Burn Gorman who was so OTT that I think they were meant to be the light relief. Nothing in this film was light relief, however. With a body count in the millions (or possibly billions) the tag for 'moderate violence' seems a little misplaced.
I could say more but, oh yeah, OK, Transformers on speed just about covers it.
Having said all that, it wasn't actually as bad as I expected it to be.
Why did I go if I expected it to be bad? Well, H and I do the Wednesday twofers whenever we can and this week was a thin week. It was either Pacific Rim or one of the animations (Monsters University or Despicable Me 2, and we missed DM1). Besides that H said she was curious enough to want to see it. So...
I expected Transfiormers-on-speed, but there was a plot... sort of...
The writeup says: When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot and an untested trainee who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.
Rinko Kikuchi was fine as the female lead, the only female in the film, in fact (another gripe). Charlie Hunnam is an engaging enough lead, but Idris Elba's East End accent felt out of place. Charlie Day was quite sweet as one of the geeky scientist researchers, in a double act with Burn Gorman who was so OTT that I think they were meant to be the light relief. Nothing in this film was light relief, however. With a body count in the millions (or possibly billions) the tag for 'moderate violence' seems a little misplaced.
I could say more but, oh yeah, OK, Transformers on speed just about covers it.
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Date: Jul. 18th, 2013 01:45 pm (UTC)Neon Genesis meets Godzilla, live-action.
If that phrase makes you go "what" instead of demanding to know where and how soon you can see it, don't go. It's live-action mecha anime meets daikaiju, done by someone who understands both genres very well. If you don't, there will be a lot you don't get! I also really really liked the fact that the one female character is not there as a love interest. Yes, there's attraction, no, there isn't a stupid romance sub-plot.
Oh, and the sound was fine where I saw it, so I don't think it's the film. (I also chose 2D, on the basis of reviews saying while the processed 3D is fine, it doesn't really add anything.)
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Date: Jul. 19th, 2013 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jul. 22nd, 2013 11:29 am (UTC)