Pacific Rim

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  • Re: Pacific Rim

    Not sure which is worse, watching Battleship or telling people you watched it.

    It was such an easy swerve I have to ask, what did you expect from it??

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    • Re: Pacific Rim

      Originally posted by miktal-1 View Post
      Not sure which is worse, watching Battleship or telling people you watched it.

      It was such an easy swerve I have to ask, what did you expect from it??
      Watching it is bad enough. Telling people you watched it, I'm surprised you don't get stoned to death.
      "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

      "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

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      • Re: Pacific Rim

        Saw the film on DVD. I liked it a lot. The human drama was pretty solid, making the Transformers films look immature. The mechas were damn cool, and, being heavy, they're supposed to move slow. Physics 101.

        The lack of a major villain didn't phase me because the Charlie Day character gave the reasoning of the Kaiju, after he "fused" with the dead Kaiju monster's brain.
        "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

        "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

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        • Re: Pacific Rim

          I still think the lack of a major villain was an issue, and still is for these types of films. We're human here. We need someone or something with human emotions or behaviors to either root for or despise. I mean, just imagine if the Transformers were emotionless drones.

          In fact, if you look at the most successful and popular Sci-Fi action/adventures of all time, you AWLAYS find a unique villain.

          Avatar
          Star Wars
          Iron Man
          Star Trek
          Transformers
          Matrix
          Terminator

          ID4 and War of the Worlds were BO successes, but their story worlds were dry and unpopular. I think the ID4 book sold three copies

          However, if ID4 did have a major villain, who came from an interesting alien world, and who had a unique character, I definitely think it would have gained a fan following like The matrix did.

          And this is Pacific Rim's problem. You can't generate fans if you have a dry, mundane story world with generic aliens/monsters as your bad guys.
          I'm never wrong. Reality is just stubborn.

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          • Re: Pacific Rim

            Originally posted by Madbandit View Post
            The mechas were damn cool, and, being heavy, they're supposed to move slow. Physics 101.
            Physics 101? Really? They're adhering to the rules for reality because they're slow?

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            • Re: Pacific Rim

              Originally posted by Richmond Weems View Post
              Physics 101? Really? They're adhering to the rules for reality because they're slow?
              When was the last time you saw a large, mountain-like, metallic object move at the speed at light?
              "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

              "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

              Comment


              • Re: Pacific Rim

                I'm just surprised you're using "physics 101" as some kind of defense to support the reality of this movie. If you had left off that phrase in your original post, I wouldn't have even chimed in. Just seemed like it came out of left field in a movie that probably breaks more laws of physics than SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS.

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                • Re: Pacific Rim

                  Screw physics 101. Death match results would be:

                  Transformers > Robotech > Jaegers

                  Comment


                  • Re: Pacific Rim

                    Originally posted by FoxHound View Post
                    I still think the lack of a major villain was an issue, and still is for these types of films. We're human here. We need someone or something with human emotions or behaviors to either root for or despise. I mean, just imagine if the Transformers were emotionless drones.

                    In fact, if you look at the most successful and popular Sci-Fi action/adventures of all time, you AWLAYS find a unique villain.

                    Avatar
                    Star Wars
                    Iron Man
                    Star Trek
                    Transformers
                    Matrix
                    Terminator

                    ID4 and War of the Worlds were BO successes, but their story worlds were dry and unpopular. I think the ID4 book sold three copies

                    However, if ID4 did have a major villain, who came from an interesting alien world, and who had a unique character, I definitely think it would have gained a fan following like The matrix did.

                    And this is Pacific Rim's problem. You can't generate fans if you have a dry, mundane story world with generic aliens/monsters as your bad guys.
                    Classic WAR OF THE WORLDS, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, JURASSIC PARK remain unforgettable classics.

                    Also, I felt more emotionally invested in the human plight and protags in the modern WAR OF THE WORLDS than TRANSFORMERS.

                    PACIFIC RIM has generated a large fan base with lots of art work and hundreds of fan fiction already.

                    IMO, it's all about execution rather than a hardened rule of embodying the villain into a single character. If you're wanting to create an unforgettable villain, then yeah, having a "head" villain is probably the way to go.
                    Last edited by Why One; 11-29-2013, 08:55 AM.

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                    • Re: Pacific Rim

                      Yeah, there is no rule about this. It depends on what kind of a film you want to make.

                      ID4 was a massive WOM hit.

                      Other massively popular scifi films with no real villains: Jurassic Park, E.T, Inception, Gravity.

                      Also these big scale destruction-porn action movies are closely related to disaster films, and those usually never have human-like villains.

                      Moreover, Pacific Rim is a monster movie. And monster movies typically have monsters as villains, who act only according to some basic need, like hunger. The shark in Jaws didn't have any character besides wanting to eat humans. But it was exactly the villain the film needed.

                      I'm not defending Pacific Rim here, as it actually did have kind of dull villains. But there is no universal rule about villains in scifi films.

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                      • Re: Pacific Rim

                        this film ALMOST falls into - so terrible it's almost worth watching with a bunch of friends- territory.

                        but then you realize it really is just terrible.

                        all that capital from pan's labyrinth blown away by this travesty.

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                        • Re: Pacific Rim

                          It's the sort of film that depends totally on the initial visceral thrill you get from watching it on a big, big screen in 3D. After all, a giant mecha rising out of the water to fight a huge monster is at the very least an interesting spectacle when blown up to IMAX proportions (even if they left themselves nowhere to go but down after opening so big). So the problem is, where do you go from there? Pacific Rim blew it's load in the first 15 minutes. When you create a world like this, you have to make it appear bigger, e.g. don't keep the whole story in the same location for the whole film, change it up a bit, even Lucas knew to give Star Wars 3 unique settings per film, this just felt like same 'ol same 'ol after a while.

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                          • Re: Pacific Rim

                            Originally posted by Captain Jack Sparrow View Post
                            It's the sort of film that depends totally on the initial visceral thrill you get from watching it on a big, big screen in 3D. After all, a giant mecha rising out of the water to fight a huge monster is at the very least an interesting spectacle when blown up to IMAX proportions (even if they left themselves nowhere to go but down after opening so big). So the problem is, where do you go from there? Pacific Rim blew it's load in the first 15 minutes. When you create a world like this, you have to make it appear bigger, e.g. don't keep the whole story in the same location for the whole film, change it up a bit, even Lucas knew to give Star Wars 3 unique settings per film, this just felt like same 'ol same 'ol after a while.

                            Wasn't there a glimpse of the Kaiju's world?
                            "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

                            "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

                            Comment


                            • Re: Pacific Rim

                              Captain Jack is right. There needs to be a build-up. The epic fight sequence in the sea happened too soon. By the time the other fights rolled around, our eyes/minds had already adjusted to the spectacle, and the awe feeling lost.

                              Notice how ID4 built up suspense. It took 40 minutes to finally see the awesome UFOs. And another 30 to see the epic air battles.

                              Interestingly, The Empire strikes back was revered. The epic battle happened first, then the epic chase through the asteroid field, and then the action died as the film focused on story depth. This is the exact reason so many kids tune out after 45 minutes. "It's sooooo boring!"

                              Modern stories could never pull this off anymore.
                              I'm never wrong. Reality is just stubborn.

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