While I am happy to see people excited about a movie, I can't help but feel this is the "Battleship" of 2013. If it were the only big budget CGI spectacular of the summer then maybe, MAYBE it would do well. However with all the superhero films coming out I expect that a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters will quickly disappear from screens.
A big budget love letter to kaiju film with Guillermo del Toro at the helm will be nothing like Battleship, for a myriad of reasons, one instant one is that I had no interest in seeing Battleship at all but I will be there on opening day for this. If more than four other people go to see it that will already be more than Battleship.
Breotan wrote:While I am happy to see people excited about a movie, I can't help but feel this is the "Battleship" of 2013. If it were the only big budget CGI spectacular of the summer then maybe, MAYBE it would do well. However with all the superhero films coming out I expect that a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters will quickly disappear from screens.
Battleship was painful because, well, everything. It reeked of desperation, which was even apparent in its advertising.
Guillermo Del Toro, on the other hand, has a phenomal track record and I'll watch just about anything he directs.
Breotan wrote:While I am happy to see people excited about a movie, I can't help but feel this is the "Battleship" of 2013. If it were the only big budget CGI spectacular of the summer then maybe, MAYBE it would do well. However with all the superhero films coming out I expect that a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters will quickly disappear from screens.
Battleship was painful because, well, everything. It reeked of desperation, which was even apparent in its advertising.
Guillermo Del Toro, on the other hand, has a phenomal track record and I'll watch just about anything he directs.
Eh I liked the movie. If only because I have a soft spot for big gun ships and think aircraft carriers are totally lame.
Breotan wrote:While I am happy to see people excited about a movie, I can't help but feel this is the "Battleship" of 2013. If it were the only big budget CGI spectacular of the summer then maybe, MAYBE it would do well. However with all the superhero films coming out I expect that a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters will quickly disappear from screens.
Battleship was painful because, well, everything. It reeked of desperation, which was even apparent in its advertising.
Guillermo Del Toro, on the other hand, has a phenomal track record and I'll watch just about anything he directs.
Eh I liked the movie. If only because I have a soft spot for big gun ships and think aircraft carriers are totally lame.
I will admit, the montage scene and the opening battle scene with the titular battleship and the WWII vets was pretty awesome. But ships that moved by literally skipping over water? Laaaaaaame.
As for the trailer, it took all I had to not yell out 'KAAAAIIIIJJJUUUUU BAAATTTARRRUUU!' in a terrible accent during it. Which would have been really awkward in a public library.
But that ship totally would have snapped in half when he brought it up to ready that swing.
Nah, I had trouble with that bit too; even in the context of a movie about aliens that needed sunglasses.
The Robot's shear epicness caused a small aura of physics defying goodness to envelope the ship, its all good.
Ok I will be that guy and say....it would be amazing that at the end of the movie after the big finale fight, the robot looks out to the sea and sees the silhouette of... another monster, but somethings different about this one... more dinosaur like, wait its shooting blue fire out of its mouth....END.
If you look around there are stat cards with kill counts for the different countries' mechs. Apparently Japan has the worst mech, and Australia owns everyone.
AduroT wrote: If you look around there are stat cards with kill counts for the different countries' mechs. Apparently Japan has the worst mech, and Australia owns everyone.
Well of course. Haven't you seen Iron Sky? We had the biggest ship to I believe...
AduroT wrote: If you look around there are stat cards with kill counts for the different countries' mechs. Apparently Japan has the worst mech, and Australia owns everyone.
Well of course. Haven't you seen Iron Sky? We had the biggest ship to I believe...
I couldn't sit through Iron Sky. It had the potential to be incredible -like, Sky Captain levels of incredible- and instead it struggled for funding so much it became a low-brow comedy. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, it was like seeing a wake where everyone defiled the corpse.
AduroT wrote: If you look around there are stat cards with kill counts for the different countries' mechs. Apparently Japan has the worst mech, and Australia owns everyone.
Well of course. Haven't you seen Iron Sky? We had the biggest ship to I believe...
I couldn't sit through Iron Sky. It had the potential to be incredible -like, Sky Captain levels of incredible- and instead it struggled for funding so much it became a low-brow comedy. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, it was like seeing a wake where everyone defiled the corpse.
It was meant to be serious at one point? If I had been hoping for it to be sky captain I would have been disappointing as well. I went expecting nazi's from the moon and a poor sarah palin impersonation, and that's what I got.
AduroT wrote: If you look around there are stat cards with kill counts for the different countries' mechs. Apparently Japan has the worst mech, and Australia owns everyone.
Well of course. Haven't you seen Iron Sky? We had the biggest ship to I believe...
I couldn't sit through Iron Sky. It had the potential to be incredible -like, Sky Captain levels of incredible- and instead it struggled for funding so much it became a low-brow comedy. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, it was like seeing a wake where everyone defiled the corpse.
It was meant to be serious at one point? If I had been hoping for it to be sky captain I would have been disappointing as well. I went expecting nazi's from the moon and a poor sarah palin impersonation, and that's what I got.
This is the original trailer, and I seem to remember reading a blurb about the bird at the end being added only to emphasize that the film wasn't a glorification of Nazis, after the first trailer was cut.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJAw_BtM2g
But yeah, the film was started long before Sarah Palin had even been heard of outside of Alaska. I don't think the "comedic" (I use that term very loosely here) tone really told hold until wreck-a-movie became involved in the production.
Ok so i admit i wasn't the hugest fan of this movie when i first heard of it. But after an interesting discussion about it over at /tg/ a while back and this new trailer i am actually starting to look forward to it. I still think the duel pilots is a stupid idea though.
Yeah, that's a little weird and unnecessary. If they wanted pilot interaction they should have made them remote controlled so the pilots are in the same facility.
hmm, don't get it. Why do you need two pilots doing the same thing? That would be like two pilots trying to fly the same plane at the same time...in combat. I'm sure they will explain it somehow.
Looks ok, just weary of these big budget movie by committee deals. They are entertaining when you are 10, but don't age well. I know Independence day made a lot of movie and some people love explosion porn, but could we please write good stories with the explosion porn. Seriously, Independence day makes my head hurt the story is just that bad.
Turns out it's this massive feminist propaganda movie, humanity is failing while 2 male soldiers can't do it, cue single working mother of 2 who dons the suit and saves humanity.
Other guy is the back up hard drive.....Someone mention it....Robotech retelling....Harmony Gold still has the rights though? My wife building me a Sky Captain outfit since her outfit is like PotC pirate....seems I'm going to Midsummer Fair in Seattle during Aug?
Jihadin wrote: Other guy is the back up hard drive.....Someone mention it....Robotech retelling....Harmony Gold still has the rights though? My wife building me a Sky Captain outfit since her outfit is like PotC pirate....seems I'm going to Midsummer Fair in Seattle during Aug?
Grey Templar wrote: Yeah, its not like they're doing separate jobs so why do you need 2 brains to do the same job.
Indeed, they should have patterned them after our real skyscraper sized boxing robots. Oh wait...
I imagine there is some reason given in the film for why two people have to be synched both together and to the system to make it work. It may be as simple as having a back-up, or it may be that it speeds up efficiency of how well the hosts thoughts are transferred to the machine to make it react. There are any number of reasons they could have, since this is all made up to begin with, and a monster movie, not sci-fi.
The ship doesn't break because a model wouldn't break, and we all know vehicles in Kaiju films are models.
Andrew1975 wrote:hmm, don't get it. Why do you need two pilots doing the same thing? That would be like two pilots trying to fly the same plane at the same time...in combat. I'm sure they will explain it somehow.
Looks ok, just weary of these big budget movie by committee deals. They are entertaining when you are 10, but don't age well. I know Independence day made a lot of movie and some people love explosion porn, but could we please write good stories with the explosion porn. Seriously, Independence day makes my head hurt the story is just that bad.
Yeah, it's not at all like Independence Day was a decent re-imagining of War of the Worlds or anything.
Jihadin wrote:Other guy is the back up hard drive.....Someone mention it....Robotech retelling....Harmony Gold still has the rights though? My wife building me a Sky Captain outfit since her outfit is like PotC pirate....seems I'm going to Midsummer Fair in Seattle during Aug?
My bad. Its a Rennaisance Fair. Except you can dress up. I promised her I go after Chemo and she can pick the outfit......seems I be going....Last year I went for one day....turkey leg...female selling pickles....and jousting were cool...
Yeah, it's not at all like Independence Day was a decent re-imagining of War of the Worlds or anything.
Not sure if joking, but I really really hope so.
Not a joke. Don't look for any revelations in it, but for a mid-July explosion porn film, it's an 8/10 in that category. (compare it to crap like Spielberg's War of the Worlds or Emmerich's Day After Tomorrow, which I'd place at a firm 6 and 4, respectively.)
Yeah, it's not at all like Independence Day was a decent re-imagining of War of the Worlds or anything.
Not sure if joking, but I really really hope so.
Not a joke. Don't look for any revelations in it, but for a mid-July explosion porn film, it's an 8/10 in that category. (compare it to crap like Spielberg's War of the Worlds or Emmerich's Day After Tomorrow, which I'd place at a firm 6 and 4, respectively.)
Here is what is wrong with your statement.
Decent? Independence day is garbage on so many levels, and could only be dreamed up by a 13 year olds idea of "oh that would be cool if". It's terrible on so many levels, I can't really even get into it. There are so many moments that are completely unbelievable and defy any logic that I could not even watch the parts that might be considered cool because my brain was screaming WTF!
War of the worlds? Independence day has nothing to do with War of the Worlds, except that there are aliens in it. By those Standards Star Wars is a retelling of War of the Worlds.
Explosion Porn is fine but an attempt to make it at least somewhat believable or interesting would really be nice. The plot has more holes than swiss cheese. Everything that happens to the characters is basically a big coincidence. The characters are garbage on a colossal level. Untrained Hillbillys flying F-18s?
There are things that you are supposed to ignore or accept as facts in fictional settings, superpowers, aliens, monsters ect..... I'm good with that, actually I'm pretty great at that. But there are just somethings that can't be ignored and that movie is just chock full of them.
I'm not asking for Shakespeare, but they could do better than Saturday morning cartoon realism. I really can't remember everything that upset me about the movie because it was basically a constant assault on my intelligence and I can usually let a lot of stuff slide. Mars attacks is more realistic and even has a better plot and characters than Independence day, and that was a comedy that was meant to be outlandish.
Yeah, it's not at all like Independence Day was a decent re-imagining of War of the Worlds or anything.
Not sure if joking, but I really really hope so.
Not a joke. Don't look for any revelations in it, but for a mid-July explosion porn film, it's an 8/10 in that category. (compare it to crap like Spielberg's War of the Worlds or Emmerich's Day After Tomorrow, which I'd place at a firm 6 and 4, respectively.)
Here is what is wrong with your statement.
Decent? Independence day is garbage on so many levels, and could only be dreamed up by a 13 year olds idea of "oh that would be cool if". It's terrible on so many levels, I can't really even get into it. There are so many moments that are completely unbelievable and defy any logic that I could not even watch the parts that might be considered cool because my brain was screaming WTF!
War of the worlds? Independence day has nothing to do with War of the Worlds, except that there are aliens in it. By those Standards Star Wars is a retelling of War of the Worlds.
Both Independence Day and War of the Worlds are both about an alien invasion that kicks our ass and is eventually defeated by a virus.
Andrew1975 wrote: hmm, don't get it. Why do you need two pilots doing the same thing? That would be like two pilots trying to fly the same plane at the same time...in combat. I'm sure they will explain it somehow.
Looks ok, just weary of these big budget movie by committee deals. They are entertaining when you are 10, but don't age well. I know Independence day made a lot of movie and some people love explosion porn, but could we please write good stories with the explosion porn. Seriously, Independence day makes my head hurt the story is just that bad.
MUD is out this week. You should check it out. Next week is the Iceman.
My bad. Its a Rennaisance Fair. Except you can dress up. I promised her I go after Chemo and she can pick the outfit......seems I be going....Last year I went for one day....turkey leg...female selling pickles....and jousting were cool...
Ren Faire. Looks awesome. Its one of the things I look forward to going to again in a few months.
That will really be the crux of this movies technological verisimilitude- the quality of the explanation for why two pilots is better than one.
I suspect that the answer is going to be something along the lines of lone humans have a tendency to panic- which may be what will happen to the Japanese Jaeger, the only solo model we know of so far. Imagine someone freaking out at the helm of a device like that, and trying to get back to the safety of the colony. It would be like Zim in Operation Impending Doom.
If so, then the paired pilots would function much like the old nuclear silo crews- it takes one pilot to fight the monster, and one pilot is there to take out the other if they lose it. We've been very fond of redundant safeties to prevent accidental weapons release for years. By that logic, the tri-pilot set-up in the Crimson Typhoon might even allow for a dedicated Commissar. That being said, if they actually play to that, or show a Jaeger on Jaeger fight or a pilot fight in the cockpit, it will suddenly turn Pacific Rim into a much darker film. With humanity in the balance, would you break and run with the only hope your city has? And if that ever happened- would you ever trust a lone person with your other cities last hope?
I am so, so excited to see this movie and more of this world.
It really blows when your military and watching those movies....and I tend to pick it aparrt......Seriously...how many freaking F/A 18's were there....BAttle Los Angelos...no issue till the end....I know Copperheads are not fired individualy...they're all set on the same freq and the entire battery fires them....keep with the movie and not RL....Eight Copperheads coming in...RL is the amount of targets = the amount of the copperheads. It has to be a high profile target though to warrant a copperhead strike.....like..."Hey...its a battleship in the lae!?!?!"
Jihadin wrote: It really blows when your military and watching those movies....and I tend to pick it aparrt......Seriously...how many freaking F/A 18's were there....BAttle Los Angelos...no issue till the end....I know Copperheads are not fired individualy...they're all set on the same freq and the entire battery fires them....keep with the movie and not RL....Eight Copperheads coming in...RL is the amount of targets = the amount of the copperheads. It has to be a high profile target though to warrant a copperhead strike.....like..."Hey...its a battleship in the lae!?!?!"
I know how you feel on that. I have a problem with military and weather movies. I tear them both apart.
Both Independence Day and War of the Worlds are both about an alien invasion that kicks our ass and is eventually defeated by a virus.
Yeah, a computer virus. I mean, how the hell does that even work, infecting an advanced alien computer system. So implausible.
Yeah, that ship they based it all off of was 50 years old. You'd think that they had updated their OS in that time frame.
Try getting a MAC to talk to a PC, much less a super advanced alien computer. I also suppose the Aliens never heard of a firewall.
Two stoned writers were watching War of the Worlds and were like "Oh we could change that to a computer Virus". "So we have an alien invasion and a computer virus. What else do we put in?" "Garbage BS and a bunch of explosions, ask little johnny the 10 year old down the street what he wants to see happen in it."
10 minutes later
"and then the dog jumps from the explosion"
"oh and then they all get into the planes and go fight the bad guys, pew pew."
It was like when I was a kid, one day I saw Robotech and I just could not go back to watching G.I. Joe. I caught myself saying "How does everybody jump out of every vehicle before it explodes".
-Loki- wrote: I sure hope Day After Tomorrow is a low score on the explosion porn scale, considering it's complete lack of explosions.
It gets mega bonus points for Emmy Rossum though.
Never watch that movie with a weather forecaster. It puts us into into a screaming rage frenzy, and your safety may not be gauranteed.
Heh, I understand completely. I absolutely cannot watch any TV show about the "crime scientist" genre without the strong desire to go all Elvis on the TV set.
Gitzbitah wrote:That will really be the crux of this movies technological verisimilitude- the quality of the explanation for why two pilots is better than one.
I suspect that the answer is going to be something along the lines of lone humans have a tendency to panic- which may be what will happen to the Japanese Jaeger, the only solo model we know of so far. Imagine someone freaking out at the helm of a device like that, and trying to get back to the safety of the colony. It would be like Zim in Operation Impending Doom.
If so, then the paired pilots would function much like the old nuclear silo crews- it takes one pilot to fight the monster, and one pilot is there to take out the other if they lose it. We've been very fond of redundant safeties to prevent accidental weapons release for years. By that logic, the tri-pilot set-up in the Crimson Typhoon might even allow for a dedicated Commissar. That being said, if they actually play to that, or show a Jaeger on Jaeger fight or a pilot fight in the cockpit, it will suddenly turn Pacific Rim into a much darker film. With humanity in the balance, would you break and run with the only hope your city has? And if that ever happened- would you ever trust a lone person with your other cities last hope?
I am so, so excited to see this movie and more of this world.
I agree. Honestly, though, my biggest fear is that the tandem operating dynamic is just a weak plot device for when one half of the team inevitably is killed, and then it'll require a long training montage to show the remaining pilot overcoming his feelings of inadequacy in order order to fly solo and save the day.
So long a that doesn't actually happen, I'll be pretty happy.
Andrew1975 wrote:
Both Independence Day and War of the Worlds are both about an alien invasion that kicks our ass and is eventually defeated by a virus.
Yeah, a computer virus. I mean, how the hell does that even work, infecting an advanced alien computer system. So implausible.
It's a movie about psychic aliens, big explosions with impossible weaponry and a ragtag band of survivors mounting a counterattack against a foe so vastly superior that it dominated the entire planet in less than a day.
And you find the computer virus (which is obviously an "update" on the original War of the Worlds idea) to be the implausible part? There is a requirement for at least some suspension of disbelief; and it's not like the movie in any way pretended to be something that it wasn't.
It's a movie about psychic aliens, big explosions with impossible weaponry and a ragtag band of survivors mounting a counterattack against a foe so vastly superior that it dominated the entire planet in less than a day.
And you find the computer virus (which is obviously an "update" on the original War of the Worlds idea) to be the implausible part? There is a requirement for at least some suspension of disbelief; and it's not like the movie in any way pretended to be something that it wasn't.
Yes but it could have been a good movie about psychic aliens, big explosions with impossible weaponry and a ragtag band of survivors mounting a counterattack against a foe so vastly superior that it dominated the entire planet in less than a day with just a little more effort.
The computer issue is far from the only issue as I've said, but it's one of the most glaring. I can suspend disbelief, but it has its limits. It couldn't have been more unbelievable if they unlocked the hanger to the alien ship with some old skeleton key the guy just happens to wear around his neck that his great grandfather George Custer found one day wondering in the dessert on a vision quest after taking peyote from an Indian whose people were wiped out by the white man FROM OUTER SPACE!
The only similarities to War of the Worlds and Independence day is an alien invasion and the word Virus. Its not even the same kind of virus and is completely man made. War of the worlds was about humans being screwed and in the end nature, which humans abuse and neglect is what saves them in the end. That and the rest of the War of the Worlds is not filled with completely unbelievable Hokum. Suspension of disbelief if fine and usually makes sense given the setting of the story, forced awful plot archs and story lines are not part of suspension of disbelief, that's just laziness.
Even War of the Worlds has some Hokum, like aliens succumbing to earth germs. Even humans don't go into space without biological protection. But that is one instance and completely forgivable considering when the story was written, versus Independence Days complete assault on logic, plot, and well everything.
It's a movie about psychic aliens, big explosions with impossible weaponry and a ragtag band of survivors mounting a counterattack against a foe so vastly superior that it dominated the entire planet in less than a day.
And you find the computer virus (which is obviously an "update" on the original War of the Worlds idea) to be the implausible part? There is a requirement for at least some suspension of disbelief; and it's not like the movie in any way pretended to be something that it wasn't.
That is far from the only issue as I've said, but it's one of the most glaring. I can suspend disbelief, but it has its limits. It couldn't have been more unbelievable if they unlocked the hanger to the alien ship with some old skeleton key the guy just happens to wear around his neck that his great grandfather George Custer found one day wondering in the dessert on a vision quest after taking peyote from an Indian whose people were wiped out by the white man FROM OUTER SPACE!
The only similarities to War of the Worlds and Independence day is an alien invasion and the word Virus. Its not even the same kind of virus and is completely man made. War of the worlds was about humans being screwed and in the end nature, which humans abuse and neglect is what saves them in the end. That and the rest of the War of the Worlds is not filled with completely unbelievable Hokum.
Even War of the Worlds has some Hokum, like aliens succumbing to earth germs. Even humans don't go into space without biological protection. But that is one instance and completely forgivable considering when the story was written, versus Independence Days complete assault on logic, plot, and well everything.
Again, I think you're expecting something out of ID that it never had a chance to do. It's a July explosion movie. That means it must appeal to LCD. Which places it on a different shelf, than, say, No Country For Old Men. So did ID ask you to suspend your disbelief any more than, say, any other disasterporn film (like Knowing, The Core, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon, Deep Impact, or Skyline, just to name a few)?
Again, I think you're expecting something out of ID that it never had a chance to do. It's a July explosion movie. That means it must appeal to LCD. Which places it on a different shelf, than, say, No Country For Old Men. So did ID ask you to suspend your disbelief any more than, say, any other disasterporn film (like Knowing, The Core, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon, Deep Impact, or Skyline, just to name a few)?
Here is the issue. I thing I had less WTF instances watching all those movies combined, than I had with a single viewing of ID. It just takes a little more effort to take a concept like ID and make a good movie out of it. Which is why I was happy to see that Del Toro is part of this, he's got a pretty good track record of making me smile in my seat, while taking the implausible and making it not only beautiful but also interesting.
Anyway, I'll stop here. This is supposed to be about Pacific Rim not ID.
Bets on how long it takes the Porn industry to make a movie called Specific Rim!
This is serious work we do! We need more talk about what things we'd like to see the Jaegers hit the Kaiju with.
I , for one, will be somewhat disappointed if at least one kaiju is not doused in gas and set alight.
The boat bludgeoning (even if structurally unsound) is absolutely awesome.
I would love to see them make a katana for the Gypsy Danger, and hope that the Kendo duel between its pilots is foreshadowing of that event. Such a weapon could produce even more 'strategic dismemberment' than Dead Space.
Why are ya'll dinging ID? That movie was awesome...
As to the virus idea... why not? If you remember, the Aliens had to use the Earth's Satellites to synchronize their attacks... therefore, the Aliens needed to interface with Earth Satellites... it stands to reason that the puny 'umies could reverse engineer that interface to attack the alien's own network.
*shrug*
I was a great, campy popcorn flick... can't we just enjoy it as such? I'm sure Pacific Rim will be in the same ballpark as ID.
I'm just not seeing a giant monster movie doing well. Frankly I liked everything but the two guys doing the disco dance routine as a way of controlling the warbot. Thats been done before and it was DUMB.
Guys, you realize that in the independance day universe, we reverse engineered the crashed ship to create all of our own computer technology. That is literally stated in the movie. We both use unix because we stole it from them in the first place.
The problem w/ independence day is this.
40 years and the aliens dont think that one of their old ships coming back is odd? It would be like if an old ship that was lost at sea suddenly communicating with the shore.
You are not going to let that ship dock w/o an inspection first. And the fact that Will smith thinks he can fly it just because he can a fighter jet. The aliens might have a totally different sense of spacial awareness then us.
It would be like me learning to drive a car really well, like the best. Then the army think it would make me perfect to drive a new tank that has six pedels, nine joysticks.
Correct, But that doesnt excuse many other problems.
Such as a dog fight in a canyon. May look cool, but no if any pilot will think that is a good idea. Or the aliens letting the presidents transports get away. What did they think the helicopters where full off? The Janitors of the white house?
How they act shows they do not have a martial honor culture. They are shown to be ruthless conquerers, as that one communicated. They lay waste to a planet again and again.
And if they knee what to strike(The white house) they knew the president would leave.
And giving aliens non-human thought processes in near impossible, because it would invariably be something we thought up.
You know I can't help but feel that allot of the hype around this trailer is based mainly on the fact that Del Toro's name is attached to it.
If an identical trailer came out but with Michael Bay's name in it instead of Del Toro's I'm fairly certain it would be getting nothing but scorn.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Rented Tritium wrote: Guys, you realize that in the independance day universe, we reverse engineered the crashed ship to create all of our own computer technology. That is literally stated in the movie. We both use unix because we stole it from them in the first place.
I admit it’s been a while since I watched ID4 but I don’t recall them saying anything of the sort. I fact I’m 99% sure that the scientist guy (the one played by Data) say that the crashed ship only switched itself on when the main alien armada arrived. I don’t see how we could have reverse engineered a programming language from it if we hadn’t been able to activate it.
That also opens the plot hole that if the scout ship required proximity to the mothership to operate, how exactly did it get to earth in the first place? But that a matter for another thread.
LuciusAR wrote: You know I can't help but feel that allot of the hype around this trailer is based mainly on the fact that Del Toro's name is attached to it.
You are welcome to feel that way, but it is sort of a silly thing to assume.
LuciusAR wrote:You know I can't help but feel that allot of the hype around this trailer is based mainly on the fact that Del Toro's name is attached to it.
If an identical trailer came out but with Michael Bay's name in it instead of Del Toro's I'm fairly certain it would be getting nothing but scorn.
Movie with totally sweet premise + director known to have seen his best days more than a decade ago and has openly explained that his movies are now "design by focus group" = meh
vs.
Movie with totally sweet premise + director whose worst movie was Blade II and has been known to have run out of feths to give for focus groups = amazeballs
Looks like a colossal ripoff of Evangelion. If those robots turn out to be organic I will not be a happy bunny. I could have sworn the computer sounded an awful lot like GLaDOS too.
The computer was Supposed to sound like GLADOS in the trailer as she's the same voice actor. I've heard she sounds different in the actual movie though.
Plus this looks nothing like Evangaleon, even If those robots are part biological, which I'm pretty sure they're not. It's just generic Kaiju.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and while Japan has the worst robot, it also had the first robot.
I think he means robots battling big monsters for the saving of earth, in that it is like evangelion. And I guess that the monsters are kind of fleshy and what not (some of the angels were, anyway). But there are a lot of things different.
motyak wrote:I think he means robots battling big monsters for the saving of earth, in that it is like evangelion. And I guess that the monsters are kind of fleshy and what not (some of the angels were, anyway). But there are a lot of things different.
I still can't wait.
In that case, then Evangelion is simply Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla.
Anyway, just so long as it doesn't end like Evangelion did, all should be well.
From the trailers and spotty data we have so far, it appears Kaiju go after any major population center. I don't think they've explained why yet.
This immediately sets it up as much less morally ambiguous than Evangelion, where the Angels/Kaiju were only attempting to free one of their own imprisoned underneath the city. Which may have accidentally incinerated the planet, or rewritten reality as we know it, but there was no malice aimed at humans.
Pacific Rim is looking much more like a good old fashioned beat em up, with no clear cut winners. The Jaegers can't get into the depths of the ocean to stem the source of the Kaiju, and the Kaiju can't wipe out humanity until they destroy the Jaegers- so it will depend on what , if any, ultimate solution the scientist are plotting to unleash in order to come to any sort of conclusion.
Or, of course, it could always come down to the last Kaiju and the last Jaeger, facing off in downtown at high noon, as a tumbleweed the size of an office building blows across the road.
The Japs have the worst Jaeger because theirs (and i think the Russians) were the first gen. America and China had theirs next and the Aussies got theirs lucky last. Hence the best stat line and most Kaiju kills.
The Japs have the worst Jaeger because theirs (and i think the Russians) were the first gen. America and China had theirs next and the Aussies got theirs lucky last. Hence the best stat line and most Kaiju kills.
I can't wait for the pilots to be like 'let's throw another shrimp on the barbie' before they go hunting another monster. It'll make my viewing experience (especially since we don't say shrimp). Bonus points for one last 'crikey' before the head gets smashed and the robot destroyed.
edit: let's play a game. Best one liner for each of the countries' Jaeger pilots to say prior to a smackdown/death.
I'm waiting to see if the rumours about weapon load outs are true. From what i've heard/seen the Striker Eureka has a chest full of rockets, punch dagger type things and BRASS KNUCKLES.
My day would be made if it has brass knuckles. All it would need then is an Akubra with dangly corks and it would be set for life.
Edit: It also has some blade/wing looking things folded up on it's back. No idea what they are for but.
Yeah if memory serves Gipsy Danger has the rocket propelled punch seen in the first trailer.
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motyak wrote: Bonus points for one last 'crikey' before the head gets smashed and the robot destroyed.
I can see Striker Euraka dragging a Prawn like Jaiju across the outback towards Uluru. They then proceed to Barbeque it using Uluru as a giant hotplate. Barbequed Jaiju for all. Along with a giant can of Fosters just for good measure.
edit: let's play a game. Best one liner for each of the countries' Jaeger pilots to say prior to a smackdown/death.
Hmm... There'd have to be a "in soviet Russia" joke in there somewhere.
looks better than the trailer I saw many moons ago. Actually want to see it.
Only gripe with it is, helmets look stupid and the strange fascination with the color white with scifi films. I swear everything was made by apple in the movie Oblivion.
Piston Honda wrote:looks better than the trailer I saw many moons ago. Actually want to see it.
Only gripe with it is, helmets look stupid and the strange fascination with the color white with scifi films. I swear everything was made by apple in the movie Oblivion.
Personally I think the Japanesse being the worst and Australians being the best makes perfect sense to me. Japanese are used to their fanciful scifi designs with made up power sources and ignoring typical engineering with the gundam stuff and what not, so of course they suck when they have to make a Real robot. Australians on the other hand are used to everything wanting to kill them and they are fully prepared to deal with it being the tough sons of Bs that they are down there in Narnia.
Thesneakycyberman wrote:Where are these robots that you people speak of? I only see mecha...
Jokes aside, those huge cannons on the Coyote Tango's shoulders should have been able to kill more than two Kaiju's contrary to what the stat card says.
I suppose the only explanation is that these Kaiju aren't all that interested in Japan
AduroT wrote: Personally I think the Japanesse being the worst and Australians being the best makes perfect sense to me. Japanese are used to their fanciful scifi designs with made up power sources and ignoring typical engineering with the gundam stuff and what not, so of course they suck when they have to make a Real robot. Australians on the other hand are used to everything wanting to kill them and they are fully prepared to deal with it being the tough sons of Bs that they are down there in Narnia.
If the Australian Jaeger does not fight a spider, shark or drop bear kaiju, I'll be very disappointed.
AduroT wrote: Personally I think the Japanesse being the worst and Australians being the best makes perfect sense to me. Japanese are used to their fanciful scifi designs with made up power sources and ignoring typical engineering with the gundam stuff and what not, so of course they suck when they have to make a Real robot. Australians on the other hand are used to everything wanting to kill them and they are fully prepared to deal with it being the tough sons of Bs that they are down there in Narnia.
Aussies just need to make a giant robot version of a drop bear and they are set. Or maybe a Robo drop bear/crocodile/great white shark/Aussie redneck and the evil aliens don't stand a chance. The American robot needs a brace of giant six shooters and a cowboy hat.
The Japs have the worst Jaeger because theirs (and i think the Russians) were the first gen. America and China had theirs next and the Aussies got theirs lucky last. Hence the best stat line and most Kaiju kills.
I can't wait for the pilots to be like 'let's throw another shrimp on the barbie' before they go hunting another monster. It'll make my viewing experience (especially since we don't say shrimp). Bonus points for one last 'crikey' before the head gets smashed and the robot destroyed.
edit: let's play a game. Best one liner for each of the countries' Jaeger pilots to say prior to a smackdown/death.
American: You are one UGLY mother fu- *Smash*
I wasn't too interested in this, but this trailer is kinda cool, and hey, it's only two hours right?
Kaiju is a Japanese term usually used to refer to giant monsters. Kaijueiga, which this film would technically count as, or giant monster movies, are classics of the nerd world, Godzilla is probably the most famous Kaiju.
There's plenty of industry speculation about when Hollywood's geek bubble will burst. The mistake I think most of them are making is with trying to blame the eventual collapse on studio interference, which led to many of them declaring The Hobbit as the film that burst the bubble (as studio demands drove them to bloat that into two and later three movies) or with the film by management board that is the DC suite of new superhero films.
But looking at movie trends in the past, it wasn't studio interference that popped the bubble, but good old fashioned diminishing returns - more and more investment needed to access a shrinking market.
The film that really started the geek movie trend was X-Men, which cost $75 million, making it on higher end of the mid-tier budgets. It was a speculative entry it to what was at the time untested waters, a superhero property that wasn't Batman or Superman. A decade later and The Avengers was a $220 million mega-production. Now, that was slickly made movie that made perfect financial success - Iron Man had made its character and Robert Downey Jr an A-list star*, and it was bringing to the screen for the first time one of the classic superhero stories that for some strange reason we hadn't seen before in movies- the team up story.
But there's only so many great properties out there, and so what we're seeing it more sequels and more sequels, and new films about more marginal characters, and more team up stories (DC is planning to do a bunch of solo movies and a team up movie in exactly the same pattern as Marvel delivered with Avengers).
So where does that leave Pacific Rim? It isn't a superhero movie, but it is chasing the nerd dollar in exactly the same way as the superhero movies, and the LotR. Investors have pumped $180 million into this thing, and exactly what is it? Basically a new franchise with a loose relationship to a very silly series of cult films about giant stuff fighting other giant stuff. If that isn't a marginal property** I don't know what is.
I know this has got a director with a load of goodwill behind him, but previous bubbles have claimed the likes of Coppola and to a lesser extent Kubrik, it's no stretch to think it might claim del Toro.
Not that I'm saying this film will be the disaster that'll end the superhero craze. It might be good, and given the reasonable internet buzz it might get enough people in to watch it to justify the massive cost of production. But with every new film there's a trend to more marginal properties while at the same time the budgets keep getting bigger. The end is inevitable, it could just be in 20 years people are talking about this as the film that killed it. If it isn't, well there's Guardians of the Galaxy.
*and also Scarlett Johanssen in a body suit. Basically everything makes great financial sense when its got Scarlett Johanssen in a body suit.
**I'm not saying anything about whether any of you individually, might be really excited about this movie. Just that, well, Godzilla is famous but the number of people who've actually seen one of those films from start t finish is not that high, even among geek circles. Throw out the people that were stoned while they watched it and the number gets much, much smaller.
I would personally argue that Battleship was terrible because it took a board game of two navies pew pewing eachother and turned it into History Channels' favorite meme.
Slarg232 wrote: I would personally argue that Battleship was terrible because it took a board game of two navies pew pewing eachother and turned it into History Channels' favorite meme.
Aliens.
Sure, but 'why was it terrible?' and 'why did it lose money?' are very different questions, and the studios are only really concerned with the latter. The Transformers sequels were, afterall, staggeringly bad but made loads of money. In fact they were the whole reason Hasbro and Hollywood got all excited about Battleship in the first place - taking old children's stuff and making big budget special effects movies out of it suddenly seemed a license to print money.
Of course, what studios missed was that just because a thing has brand recognition doesn't mean it has actual interest. Transformers remained a much loved property, while Battleship was that game you played when it was raining outside and Mum was making you take a break from the Nintendo. And so they pumped a hundred million into a really, really stupid idea for a movie. That it also happened to suck is kind of besides the point, there have been plenty of actually good movies that failed because they were too much money spent on something that didn't have enough of an audience (like Scott Pilgrim for instance).
Whether or not Pacific Rim will be any good I couldn't tell you. With del Toro at the helm it has a fair chance of being silly, but will almost certainly be well made, it's just a question of whether the idea is just too silly even for him to overcome. But I do know that even among geeks there's a burn out, most said Iron Man 3 was good, but it was said without any of the enthusiasm that had been there years before - the film was well made but it wasn't anything new anymore.
Faced with more and more geek movies saturating the market, everyone of them costing more and more, and geeks maybe getting something of a burn out, well that's a market where the end will come. Maybe it will come because of a $180 million film about robots punching space dinosaurs.
sebster wrote:Faced with more and more geek movies saturating the market, everyone of them costing more and more, and geeks maybe getting something of a burn out, well that's a market where the end will come. Maybe it will come because of a $180 million film about robots punching space dinosaurs.
Honestly, you're absolutely correct, but not about Pacific Rim. The harbinger of the burn out will be Guardians of the Galaxy.
sebster wrote: Whether or not Pacific Rim will be any good I couldn't tell you. With del Toro at the helm it has a fair chance of being silly, but will almost certainly be well made, it's just a question of whether the idea is just too silly even for him to overcome. But I do know that even among geeks there's a burn out, most said Iron Man 3 was good, but it was said without any of the enthusiasm that had been there years before - the film was well made but it wasn't anything new anymore.
I think this is a hole in your argument. People didn't have the enthusiasm for Iron Man 3 because it's not new. We've now seen an antire trilogy of Iron Man movies, plus a spin off super hero team up what was basically another Iron Man movie anyway - he certainly had the most screen time.
As you accurately pointed out, this all started with the X-Men, after that, we basically got a super hero movie every year, either Marvel, DC or some relatively unknown product (like Bulletproof Monk) - and some years all three, and in recent years, multiple Marvel properties per year. Some were terrible, some were good, some were fantastic. But yeah, we've been burned out on superheroes.
I can honestly say, after my tepid reaction to Iron man 3, this is probably exactly why I wasn't that thrilled when the credits rolled.
Pacific Rim might be nerd porn, but it's different. While yes, most nerds know what Godzilla is, again, as you pointed out not as many have actually sat through one. While people have seen the likes of Evangelion, the general public definitely hasn't outside of Japan. It's not new territory, but it's territory that hasn't had any significant movement in decades on the big screen (Cloverfield and Godzilla 99 definitely weren't significant movement). It's different enough that, while still nerd porn, is not the type of nerd porn we've seen in abundance in a long, long time.
It's different enough that, even if it doesn't get the sales expected to justify the price, I don't think it'll be what killed the nerd bubble with movies. That's going to be right down to DC and Marvel.
I certainly hope this kick starts the kaiju revolution. I want some more good kaiju films.
Point is, no-one knows exactly what the tipping point will be. That's why bubbles keep happening. It might be Pacific Rim, or it might be something else. Guardians of the Galaxy is a really high chance.
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-Loki- wrote: Pacific Rim might be nerd porn, but it's different. While yes, most nerds know what Godzilla is, again, as you pointed out not as many have actually sat through one. While people have seen the likes of Evangelion, the general public definitely hasn't outside of Japan. It's not new territory, but it's territory that hasn't had any significant movement in decades on the big screen (Cloverfield and Godzilla 99 definitely weren't significant movement). It's different enough that, while still nerd porn, is not the type of nerd porn we've seen in abundance in a long, long time.
Sure, and you make a fair point that it's pretty different to superhero movies. But the point is we're seeing a AAA budget thrown behind a really marginal property. I mean, everyone knows Godzilla and most people under 30 know Evangelion, but it just doesn't exist in the public's mind in the way that superheroes or Transformers or even GI Joe* does. Not that that's an automatically fatal thing. Iron Man wasn't an A-list superhero until he was put in a really well made AAA movie, now he's a safe Hollywood bet.
But it is still reaching for a less reliable property, and having to throw more money behind it just to keep up with the increasing budgets of all these movies, and that means it, like everything else that's slated to come along, is a chance of being the tipping point. It makes this more of a gamble than Iron Man was. As in turn Guardians of the Galaxy wll be an even bigger gamble.
I certainly hope this kick starts the kaiju revolution. I want some more good kaiju films.
Fair enough. I've got no stake in the game either way. Personally I think the odds of seeing more films like this is pretty unlikely, but then I thought Transformers 3 box office would decline sharply as a response to the awfulness of the second movie, and I was completely wrong about that.
*my biggest disappointment of the whole nerd movie thing is that my favourite property, GI Joe, was handed over in the old studio style - given over to director for hire and made with little love for the source material... if only it got an Avengers style treatment.
Ah man, I totally missed that you already mentioned it. I must've been caught up in my inability to understand why people are so smitten by the overrated chubby gal in the Black Widow costume.*
Honestly, I kinda thought that Fantastic Four 2 was going to be the tipping point, just because of how cheap and crappy it was; I figured it'd be the moment where we realized that we'd already seen the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
* Yeah, I think she's kinda on the "plus" side for the role, and that dress in the film seemed very ill-fitting and emphasizing that point. Just opinion, mind you.
