When you turn your back on it ( making a copy from Amazon so Russell can watch it in the living room ) you respect the story as pretty tight. Too much anguish in the little girl back story. She was too good at making me sad. Carrying her little red shoe around.
It was a high tech cartoon with some great eye candy. I don't know if you watched long enough to see the Ron Perlman gag at the end. Pretty funny.
The painting is just proof that you need plans before you paint. This came up just dabbling. Haven't tried to paint in photoshop in a year. Need to set up a brush set and some other goodies. Let myself be distracted by Manga Stusio and that's not really going to be my work horse for anything.
It was a cartoon. It operated with cartoon laws of science. Fighter planes, 3 abreast going down high rise lined city canyons. Large automations that continue to have high function when wrecked. It was the Avengers with less star power. Almost identical stories.
Looking back, it was interesting to see how they tried to get that Toho, man-in-a-rubber-suit movement to some of the monsters at times...or am I projecting that onto my (admittedly not great) memory of the thing?
El, yr Harryhausen comment got me thinking...when I was a kid in the days (just) before the introduction of Betamax/VHS, we were all held captive to the whims of our local TV station, so the airing of a monster movie was a BIG deal--and quite rare. When one did come on, I was SOOO impatient for the Godzilla et al parts--the films at the times struck me as unnec'ly burdened with too much backstory, confused human characters, and generally any scene not involving massive imaginary creatures destroying crap. I always thought, if I was in charge, I'd cut out all this junk and focus on The MONSTERS!!
But now I think that's probably the wrong tack...it would give us Transformers.
Pac Rim...? Maybe it falls somewhere between the two poles...just wish everything NOT having to do with monsters could've been at least semi-tolerable....
As for PAC RIM, Nothing in this movie had any logical, practical, tactical sense. There's more worthwhile plot and logic in the OLD School Japanese Super Robots of the 70's than this movie. Del Toro thinks he made something cool. But in many respects he ripped off Empire pictures ROBJOX from the late 80's
Pacific Rim... I was frustrated that I couldn't really make out the contour of the monsters... they were really weird designs and the audience was never allowed to see them in the light of day and out of the rain. It was a popcorn movie and it knew it was a popcorn movie. I can't say I really loved it but I can't say I hated it either.
Rick, I added up the monsters pretty well. Very like what DelToro has been doing with monsters. They were his style monsters. He's a good artist. Probably as good as anyone here. He can get across what he wants to character designers.
My Kaiju is a dinosaur with a sad looking claw. I'm going to do a new painting tonight. To prove I can make gains - if looking at mediocre art pains me, I can improve with internalizing and reacting.
The logic was dumb. #1 The Jaegers had a pulse energy weapon that fries those monsters, Where was the shore defense batteries using these weapons? They were able to track them upon coming out of the rupture in the ocean. Even in Japan Kaiju movies the military mobilized with their armament and Maser Cannon tanks and were always pretty damn quick on the scene. #2 Stabbing weapons. We don't see a Robo sword until 3/4 into the film and ONLY on one Jaeger. That should have been standard issue on ALL Jaegers as it seems effective. #3 All rock and SOCK Em robots tactics no real military planning on attacking the kaiju. Just pound them or they pound you. DUMB. I can go on.
Just showing that Del Toro is just a kid himself. He only shined in the movie during the battle royale part. Where his passion lied. The creamy filling in his movie sandwich.
I don't want my movies made or written with a 5 year old mentality as this was. Rock-em-Sock-em Robots was all this was. PHEW! PHEW! PHEW! BANG! BANG! BOOM! does not a movie make. This had the potential to be SO much better than it was if he had a real WRITER.
I would go one step further, Jim... They knew where the fissure was in the bottom of the ocean and they knew when a monster was coming out. Just nuke the monsters as they were exiting... no robots needed.
On the other hand, kiaju are so preposterous to begin with that once you start pulling on the threads of that sweater the whole thing comes undone. Also, let's face it, most of the Toho films are pretty loose when it comes to logic, too.
THAT'S the problem--the more "realism" you ladle onto what is, basically, a child's version of the world, the more fissure erupt in a film's fabric. Toho managed to work a nice sweet spot where what we were seeing was clearly fake, and therefore didn't need to respect all laws of physics/logic, but it was nonetheless a world that remained internally consistent.
As Jimmy pointed out, why not arm the coastlines with pulse cannons?
And you're right, El and Jimmy: the Toho monsters, both good and bad, had way more personality, both in looks but also in their acting, such as it was. Real termite art in that way. Getting inside a world and gnawing away at it....
As opposed to the White Elephant that is Pacific Rim.
As things get so overblown in Hollywood film making. Audiences will accept nothing less than in your face BS coated in a thick CGI frosting. Thus relegating ANY old movie from 1999 back to the start as cheap and silly. We are almost there. Newer generation CAN'T even watch a BW movie or TV show without fidgeting in boredom. The only kind of movies that get a pass are the ones that get CANONIZED, like Star Wars etc.
32 comments:
That's so great! I like yr monster better than theirs.....
This is the film Carlo and I saw at a test screening, remember? And Del Toro was there answering questions in the lobby.
I thought it was really bad at the screening, but later saw it with Jim in general release and thought it wasn't terrible.
I am a pain in the ass re: movies, tho'....
When you turn your back on it ( making a copy from Amazon so Russell can watch it in the living room ) you respect the story as pretty tight. Too much anguish in the little girl back story. She was too good at making me sad. Carrying her little red shoe around.
It was a high tech cartoon with some great eye candy. I don't know if you watched long enough to see the Ron Perlman gag at the end. Pretty funny.
The painting is just proof that you need plans before you paint. This came up just dabbling. Haven't tried to paint in photoshop in a year. Need to set up a brush set and some other goodies. Let myself be distracted by Manga Stusio and that's not really going to be my work horse for anything.
What's good about staring at work like that painting, it gets the dialogue going "why didn't you do this, or that?"
Plot holes so big you can drive Jupiter through it. Nothing they did made sense. Just eye candy for video game junkies...nothing more.
It was a cartoon. It operated with cartoon laws of science. Fighter planes, 3 abreast going down high rise lined city canyons. Large automations that continue to have high function when wrecked.
It was the Avengers with less star power. Almost identical stories.
And the dedication to Honda and Harryhausen at the end. That was good.
Jim Gorham, ladies and gentlemen--master of the diplomatic comment!
Really? I'm not in a very diplomatic vein this day.
Looking back, it was interesting to see how they tried to get that Toho, man-in-a-rubber-suit movement to some of the monsters at times...or am I projecting that onto my (admittedly not great) memory of the thing?
El, yr Harryhausen comment got me thinking...when I was a kid in the days (just) before the introduction of Betamax/VHS, we were all held captive to the whims of our local TV station, so the airing of a monster movie was a BIG deal--and quite rare. When one did come on, I was SOOO impatient for the Godzilla et al parts--the films at the times struck me as unnec'ly burdened with too much backstory, confused human characters, and generally any scene not involving massive imaginary creatures destroying crap. I always thought, if I was in charge, I'd cut out all this junk and focus on The MONSTERS!!
But now I think that's probably the wrong tack...it would give us Transformers.
Pac Rim...? Maybe it falls somewhere between the two poles...just wish everything NOT having to do with monsters could've been at least semi-tolerable....
And Ron Pearlman did steal the show.
Don't get me started on the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer
As for PAC RIM, Nothing in this movie had any logical, practical, tactical sense. There's more worthwhile plot and logic in the OLD School Japanese Super Robots of the 70's than this movie. Del Toro thinks he made something cool. But in many respects he ripped off Empire pictures ROBJOX from the late 80's
I agree...but I also think there's good enjoyment to be had there, and I am certainly glad for those who do enjoy it. Like I did, second time around.
...but then, maybe that was due to my date (one JMG).
Pacific Rim... I was frustrated that I couldn't really make out the contour of the monsters... they were really weird designs and the audience was never allowed to see them in the light of day and out of the rain.
It was a popcorn movie and it knew it was a popcorn movie. I can't say I really loved it but I can't say I hated it either.
That Guardians of The Galaxy trailer was GREAT!
Probably most tiresome in the PacRim movie was the need to show the idea they are building a great wall of China around all coastal areas.
Yeesh. Just build Ringworld and live there. But it was quite consistent with being cartoon/anime engineering. Which is more like magic.
Rick, I added up the monsters pretty well. Very like what DelToro has been doing with monsters. They were his style monsters. He's a good artist. Probably as good as anyone here. He can get across what he wants to character designers.
My Kaiju is a dinosaur with a sad looking claw. I'm going to do a new painting tonight. To prove I can make gains - if looking at mediocre art pains me, I can improve with internalizing and reacting.
The logic was dumb. #1 The Jaegers had a pulse energy weapon that fries those monsters, Where was the shore defense batteries using these weapons? They were able to track them upon coming out of the rupture in the ocean. Even in Japan Kaiju movies the military mobilized with their armament and Maser Cannon tanks and were always pretty damn quick on the scene. #2 Stabbing weapons. We don't see a Robo sword until 3/4 into the film and ONLY on one Jaeger. That should have been standard issue on ALL Jaegers as it seems effective. #3 All rock and SOCK Em robots tactics no real military planning on attacking the kaiju. Just pound them or they pound you. DUMB. I can go on.
Plus they wasted time with all that two pilot mind fusion BS. WAY too much time
Also I didn't like the Kaiju.....No character, very little difference between them. Too interchangeable. Too Generic
But, That Guardians of The Galaxy trailer was GREAT!
Pacific Rim has one sweet spot- little over an hour in- the fight with the two Kaiju, lasts about 20 minutes. That's the rewind part.
The ending with even more Kaiju and ultimate sacrifice and sweet love, meh,
kind of flat.
Just showing that Del Toro is just a kid himself. He only shined in the movie during the battle royale part. Where his passion lied. The creamy filling in his movie sandwich.
Gad what bad writing, Mine, not Del Toro. Where his passion lay, maybe?
I don't want my movies made or written with a 5 year old mentality as this was. Rock-em-Sock-em Robots was all this was. PHEW! PHEW! PHEW! BANG! BANG! BOOM! does not a movie make. This had the potential to be SO much better than it was if he had a real WRITER.
I would go one step further, Jim... They knew where the fissure was in the bottom of the ocean and they knew when a monster was coming out. Just nuke the monsters as they were exiting... no robots needed.
On the other hand, kiaju are so preposterous to begin with that once you start pulling on the threads of that sweater the whole thing comes undone. Also, let's face it, most of the Toho films are pretty loose when it comes to logic, too.
THAT'S the problem--the more "realism" you ladle onto what is, basically, a child's version of the world, the more fissure erupt in a film's fabric. Toho managed to work a nice sweet spot where what we were seeing was clearly fake, and therefore didn't need to respect all laws of physics/logic, but it was nonetheless a world that remained internally consistent.
As Jimmy pointed out, why not arm the coastlines with pulse cannons?
And you're right, El and Jimmy: the Toho monsters, both good and bad, had way more personality, both in looks but also in their acting, such as it was. Real termite art in that way. Getting inside a world and gnawing away at it....
As opposed to the White Elephant that is Pacific Rim.
Well thank goodness Guardians of The Galaxy looks like it's coming out great.
They just cast the reboot of Fantastic Four....that's going to SUCK too. Why do these suit like to jack with stuff all the time?
The Toho films have CHARM.....something all new films lack these days. You can grade on a curve with CHARM but you can't forgive STUPID.
"...You can grade on a curve with CHARM but you can't forgive STUPID."
This is a comment I kept getting in my annual review....
As things get so overblown in Hollywood film making. Audiences will accept nothing less than in your face BS coated in a thick CGI frosting. Thus relegating ANY old movie from 1999 back to the start as cheap and silly. We are almost there. Newer generation CAN'T even watch a BW movie or TV show without fidgeting in boredom. The only kind of movies that get a pass are the ones that get CANONIZED, like Star Wars etc.
Wow, nothing generates comments like movie discussions. Guess I'll have to watch Pacific Rim now.
Haven't seen it yet! Man, get with it.
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