Plot-
people pilot robots to fight monsters
This
is not the review I intended to write, but as so many critics seem to be raving
about this film, I figured a rant would be in order. Pacific
Rim is a terrible film. That it is a
terrible film made by Guillermo Del Toro, who has done better work before, and
with any luck, will continue to do good work in his future. I wonder if some of the critics, fans of Del
Toro's previous work, found need to praise it, while if this had been a Michael
Bay joint, they would have been more than happy to pounce. At this point I should say that, at no time,
does Pacific Rim approach the level
of fun contained in the first half of Bay's Transformers.
My
favorite moment during the screening of Rim
was at the end of a big fight in the latter half of the film. The monster sprouted wings and picked the
giant robot up and flew it into space (I know that the film calls them
something other than "monsters" and "robots", but this film
didn't treat me with any respect so I have no desire to return any). When in space and running out of oxygen, the
lead character (again, he had a name, but I don't care) say, "we have to
detonate the core, we are out of options."
To which his copilot responds, "no, we have another
option." She hits a button which
makes a huge sword appear out of the robot's hand, and promptly cuts the
monster into pieces. At this moment, a
woman behind me says, "why didn't they just do that to begin
with?"
Ahhh,
a woman of such intelligence, such wisdom, such COMMON FUCKING SENSE! You see, they didn't do that to begin with
since it would require the characters to have the same intelligence as your
average film goer, and if we want to make theses action scenes last, they can't
have those kind of brains.
Now,
let's talk about back story, shall we?
The piss poor handling of character's back story would be hilarious, if
it were, you know, ACTUALLY hilarious.
What I love, and by love, I mean hate, is how the back story is
delivered in one big chunk for each character, and then the film moves on to
the next. There is very little that
actually builds. Let's start with the
main character. He is a robot pilot
whose copilot/brother was killed in a monster fight. After years (or roughly 5 minutes), his old
boss tracks him down and asks him to pilot again. He says no.
His boss asks if he would rather die here, or piloting a robot. He looks thoughtfully into the distance, and...
he's back! The film is now done with his
back story, and for all intents and purposes, his development as a
character. Yep, I guess that is all it
takes to overcome years of grief and psychological baggage. His thoughtful look seems to say, "I
should just go along with this guy. He
seems to know the plot better than I do."
His history
is nothing compared to the films nominal female lead. She, of course, has a tragic back story. She also really wants to be a robot pilot,
but the boss/ father figure won't let her.
That is, of course, until the plot requires it. The scene where they stick her in the robot
is a low point for the film. So, she has
wanted to be a pilot for a while? Well,
it would appear as though she has received no training or preparation in all
this time, because, before you can say manufactured plot contrivance (or
cliché, that works too) she is lost in her own memories, about to blow up the
base. Of course, this has to
happen. Not because it makes sense, or
is believable in the world created, but because the main character needs to see
inside her mind and witness her big tragedy for himself. It is also necessary because it sets up the
boss man (played by Idris Elba[i])'s
big arc. Now, presenting back story and
character in a natural and organic way is hard when there are giant monsters
afoot, so they don't try. Of course,
once her big freak out is over, she never has a problem again. Just needed to get it all out, I guess.
This
is where I think some critics, desperate to believe that Del Toro didn't create
something so inept, are trying to call Pacific
Rim self consciously bad. Sure, it
is dumb and predictable, but that was intentional, right? Well, is it being clever? Funny?
So over the top that it collapses into absurdity? No, just dumb and predictable. To find a truly over the top and hilarious
delivery of character history, one only needs to look at Freddy vs. Jason. The way
they plop both the main character's lost love, and tragic death of her mother
on in but four sentences is so much, in such short time, that it becomes funny[ii]. Like I said, that isn't the case here.
The
action scenes are fine. Well, besides
the stupidity of the characters needlessly lengthening them, anyway. The robot vs. monster action is better than
any of the big Transformer showdowns. I actually might have liked them more if they
weren't in 3D, however. A lot of the
action scenes take place in the ocean.
Obviously, that means there is water splashing everywhere. There are times when I found the water and debris
flying at the screen distracting, and making the action harder to comprehend. Unless you refuse to see anything that isn't
3D, a good, old fashion 2D showing should serve the action better. Nothing will help the characters, however.
I love
a big, fun time at the movies just like anyone else. Films like The Avengers, Jurassic Park,
Star Wars, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. These aren't great pieces of cinema and they
can be quite silly, but they were fun.
They had likable characters, and a sense of adventure. Pacific
Rim is a 200 million dollar version of "Rock em Sock em Robots." Or perhaps Del Toro wanted to make a more
serious film. Neon Genesis Evangelion is
one of my favorite TV shows. I have no problem taking giant robots battling
monsters seriously, but now you need strong characters, to ground your story. So, an epic fail there too. It's funny;
The film that keeps popping into my head during all of this is Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. This bizarre slasher film parody from the
1980's is a favorite guilty pleasure of mine.
I was trying to make a list of the silliest films that I like, and it
nearly topped the list. It is funny,
because as I thought of it, I realized that Sleepaway
Camp II is a much smarter film than Pacific
Rim. It has a surprising wit and
humor about itself. It knows exactly
what it is, and how to let the audience in on the joke. Rim is
huge robots thunking into each other with empty characters filling up the
in-between. When Michael Bay does this,
we revile him for it.
[i] I
am mentioning Elba by name simply because his sheer awesomeness is actually
able to penetrate the hollow core of this film.
His gargantuan feat deserves respect
[ii] I
am convinced that the only person involved in making Freddy vs. Jason who is aware the film is a comedy is the director
Ronny Yu. The writers... the actors...
not a chance. Well,
the DP might have been in on the joke. I can imagine the two of them, standing by
the camera, giggling like little children, while everyone else was wondering
what was wrong with them.
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