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dexfarkinStuff has been happening, don't care to discuss it. Just going to go dark a little for the next while, focus on myself. If you haven't heard from me, email. Otherwise, don't expect much of anything until the summer is over.
That being said, went and saw 'Pacific Rim' on Sunday. It was quite well done; a nice balance between action and world building, mostly solid across the board. If you had a childhood anything like mine, you grew up with the old monster movies of Godzilla wreaking havoc on Tokyo. There was a kind of majesty to those old movies, in the sheer scope of damage that you were supposed to believe was happening, and the hopeless bravery of the defense force men who mustered planes and tanks to be wiped out by the dozens in the fight. PR caught that thread, played up a hundred times over with a mix of CGI and massive sets. It was able to generate the same kind of spectacle and invoke a similar awe from that viewing as an eight year old to now.
It's certainly a flawed film; there's plenty of schtick and the character development is not what one would call unexpected. But it makes up for it by onapologetically ratcheting up the bright, terrific weirdness at every chance, from Charles Day's twitching flesh hacking brain jump to Ron Perlman's glorious entrance as a dandified black market monster parts thug. Charlie Hunnam was a pretty solid lead, bringing the right kind of intensity and the ability to be the tituler hero of a movie. Despite the fact that he gets outshone by the performances of a number of other actors, he's always able to engage and hold the scene. Idris Elba is as always; powerful, precise, and compelling in a role that is inconsistantly written. Rinko Kikuchi really steals the show though, able to exude this impressively deft combination of strength and vulnerability that so often gets pushed into emotional weakness in lesser hands. Her Mako is wonderfully flawed over steely determination and the conflict of duty which mirrors the struggles of those around her. In a movie with a lot of characters who barely get fleshed out past their stereotypes, she's a polished gem.
The backstory of the Jaegers and Kaiju could have been lifted from any anime, which is in part why it works so well. In fact the visuals are almost examples of what can happen when CGI catches up to that animation could do in the 80s, creating a dystopian world that mimicks the visual style. The attack on the Golden Gate bridge is beautifully rendered, and the scattershot retelling of the backstory begs for more details. In anything, it frames the relentless intensity that the movie locks into a third of the way in and never let up on. It's an excellent sci-fi film, derivative without being a complete copy, familiar without being stock, and seemingly aware about what it wants to be the whole time. It could have pushed a tacky love story in the middle. It could have tried for 'depth' with a poorly executed grieving period in the middle. It could have tried to elevate the narrative by making the story about man's hubris. It avoided them all to focus on fucking up a giant dragon squid thing with a bitching robot sword. As it should have...
That being said, went and saw 'Pacific Rim' on Sunday. It was quite well done; a nice balance between action and world building, mostly solid across the board. If you had a childhood anything like mine, you grew up with the old monster movies of Godzilla wreaking havoc on Tokyo. There was a kind of majesty to those old movies, in the sheer scope of damage that you were supposed to believe was happening, and the hopeless bravery of the defense force men who mustered planes and tanks to be wiped out by the dozens in the fight. PR caught that thread, played up a hundred times over with a mix of CGI and massive sets. It was able to generate the same kind of spectacle and invoke a similar awe from that viewing as an eight year old to now.
It's certainly a flawed film; there's plenty of schtick and the character development is not what one would call unexpected. But it makes up for it by onapologetically ratcheting up the bright, terrific weirdness at every chance, from Charles Day's twitching flesh hacking brain jump to Ron Perlman's glorious entrance as a dandified black market monster parts thug. Charlie Hunnam was a pretty solid lead, bringing the right kind of intensity and the ability to be the tituler hero of a movie. Despite the fact that he gets outshone by the performances of a number of other actors, he's always able to engage and hold the scene. Idris Elba is as always; powerful, precise, and compelling in a role that is inconsistantly written. Rinko Kikuchi really steals the show though, able to exude this impressively deft combination of strength and vulnerability that so often gets pushed into emotional weakness in lesser hands. Her Mako is wonderfully flawed over steely determination and the conflict of duty which mirrors the struggles of those around her. In a movie with a lot of characters who barely get fleshed out past their stereotypes, she's a polished gem.
The backstory of the Jaegers and Kaiju could have been lifted from any anime, which is in part why it works so well. In fact the visuals are almost examples of what can happen when CGI catches up to that animation could do in the 80s, creating a dystopian world that mimicks the visual style. The attack on the Golden Gate bridge is beautifully rendered, and the scattershot retelling of the backstory begs for more details. In anything, it frames the relentless intensity that the movie locks into a third of the way in and never let up on. It's an excellent sci-fi film, derivative without being a complete copy, familiar without being stock, and seemingly aware about what it wants to be the whole time. It could have pushed a tacky love story in the middle. It could have tried for 'depth' with a poorly executed grieving period in the middle. It could have tried to elevate the narrative by making the story about man's hubris. It avoided them all to focus on fucking up a giant dragon squid thing with a bitching robot sword. As it should have...
