Friday, July 19, 2013

Pacific Rim



 God , Its been a long time since I Saw a good Monster movie . By Monsters I meant real , big and scary Monsters not some Zombie Creeps . If tats how you feel , then Pacific Rim is the movie for you. Although it can t be compared to Jurassic Park and Godzilla Kinda of feel , The concept of Robots vs Monsters in the backdrop of a famous City is mouth watering to all Teenage guys . Animes like Code Geass ( Lanceleot Vs Guren ) and cartoos like Ninja Robots where you get to see some cool ass Robots kicking a@@  sure does make one wonder whether if anything new would come that would atleast interest you  . Well Pacific Rim sure does get the job delivered . 

Ninja Robots 
Guren Vs Lancelot in Code Geass

Plot :: 


Piloting the Jaeger 
Aliens Invasion - Humankind's Last Pit Effort to stop it - Succeeds. Tats the whole story in a nutshell. It happens in the future of late 2020 where a rift opens in Pacific which acts as a kind of portal to some huge Monsters which enter the Coastline Cities and goes crazy . In order to stop the monsters , humanity builds the Jaegers: equally colossal humanoid war machines, each manned by two pilots whose brains are linked to share the overwhelming mental load of piloting the sophisticated machines ( a process they term as the Neural Drift ) .Why do the monsters start attacking  and what sparks them , wats their objective are some questions that are best answered by Stacker Pentecost ( Idris Elba) and Dr. Newton Geiszler ( Charlie Day ) , Gottlieb ( Burn Gorman) whom you will get to know when you see the movie .



Visual Effects :: 


Now where does the movie emerges a Winner ! , its surely in the CGI section . The imagination and the thought process that must have gone behind this huge creatures where each one are unique and equally huge Robots controlled by a two persons who share a neural connection are astounding and breadth taking . And to see them on screen is like WOW !! cool !!  . Each Robot is unique and is damn huge like hell . I mean not just huge but immensely huge . You can never imagine the size they are . Just when you get used to the concept of the Robot's size they immediately show a comparison of how big they are by showing the Robots picking up a container or smashing a Car or a Bridge apart . And again you will be going Whoa!!!! :D


Industrial Light & Magic was chosen to create the visual effects for Pacific Rim. Del Toro hired Oscarwinners John Knoll and Hal T. Hickel, both known for their work on the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Legacy Effects was hired to do the special and practical effects on the film. Shane Mahan, known for creating the armored suits for Iron Man, was hired on as effects supervisor. John Rosengrant was also brought in for his work on Real Steel. Oscar winner Clay Pinney, known for his work on Independence Day and Star Trek, was also brought on board.


Gypsy Dishes it out o a Categ 3 
I still remember the old Godzilla movies which spits Electricity out of its mouth :P .  I loved those cries of Godzilla as it charges through the city destroying bridges and sky scrapers . And now when you see the same scene happening , you do get amazed at how much the CG has improved in the upcoming years . Its damn good . Most of the time you won t even realize that its CG . They look so natural and cool that you actually believe that they were play acted by people dressed up ( Like they did in Godzilla)

Director and Team discussion 
The IMAX experience was one that ought not to be missed by any . This is one movie that takes the IMAX screen to a whole new level. Watch it there if you have a IMAX nearby ;)



BGM :: 


Done by Ramin Djawadi ( an Iranian-German composer of orchestral music for film and television) Djawadi may be best known for his Grammy-nominated, guitar-driven score for Iron Man and for the TV series Prison Break, Game of Thrones and Person of Interest. This definitely adds another strong point to the Movie . I mean seriously, its damn cool .Especially the Guitar tempo at the beginning of the Main Theme . It will drive you nuts . Just what we needed for a good Action / Heroic Movie :D


Action - Sequence :: 


Although the movie's plot and CG is damn big , the action sequences were a little too scarce and sometimes too soft for my taste. I was expecting the Transformers kind of action where the Robots move in a cool and Slick way that just blows your mind . Maybe  Guillermo del Toro thought it would feel exactly like another  Transformers rip off movie . So he made the Robots , scary a** big but clumsy like hell. I mean seriously sometimes it would just feel like push - push Game between 2 guys . I was disappointed like hell . The robots which were shown unique and were the last of Jaegers piloted by the best pilots sure did go down without any kind of Legendary fight in them . I mean it was damn waste of Robots if you ask me.  I get it , they want to give Gypsy , a Thermonuclear powered Jaeger a fighting chance to save the day but still they could have showed some cool minion Fights where the other Robots could have been made to look cool before they get Crushed under a huge Category 4 Kaiju ( nickname of the Aliens in the movie .) Atleast I expected a little more fight in the Japanese Triplets that Control a Cool Red Jaeger code named Crimson Typhoon .

Crimson Typhoon - 3 handed Robo
But that doesn't mean the Movie doesn't have any cool stunt scenes . This is where Gypsy comes into play . The sequence where he takes down the 2 Category : 4 Monsters is amazing . Especially the Sword Split at the last finishing move  in Slo-mo . Yup definitely Transformers feel :D I see what you did there Toro :D

Epic Category 4 Fight :D

Emotional Content :: 


Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost:
Thank god there aren't any . It all started off with Nolan's Trilogy . I mean after that one , every guy wanted a touch of Emotions in their action movies :P , sometimes Edging on borderline pathetic as it happened in Man Of Steel :P

Even Pacific Rim does try to strut its emotional content with Rinko Kikuchi and Idris Elba trying the Father Figure angle . But huh ! nope i did not get any tearful moment when he goes into Oblivion :P
And for the First time the Hero and Heroine in an Hollywood Movie who doesn't Kiss each other at all :O Well tats a Bummer !! . Toro said the there never was supposed to be a romantic angle between the two but just a deep Respect for each other as a partner .

Charlie Hunnam ( LEFT) as Raleigh Becket and Rinko Kikuchi (RIGHT) as Mako Mori
Ouch !! Too Bad for you ,Charlie Hunnam , If you know what I mean ;)


Charlie Day as Dr. Newton Geiszler


The Triplets 


Burn Gorman as Dr. Hermann Gottlieb


Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau


Similarities :: 


Like I said the movie's concept of Robots piloted by Humans to save Humanity may look like a rip off from a lot of anime and cartoons that we had known off . Hell even the Power Ranger Movie had a segment where they fight united against a Monster .

Dexter's Family Against Monster form SEA


But what specifically came to my mind when I saw the poster was an Episode from my all time Favorite Dexter's Laboratory . Where each member of the family will be using a Car and when the time comes they get united together to fight against the scary Monster that comes out from the SEA :P Notice anything Similar . Yup tats what came to my mind when I saw the Trailer . Hell !! even one of the monster that makes an appearance in the movie kind of resembles the monster in the Cartoon .Well Toro Must have been a Dexter Fan too huh .. How many else noticed the same , please do let me know in the comments below :D


The Monster Sure does look familiar huh :D :D

Pro's :: 


1. Amazing Visual Effects that will literally blow your mind with cool action sequences . The impact it delivers when you realize how huge these monsters really are , will astound you .
2. Excellent music Score . Hats off to the composer Ramin Djawadi . ( Well you can t expect anything less from the composer of Iron Man and Game of Thrones )


Cons ::


1. Poor Screenplay that some times goes to the borderline of boring .
2. Emotional Content does not have the expected pull .
3. A cheap Rip off Story .



Overall :: A movie that can be Enjoyed for its Visual and Sound Effects alone.

Rating :: 8.5/10  ( Good)

Regards
Ram