Courtesy: Warner Brothers Studios/Legendary Pictures
Thirty-seven. According to most news agencies, that is how many sequels will have been churned out in theaters by the time 2013 has winded down. Those reports go on to say that this is a new record for movie studios. Those same movie studios have most recently been lambasted by the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for that glut of franchise flicks. The pair most recently stated that if Hollywood’s major studios continue on their current track, the movie industry’s implosion won’t be far behind. Keeping this in mind, what is a movie-goer to do in looking for something that is not a sequel or even prequel in 2013? The answer would seem simple. Although in reality it isn’t. Case in point, the mega-blockbuster, Pacific Rim.
While it isn’t a sequel, or even a prequel or reboot, the latest blockbuster from Warner Brothers Studios and Legendary Pictures is still anything but original. The Japanese influenced action flick is formulaic and trite. The whole robots versus giant monsters bit has been done to death. If one were to take Power Rangers, Godzilla, Independence Day, Top Gun, (Yes there’s even a hint of Top Gun in here believe it or not) and the equally terrible 1989 movie, Robot Jox, and toss them into a pot, they would get this fast paced and underperforming movie that’s more fit for a person with ADD than a more discerning viewer. Making things worse, writer Travis Beacham has taken elements of each of the aforementioned movies and TV shows, and tossed them in all over the place for a movie that ultimately adds up to nothing. From its standard stereotypical character types to its equally seemingly ADD influenced writing to the attempts to cover all of this with special effects in hopes of making it look like something substantial, it all adds up to a movie that is more forgettable than fun.
Pacific Rim is a fun movie. But it is also largely forgettable. The most blatant of reasons for this is its very concept. The concept behind this movie is anything but original as already noted. Robots fighting monsters has been done for roughly two decades or more with the various Japanese shows and movies that influenced America’s hit pop culture phenomenon that is the Power Rangers franchise. And that franchise itself caused any number of imitators such as the Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad and VR Troopers just to name a couple of so many that have been churned out here stateside since the early 1990s. This is just the tip of the iceberg in where this movie goes wrong. Along with those Japanese TV shows and movies from which this movie blatantly lifts, viewers will also see just as much pulled from the likes of Top Gun and Independence Day. One scene in particular halfway through the movie’s roughly two hour run time sees Raleigh and his co-pilot Mako (Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi respectively) come back victorious from having taken down a pair of kaiju by themselves. It looks just like a certain scene from Top Gun (and so many other action movies and TV shows). Heck, for that matter, one could even argue that this harkens all the way back to a scene from the original Star Wars franchise that occurred after the Death Star was destroyed. It was a near mirror image. Again, here we have prime examples of just how unoriginal this movie is. Instead of trying to do anything original, it just pulls scenes from other movies for this story. It’s not the end of the movie’s faults, either.
Audiences that are familiar with their sci-fi history will take notice of the scenes throughout this movie lifted from so many other movies and TV shows. The script’s writing hurts the viewing experience just as much as the lifted scenes, if not more so. We’ll start with the example of Stacker Pentecost’s over-the-top motivational speech to his forces as he triumphantly joins the fight once more having been sidelined for years from fighting the war against the Kaiju, too. This exact same over-the-top motivational speech style was used in Independence Day and so many other action movies both before and after it. It makes the whole work come across as that much lazier and anything but serious. Rather it makes the movie come across as cheesy. This kind of interpretation by audiences can greatly hurt the movie in the long run. It’s just one of so many other moments much like it. These moments coarse through the movie right to its final mega-battle scene, taking even more away from its ability to be taken seriously. Of course, this isn’t the bottom of the barrel. Things get worse for Pacific Rim in considering the story’s character styles.
In the case of Pacific Rim, audiences are presented with even more standard action movie fare with the characters of Pentecost and Raleigh. Raleigh is the standard heroic leader character with a mysterious past about which he won’t talk. It makes him even more mysterious to those around him. But it hardly creates an appeal among audiences for him as he’s hardly the first character of his sort to grace the big screen. Having covered one of the movie’s main characters, let’s examine another main character in Raleigh. Raleigh is the standard plays-by-his-own-rules character style seen in all the way back to Han Solo, Wolverine, Maverick, and so many other anti-hero and semi-anti-hero types. Just as with so much else in this movie, it’s one more factor that has been done to death. And because of this, the picture becomes even clearer as to why Pacific Rim will ultimately be one more forgotten action movie that will end up in the five-dollar bin at Wal-Mart not long after it debuts on DVD and Blu-ray.
Pacific Rim suffers from so many negatives. It’s no wonder why it has fallen so short in terms of ticket sales versus its production costs. However, for all of its negatives, there is at least one positive to Pacific Rim. That positive is the movie’s special effects. The special effects in this movie are above par for Summer blockbusters. Watching the Jaeger (pronounced yager) pilots working together to bring their robots to life to battle the Kaiju (pronounced KI-joo) is something to behold. The combination of live action and CG effects sets the bar extremely high for other special effects laden movies to come. So to that extent, those behind the cameras and computer screens deserve their due credit for this.
At the same time that the movie’s special effects are a good thing, they are also a bad thing. The reason for this is that it is honestly the only positive to the movie. Had this movie had more laurels on which it could rest, the special effects would not have been a burden. But sadly, it doesn’t have those other laurels. And because of this, it will lead many viewers to feel that director Guillermo del Toro is just trying to fool audiences and make them think this is something with substance. In reality, it has none. Sure, the graphics and special effects are great. But audiences should not let this become a smokescreen. They need to see that being that this is all it has going for it, Pacific Rim is sadly anything but one of the best new theatrical releases of 2013. It isn’t the year’s worst. But it is hardly the year’s best, either. In the long run, it will prove to be little more than a vague memory in the vast expanse that is the world of the action movie.
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