Man i'm so glad I caught Del Toro's Bleak House Exhibit in Toronto a couple years back. So many cool things including my favorite, the helmet from Phantom of the Paradise AKA Griffith's helmet.
I remember: Me and my girlfriend went to see this movie on Imax, now she hates this kind of film, well hates a strong word it's just not really her thing; when we left the cinema she told me that whilst she didn't really like it she had so much fun watching me, sit there wide eyed, a grin of absolute glee and gesticulating wildly at the action whilst trying to keep my voice to a whisper that she wouldn't mind seeing it with me again. Post Script to this story: During the films entire cinema run, I made it a point to see it at least twice a week and I never got bored of it, the film, much with Del Toro himself was making everything my inner child wanted seem real on the big screen. To this day my view count of it sits in the 4 digits mark, I destroyed 2 blu-ray copies with repeated viewings and now more than ever as I go through seriously difficult times with my health, this film has got me through long boring hospital stays, kept my spirits up when I was told I may have lethal cancer and has kept me through losing my job due to my health condition.
Pacific Rim is my all time favorite film. I know it’s a big pile of sound and fury signifying nothing, but it delivers on everything it promised for me.
Nothing like waking up and seeing a notification for a new Chuck review. Been looking forward to this one given the popularity of PR and the resurgence of giant monster films.
The minute I knew I'd love Pacific Rim was watching the two F-22s fly in on a strafing run at the start and one of them ends up exploding because it flies into a huge-arsed bone spur. It was so 80s anime that it actually made me grin; I'd seen that scene animated time and again when growing up during the same time period, watching random anime shows on VHS and seeing poorly animated fighter jets being knocked out of the sky by some bad guy rampaging through Japan in his mecha. It's how I knew instantly where Del Toro was coming from with this movie and helped with accepting the sillier, more trope-y moments are found sprinkled through out film.
*del Toro:* "These movies I'm attached to keep getting cancelled! Maybe I should work on video games, instead. There's no way anything could go wrong ther- GODDAMNIT, KONAMI!!!"
Despite being a huge kaiju fan since I was a still in the womb (it's a joke, my mother & aunt have been huge fans since childhood), I somehow missed out on almost anything to do with Pacific Rim. I'm not even sure I've seen the movie all the way through, which is kinda bizarre. I didn't even realize there *was* a second film, as has been mentioned in a few comments. With that being said, this is a fascinating look into the background of the movie I'm mostly only ever heard about. I don't know if I've said this before, Chuck, but I absolutely adore your videos like this. The look at Watership Down, the history of the Transformers *before* the cartoon.. and, of course, your incredible look at the rise and fall of a Comic Book empire.
When you hear the care guillermo del toro put into the movie it feels so wrong that some think of it as just a stupid transformers like movie. The second one was but the first one was fantastic.
I like both myself. Somewhat cheesy, somewhat great, but 100% enjoyable movies. And now I really wanna visit the Bleakhouse for inspiration. I wish I was that filthy rich to afford a house full of stuff to give me inspiration.
And then he also had the game he was working on with Kojima cancelled by Konami. The poor guy really took some hits but I am so glad he is still around to make awesome movies.
What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger indeed. Hopefully with the Oscar success of Shape of Water producers will give more freedom to Del Toro to make whatever he wants. I still hopefully and patiently wait for Mountains of Madness to have its chance...
I truly don't understand the disdain so many people seem to have for this movie. It was everything it promised to be, and knew exactly which cliches we wanted to see, and which ones we were tired of. It's big and dumb and fun, without ever being insulting to its audience. I love it so much.
I dunno, its a wonderful story and all, but Pacific Rim is so clearly inspired by the dozens of Japanese Anime which feature giant mechs fighting giant monsters that to say otherwise is simply ludicrous .Probably he did have the idea on the beach for making a live action gundam movie, but you can't deny where the original concept comes from.
I saw Pacific Rim in the theater, which is unusual for me. I saw it on its opening weekend, which is *very* unusual for me. I even shelled out for the 3D ticket, which makes this film practically a unicorn for me. I really expected to like this movie. I really *wanted* to like this movie. And then I saw it. I didn't like anything about this movie. During the giant robot-on-giant monster action, the screen was too dark to follow the action. And the rest of the time the characters were talking, and Every. Single. Line. Of dialogue. Made me crave the sweet release of death. Because this film has exactly three types of dialogue: technobabble word salad, nationalistic cliches, and forced, chemistry-free "character" interactions, all three of which I found nauseating. (I know what you're going to say, but Idris Elba's "Canceling the Apocalypse" speech is a monologue.) So in stark contrast to Chuck's conclusion - despite being very much in the film's target audience, I did NOT enjoy PR's ride. And even after buying in on the film's core premise (i.e. suspending my disbelief enough to ignore the square-cube law for a couple of hours), I very much DID feel insulted by it - over and over and over again. The only enjoyment I got from PR was ripping it apart afterward with friends who'd also gone to that showing, but that wasn't enough to make me ever want to watch it again. And it's sad, because I should have liked it: all they had to do was not be completely heckin' stupid, or else be enough fun that I didn't (immediately) notice the stupid. That was asking too much, I guess.
I absolutely adore Pan's Labyrinth and I enjoyed Hellboy, but I'm sorry, I really dislike this movie. I guess I'm supposed to love the campy production, the stereotypes, the ridiculous nationalistic tone, the oomph of the fights and all of it. But it goes too far. It's farce, I can't enjoy it. I suppose they succeeded in what they tried to make. It's just not something I can like.
It’s insane they’d put so much work into such a terrible concept. Human/machine control interfaces can be interesting but these guys just missed the mark.
