Pacific Rim Uprising

[ZorClone]

The Japanese trailer looked like the CG is getting a bit more refined than it was in earlier trailers at least...  idk, still on the fence.

I'm stoked I just found the NECA Otachi delux kaiju figure (land version) for under $100 on Amazon, though.  I hope it's legit.  Thinking to display it with SOC Gipsy and hoping it won't look too small.

[kajnrig]

My thoughts on it to come.

EDIT:

A minute in: It's kind of dumb. Not Pacific Rim dumb. Bad dumb.

EDIT 2:

Yeah, a bit of a waste of time. I'm always down for a good essay, especially about giant monsters and giant robots, but this isn't very well-written.

Edited March 20, 2018 by kajnrig

[kajnrig]

First(?) review up.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/somehow-pacific-rim-uprising-is-more-and-less-epic-tha-1823834809

[TangledThorns]

Reviews aren't that great so far. I guess I'll wait till it comes to Netflix.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/03/20/pacific-rim-uprising-review

[kajnrig]

Seems lightly negative to middling to lightly positive. A perfect bell curve... so far.

https://www.avclub.com/guillermo-del-toro-s-geeky-pacific-rim-gets-an-imperson-1823955570

https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/21/17145582/pacific-rim-uprising-review-john-boyega

http://www.slashfilm.com/pacific-rim-uprising-reviews-early-buzz/

And since I know there are fans:

 

[JB0]

2 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Seems lightly negative to middling to lightly positive. A perfect bell curve... so far.

I wanted a five-star movie, not a three-star.

[slaginpit]

So i just finished watching the movie. And Boy did it suck balls. Basically they showed you everything in the trailer. Meh lackluster kiddie garbage

 

Oh and gee where did they get the funding for this movie and who was it made for

Edited March 22, 2018 by slaginpit

[TangledThorns]

6 hours ago, slaginpit said:

So i just finished watching the movie. And Boy did it suck balls. Basically they showed you everything in the trailer. Meh lackluster kiddie garbage

 

Oh and gee where did they get the funding for this movie and who was it made for

Ack! Seriously? Sometimes I think Hollywood makes crappy sequels in the hope that we'll stop asking for them.

[kajnrig]

So... You spent all this time talking about how the movie looked like garbage and sounded like garbage and would be garbage, you hated all the "neon power rangers" and the "let's work together"... and yet still bought a ticket to see it?

I mean alright, I guess...

[wm cheng]

Well it exactly as I had expected (I'll wait for the video) when they took the production away from us in Toronto (we did the first PR) down to Sydney and changed the production staff.  It's for a much younger audience and unfortunately we all getting older and older

 

On a brighter note, this Hong Kong thing looks like it would be worth a look (they definitely liked Pac Rim but fully embraced the Japanmation aesthetic)

 

[Tking22]

49 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

So... You spent all this time talking about how the movie looked like garbage and sounded like garbage and would be garbage, you hated all the "neon power rangers" and the "let's work together"... and yet still bought a ticket to see it?

I mean alright, I guess...

Yeah I don't get that guy, he seems like a bit of an ass so I put him on ignore, he tried to chew Kuma out for some of his fantastic photos as well.

2 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Ack! Seriously? Sometimes I think Hollywood makes crappy sequels in the hope that we'll stop asking for them.

I don't get it, this is one persons opinion that's been railing on the film since it was announced, why not you know, go see it yourself?
 

I'm baffled at the hate the sequel is getting, the first film got borderline middling reviews as well for being a stupid blockbuster giant monster giant robot fight movie. This one is faster, brighter, and shinier and it's terrible? I just don't get some folks, to each their own of course, I'm just really not getting the pedestal the first film is being put on. I love Del Toro's work as much as the next person, but the first film was literally dumb fun, nothing more. This looks to literally be more of the same.

[slaginpit]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

So... You spent all this time talking about how the movie looked like garbage and sounded like garbage and would be garbage, you hated all the "neon power rangers" and the "let's work together"... and yet still bought a ticket to see it?

I mean alright, I guess...

Who said I bought a ticket. Thanks to technology I am able to pre-screen crappy movies I have a feeling they are garbage and confirm my initial thoughts. If the screening is good enough I then enjoy the flick on a screen. Movies should come with a satisfaction guarantee

Edited March 22, 2018 by slaginpit

[slaginpit]

23 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

Yeah I don't get that guy, he seems like a bit of an ass so I put him on ignore, he tried to chew Kuma out for some of his fantastic photos as well.

I don't get it, this is one persons opinion that's been railing on the film since it was announced, why not you know, go see it yourself?
 

I'm baffled at the hate the sequel is getting, the first film got borderline middling reviews as well for being a stupid blockbuster giant monster giant robot fight movie. This one is faster, brighter, and shinier and it's terrible? I just don't get some folks, to each their own of course, I'm just really not getting the pedestal the first film is being put on. I love Del Toro's work as much as the next person, but the first film was literally dumb fun, nothing more. This looks to literally be more of the same.

ahahahahaha Im an ass because a guy floods a thread I created with his pictures. I offer praise and state it would be cool in some action poses and backgrounds and he gets personal. You dont understand his intent behind it. You dont even know me. Whatever and that is fine.

And you not getting a persons opinion is a very subjective argument. Many before me have taken the time to create videos on its poor quality and lack of actual plot and digression from the source material its based on. Did you like SWTLJ? I think I have as much right to comment that it was garbage as people like to say its awesome. Call me a sucker for punishment, but everything everyone has said is spot on based on the Trailers. Which is funny because its basically the movie.

They should have called it. "Boyega. The Yager Pilot."

As they say. It takes quality to recognize quality.

cheers

 

[kajnrig]

43 minutes ago, slaginpit said:

Who said I bought a ticket. Thanks to technology I am able to pre-screen crappy movies I have a feeling they are garbage and confirm my initial thoughts. If the screening is good enough I then enjoy the flick on a screen. Movies should come with a satisfaction guarantee

So... You spent all this time talking about how the movie looked like garbage and sounded like garbage and would be garbage, you hated all the "neon power rangers" and the "let's work together"... and yet still took the time to pirate it to see it?

I mean alright, I guess...

[Tking22]

59 minutes ago, slaginpit said:

ahahahahaha Im an ass because a guy floods a thread I created with his pictures. I offer praise and state it would be cool in some action poses and backgrounds and he gets personal. You dont understand his intent behind it. You dont even know me. Whatever and that is fine.

And you not getting a persons opinion is a very subjective argument. Many before me have taken the time to create videos on its poor quality and lack of actual plot and digression from the source material its based on. Did you like SWTLJ? I think I have as much right to comment that it was garbage as people like to say its awesome. Call me a sucker for punishment, but everything everyone has said is spot on based on the Trailers. Which is funny because its basically the movie.

They should have called it. "Boyega. The Yager Pilot."

As they say. It takes quality to recognize quality.

cheers

 

Double down on being an ass guy, that'll sure show me :). You also pirated it which is gross, I didn't even read that bit.

[slaginpit]

yer ye right there yer matey.......

[JB0]

7 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I'm baffled at the hate the sequel is getting, the first film got borderline middling reviews as well for being a stupid blockbuster giant monster giant robot fight movie. This one is faster, brighter, and shinier and it's terrible? I just don't get some folks, to each their own of course, I'm just really not getting the pedestal the first film is being put on. I love Del Toro's work as much as the next person, but the first film was literally dumb fun, nothing more. This looks to literally be more of the same.

The hate is coming from people that DIDN'T give it those reviews. The people that liked the movie, and appreciated its unique take on the theme. The people that made it a surprise hit.

Faster and shinier is not the same thing as better. In some respects, faster and shinier are antithetical to what Pacific Rim is. We're talking about a movie with a dedication to Ray Harryhausen and Ishiro Honda in the credits, that  has "could be implemented as a rubber suit" as a key point in the monster design. It is a love letter to old-school monster movies, in all their melodramatic plodding.

 

This movie is throwing everything we loved away to make it check a bunch of bullet points. It is a slap in the face.  I have no interest in seeing something I love being screwed up by people that want it to be something different.

 

They may both be "dumb fun", but this is NOT a sequel to Pacific Rim and it shouldn't be branded as such.

Edited March 22, 2018 by JB0

[Tking22]

28 minutes ago, JB0 said:

The hate is coming from people that DIDN'T give it those reviews. The people that liked the movie, and appreciated its unique take on the theme. The people that made it a surprise hit.

Faster and shinier is not the same thing as better. In some respects, faster and shinier are antithetical to what Pacific Rim is. We're talking about a movie with a dedication to Ray Harryhausen and Ishiro Honda in the credits, that  has "could be implemented as a rubber suit" as a key point in the monster design. It is a love letter to old-school monster movies, in all their melodramatic plodding.

 

This movie is throwing everything we loved away to make it check a bunch of bullet points. It is a slap in the face.  I have no interest in seeing something I love being screwed up by people that want it to be something different.

 

They may both be "dumb fun", but this is NOT a sequel to Pacific Rim and it shouldn't be branded as such.

Meh, agree to disagree. And I personally still feel the first was dumb fun, slower dumb fun, but not really anything special, it was just one of the first modern films to take a stab at the giant robot v giant monster theme. And I didn't imply faster and shinier meant better in any way, I just stated that was the only real difference I am seeing between this and the first. I loved the first as much as anybody else, I grew up on Toho monster movies and mecha anime, bought hundreds of dollars worth of toys and merch, I just don't feel robbed or slapped in the face by this sequel personally, it looks fine, and it looks like a sequel and evolution to the monsters and tech seen in the first film.

[kajnrig]

10 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I'm baffled at the hate the sequel is getting, the first film got borderline middling reviews as well for being a stupid blockbuster giant monster giant robot fight movie.

If people feel strongly about something, who's to say that they shouldn't be able to express themselves? That said, I was surprised at the lengths @slaginpit was willing to go to indulge in his strong negative feelings.

Quote

I'm just really not getting the pedestal the first film is being put on. I love Del Toro's work as much as the next person, but the first film was literally dumb fun, nothing more.

Oh, gonna have to agree to disagree there. The first IS literally dumb fun, yes, but there's a whole lot of craft that went into it, something that I'm not seeing in this one (at least from the trailers).

The first film's use of color, for instance, is pretty remarkable. Red rarely makes up part of a scene's color profile, so when it does, it tends to starkly relief against the rest of the shot, and it sticks in your mind. Young Mako's red shoe, the red blood stain on Raleigh's all-white suit when he stumbles out of Gipsy, the scene immediately preceding that when Gipsy's arm gets ripped off and the cockpit immediately shows a glaring red warning, the same thing at the end when Raleigh's walking around an all-red cockpit... The red helps inform the scene. It's the color of desperation, of impending doom. Not even Crimson Typhoon has red armor quite like desperate red. Its armor looks more like lacquer, and never disrupts a scene like true red does.

There's a neat use of neon blue during the Otachi fight as well; when Gipsy is searching for it in Hong Kong, there's a brief shot where a building reflects the lights of the building across from it and looks like the kaiju blue stripes of Otachi. There's just a moment of foreshadowing as Gipsy looks at it, and then Otachi bursts through it. It's a small detail, but it's a really fun one.

The sequel, on the other hand, seems to have thrown all that out. The shift from ILM to a lesser effects talent certainly didn't help. The daytime shots have the unfortunate side effect of needing daytime lighting, and there's less ways to manipulate that than there is at night, where the lighting is completely at your control. The Jaegers may sport different colors but they all have the same dull, monotonous overtone to them. The only other deliberate use of color I can see from the trailers is the same "Orange/Blue Contrast" that seems to be the staple of blockbuster movies nowadays. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OrangeBlueContrast)

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

Faster and shinier is not the same thing as better. In some respects, faster and shinier are antithetical to what Pacific Rim is. We're talking about a movie with a dedication to Ray Harryhausen and Ishiro Honda in the credits, that  has "could be implemented as a rubber suit" as a key point in the monster design. It is a love letter to old-school monster movies, in all their melodramatic plodding.

And the sequel being a love letter to the high-speed robot action and monster anime that came in their wake isn't necessarily a bad thing. That said, I have my doubts that this movie is any such love letter. It appears to have too much of mainstream blockbuster Hollywood in its veins.

[anime52k8]

7 hours ago, JB0 said:

Faster and shinier is not the same thing as better. In some respects, faster and shinier are antithetical to what Pacific Rim is.

I feel like it kind of makes sense though to want to do the opposite of the first movie when the first movie wasn't very good.

Edited March 23, 2018 by anime52k8

[JB0]

1 hour ago, anime52k8 said:

I feel like it kind of makes sense though to want to do the opposite of the first movie when the first movie wasn't very good.

I disagree that a sequel should do the opposite of the first movie. If the first movie didn't have something to it, you wouldn't be making a sequel. (I also disagree about how good or bad Pacific Rim was, but that isn't really material to my argument.)

 

If you don't want to make something kind of like the first movie, then why are you doing a sequel at all? Do your own thing, not beholden to any prior expectations. Don't slap the name of something else onto your thing while completely ignoring everything that original thing did. It just makes people mad.

It is like making another Fast and the Furious movie, but this time it is about building model cars, or racing boats.   Not that I advocate making another F&F movie. The first was an act of cinematic terrorism, and I remain baffled that it did well enough for a second, much less however many there are now. But I'm clearly missing something, since the damn things keep raking in the cash.

 

2 hours ago, kajnrig said:

And the sequel being a love letter to the high-speed robot action and monster anime that came in their wake isn't necessarily a bad thing. That said, I have my doubts that this movie is any such love letter. It appears to have too much of mainstream blockbuster Hollywood in its veins.

A common problem with big-budget sequels. The first movie does something interesting, and does really well for it. The sequel gets more corporate attention, and as the higher-ups attempt to polish it to perfect mainstream appeal, they buff out every facet of the original that ever endeared it to anyone.

 

I noticed a very long time ago that Hollywood doesn't actually understand WHY movies are successful, and their attempts to make them better tend to backfire horribly. The two examples that really made me notice it...

After The Matrix came out, everything had a "bullet-time" sequence, no matter what was actually going on. Often very awkwardly. Because that was what Hollywood took from The Matrix's success, that slow-mo action shots are a guaranteed get-rich-quick scheme(which I guess they were, if you' happened to be selling cameras...).

After Spiderman came out and broke records, alongside a bunch of movies with R ratings that bombed because they were absolute dreck, the suits in charge concluded that people didn't want to see R-rated movies, and they wanted kid-friendly affairs instead. Never mind that Spidey was not kid-friendly. The rule went from "force in some gore and nudity to get an R, no matter what" to "cut stuff out to make sure you don't get an R, no matter what."

 

It never even registered for a moment that quality of a production might matter more than the rating, or what kind of camera shots were involved.

 

And that brings us back to the present. We have Pacific Rim, a movie that did very well in spite of all expectations, so they made a sequel. And the sequel is nothing like the movie whose name it bears, because the original movie doesn't do a whole bunch of things that a successful movie "has" to do. 

I guarantee that somewhere in a board room, the Pacific Rim 2 conversation started with "What if we made it more like Transformers? A robot movie can't be successful if it isn't full of hyper-caffeinated jumpcuts and a complete lack of momenteum. Also, the cast needs to be teens. No one old enough to drink on our cast!"

[Tking22]

11 hours ago, kajnrig said:

If people feel strongly about something, who's to say that they shouldn't be able to express themselves?

I'm not trying to censor anyone, nor am I implying people shouldn't be free to share their opinions, this is a forum, sharing positive and negative opinions on things is why it exists. I just said I didn't understand the hate, I wanted some perspective, I got it.
 

While I am still full hype mode for this film, I can see what many are saying and conveying, Del Toro put a lot of personal sheen on the first film. I bought the first film on DVD, Bluray, 4K Bluray, digital, I bought NECA toys in both scales, I went ape crap over this film, and most importantly, watched the behind the scenes and special features about a half a dozen times. The way Del Toro explained how he very meticulously put together each action scene, down to the flipping, tossing or movement of every little CG car and bit of debris. I get it. The way he spoke so passionately about all the old monster movies I would watch in marathon on Scifi channel, War of the Gagantuas, old school Toho Godzilla, his pretty vast knowledge of mecha anime, he clearly loved working on the first one, it was an obvious dream project. I just think this new one looks fine, zero doubts far less care went into making each scene special but it is what is it, it still looks like giant monsters fighting giant robots, so I'm there.

I think a lot of the changes were due to the studio actually even making a sequel. If i remember right the first one way under performed, and was only slightly profitable due to the Chinese market going crazy over the first film. For over a year we were told a sequel won't happen, the first didn't make enough, there wasn't enough interest. So when this was green lit, I'm sure the studio wanted to make this sequel far more "digestible" for a large audience, it couldn't be a director's dream project, if it is to become a franchise, it needed to be streamlined. I can see some of what made the first more personal and less blockbustery missing from what we've seen of the trailers, but overall, it just looks like more of the same to me .

[TangledThorns]

How is Scott Eastwood in this movie? I know he is following in his dad's footsteps of acting.

[kajnrig]

4 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I'm not trying to censor anyone, nor am I implying people shouldn't be free to share their opinions, this is a forum, sharing positive and negative opinions on things is why it exists. I just said I didn't understand the hate, I wanted some perspective, I got it.

True true, I think we're both in agreement that slaginpit's got a hate boner on for this thing.

4 hours ago, Tking22 said:

While I am still full hype mode for this film, I can see what many are saying and conveying,

I just think this new one looks fine, zero doubts far less care went into making each scene special but it is what is it, it still looks like giant monsters fighting giant robots, so I'm there.

My biggest plus is that it looks competently made, which is more than can be said of any other (American) giant robot movie in recent memory *notverysubtlecoughTransformerscough* and a good number of giant monster movies too, while I'm at it.

I swear to god though, if it ends in a big giant laser shooting into the sky...

4 hours ago, Tking22 said:

So when this was green lit, I'm sure the studio wanted to make this sequel far more "digestible" for a large audience, it couldn't be a director's dream project, if it is to become a franchise, it needed to be streamlined.

Agreed, and that is absolutely the WRONG reason to green-light a sequel of this kind. No amount of "streamlining" would ever make this kind of thing super popular in the States, it just doesn't have those kinds of legs. If they were going to greenlight a sequel, it would have to be on the condition that they DON'T try to franchise it, they just do it because they're friggin' nerds and if it makes money it makes money. Merchandising the Jaegers was a good decision, striking model and toy deals with Japanese companies was super smart, but they're fools if they think that this will ever become Transformers... and really, they shouldn't want it to.

[treatment]

heh!

Just got back from watching it in the local theater.

My take...

I'm not really sure what some people here have "watched" or if they actually watched it at all.

This PR:U movie was actually fine and enjoyable.

It was really much better (acting, storyline, even cgi, etc) than the first one.

It wasn't at all what the trailers have shown.

It ain't no PowerRanger crap like I thought it would be.

It surprised me how much heart it had.  The new characters and the actors were all great. Even the kids.  Yeah. Even Scott Eastwood.  Totally blew away the first film's main characters.

The plot was straight and very coherent.  There's enough of a twist in it to really appreciate it.

The jaeger-kaiju battles were good, and about as good as the first film. The jaeger-jaeger fights were also nice.

lol at the

 

gundam statue

shown in the movie. Nice direct placement there.

Speaking of homage, not sure if even the directors and producers knew about it, but one of stuff they did was a great send-up to one of Mazinger TV episode.  Of course, it doesn't have the lol-comedic subtext like it had with the actual Mazinger TV episode and

 

they only used one

, but it was nice enough to those who can recognize it.

I think they could've made it longer, and unfortunately,

 

Ron Perlman

wasn't in it. 

Hopefully they do make the part-3...

 

edit:

Also, for those thinking and have read reviews that the new Jaegers are more anime-mech in movements and stuff now...

Nope.  

The new Jaegers ain't no anime-mecha in movements.  At all.

They're not as slow and lumbering like the Jaegers in the first PR film, but they're definitely still quite a bit slow.

The new Jaegers are not even anywhere close to the same league with regards to movements like any Gundam, Mazinger, Getter, Valkyrie, Scopedog, etc anime mech that you're all prolly familiar with.  

The new Jaegers are all still tank-like in their movements.  They just have some new and a bit fancier weapons.

That's about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2018 by treatment
additional stuff

[kajnrig]

18 minutes ago, treatment said:

Yeah. Even Scott Eastwood.

Is he supposed to be bad or something? I don't get it... 

[treatment]

4 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Is he supposed to be bad or something? I don't get it... 

He's just Clint Eastwood's son...

[peter]

Just watched it and it was ok, liked the first one better.  Nice visuals, liked the designs of the kaiju and the new jaegers, and the main characters were more or less likable.  Cool that Boyega got to keep is accent and separate his character from Finn. 

Someone asked about Scott Eastwood earlier, his acting didn't make me cringe compared to whats-his-face from the first movie.  I was expecting to hate his character, but I didn't, so I guess Mr. Eastwood did an ok job.

Some parts kind of nagged at me though.  The film had an Independence Day 2, Resurgence feel to it in that I found it pandered to China a bit too much.  I'm Chinese and I couldn't even stand it.  Took me right out of the movie and found it distracting, despite understanding all of it without subtitles.  

Some cool Easter eggs and nods to a certain anime (not Macross, sorry guys).  Some of the supporting cast was a bit youngish for my liking.  They weren't super annoying, but I felt it kind of kiddified the film compared to the first one.  I guess maybe they're new target audience (along with all of mainland China).

I saw it for free, and felt like I didn't waste my time entirely.  Would I pay to watch it?  Probably not.  Would I watch it again for free on Netflix?  Maybe.

Edited March 23, 2018 by peter

[Big s]

So far that’s one hate one like and one meh

[SuperHobo]

I came back from it and yes I paid for it. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The final confrontation was actually more satisfying than the first move. The first movie, it was hard to tell what was going in the dark underwater scene. In Uprising, everything is crisp and you can see everything going on, but it does lack some of the direction that made the first one pop more. Is the movie perfect, no. The first 20 minutes I was very disinterested with what was going on screen, but as the movie progressed I enjoyed it more. The main female protagonist Namali, kind of reminds me of Noa from Patlabor, but I'm not sure if her acting skills were enough to convince me she was a mecha nerd. The China pandering didn't bother me much, and I'm Chinese. People make it out to be worse than it really is. I mean, this is supposed to be a worldwide effort to save humanity and China got pretty shafted in the first movie. 

Spoiler

When the Gundam Unicorn Statue and Anaheim Electronics appeared, the guy to my left was just like, "oh hey it's a random gundam statue" and I'm like hehehehe, he doesn't know there's an actual Gundam Unicorn statue in Tokyo.  And yes this scene takes place in Japan in the movie. 

 

[kajnrig]

5 hours ago, treatment said:

He's just Clint Eastwood's son...

I legitimately can't tell if there's some subtle sass here or not.  Are you surprised that he was a good actor because he's Clint Eastwood's son and thus should be a bad actor (because Clint Eastwood is a bad actor?)? Or are you surprised that he was a good actor just in general, and your response to me was bewilderment at me not knowing who he is (though I do)?

5 hours ago, treatment said:

It was really much better (acting, storyline, even cgi, etc) than the first one.

Some bits of acting were better, storyline was... kiiind of better, I dunno. CGI was certainly VASTLY improved from the trailers.

5 hours ago, treatment said:

It wasn't at all what the trailers have shown.

It ain't no PowerRanger crap like I thought it would be.

Yes and yes. Coincidentally, I rewatched Power Rangers the other day and god those suits and mecha are overdesigned. Blegh.

4 hours ago, peter said:

Cool that Boyega got to keep is accent and separate his character from Finn. 

Yeah, I thought that was a good decision, too. Didn't hurt that Idris Elba is also British(?).

4 hours ago, peter said:

Some parts kind of nagged at me though.  The film had an Independence Day 2, Resurgence feel to it in that I found it pandered to China a bit too much.  I'm Chinese and I couldn't even stand it.  Took me right out of the movie and found it distracting, despite understanding all of it without subtitles.  

Eh, China's where the audience and the money is, or is going to be. I mean hell, it's only thanks to Chinese box office receipts that we're getting this sequel at all. Plus the financiers are a lot of Chinese companies, so... Pandered? It's not at American levels, I'll say that.

Related question: Were the subtitles accurate? I always like seeing my language with English subtitles and knowing how accurate/inaccurate they're being.

---

Some general thoughts after seeing it with the kids:

I felt like it juggled a few too many story threads. I could scarcely work myself into a scene before the next one would come barreling along. The scene where the old theme music came swelling back actually made me laugh because of how abrupt and absurdly out of place it is.

You've got Jake's story with Mako, Jake's story with... Scott Eastwood, Jake's story with Pentecost Sr., Jake's story with New Girl, New Girl's story with The Bitch ("maybe next time you can build a bigger Jaeger," wtf is that supposed to be a frienemy farewell because it only really cemented your position as Queen Bitch), New Girl's story with her past, New Girl's story with the rest of the noobs, Scott Eastwood's story with... That One Girl, Gottlieb and Newt, Newt and Alice, Newt and Chinese Boss, Newt and Kaiju... Am I missing anything? Trimming the fat would certainly have helped here. Say what you will about the first movie, at least it knew who to focus on when.

I was disappointed in the combat. I really felt they could have and should have done more with those. Not much about them sticks out as a crowning moment of awesome, whereas the first movie had

- Leatherback busting out of the water
- The Boat Sword
- Otachi unfurling its wings
- The Sword Sword
- Sticking the landing
- Gipsy cleaving Raiju
- "I'm gonna burn this son of a bitch!"

...and on and on.

It didn't help that none of the combat really seemed to have much figurative weight to them. Simplistic as PR1's characters were, they at least had character arcs and personas that helped inform and be informed by every fight. I can't really tell you what the point of either of the Obsidian Fury battles was. I mean, there was a point insofar as pushing the plot along, but no emotional through-line for the audience. What even was the point of Obsidian Fury's existence? It could have been a great rival Jaeger, one that tests Jake and Scott Eastwood's teamwork (especially given how much they play up that angle in the early parts of the movie), besting them in the first encounter because they fail to work together, then fighting to a draw or losing to them in Siberia because they set aside their differences and work as a unit. If the writers could have managed to keep it alive 'til the finale, all the better.

Aside from that, it kind of peeved me that the few attempts at Cool Action Shots didn't really result in much. Like bad professional wrestling, the characters didn't know how to sell a chair strike. When New Girl started opening fire with those giant guns and all those car-sized shell casings were dropping onto the street, I wanted to see the kaiju getting absolutely shredded by the bullets. It gets blasted back, howls as its side gets peppered with shrapnel, and then it rushes behind a building to safety. Everything about that moment tells you that those guns are frakking Power, and yet you don't even see them make a dent in the kaiju's flesh. Big Ball and Chain Jaeger has a big ball of spikes that looks super intimidating but then it just bounces off a kaiju. Should've had it tearing flesh apart.

So... yeah. That Tokyo battle was underwhelming, saved mainly by the bestest, most perfect Gundam cameo ever.

It gets better once Gattai Kaiju appears and just tears through everybody, but even then when they're attacking its brains it barely flinches.

@treatment says that the Jaegers weren't anime, and I'd agree, except I want them to be way, WAY more anime. I want the orange Jaeger to dropkick a building onto a kaiju, I want Gipsy to punch a mile-long fissure into the Siberian ice cap...

Oh, also the nephew suggested that after all the Jaegers got wrecked, they should have taken and dusted off the OG models, and while I get why they didn't, that would have been FREAKING AWESOME. THEN they could have popped off the original music theme and it would have felt appropriate.

All of this sounds like I'm down on this movie, but I'm actually not. I thought the set design was pretty darn good, all things considered. A bit too much hologramming and pantomiming on a green-screen set, not enough of the physicality of the first movie, but it still feels like Pacific Rim Lite. Jake and New Girl (is it... Amara?) are great leads, even if the ending is saccharine, the plot turns are pretty unimaginative but perfectly serviceably straight-forward executions of Del Toro's original sequel ideas, and while I would have loved for Newt to more openly embrace the kaiju drift instead of leaving the implication that he's been brainwashed or otherwise manipulated, he does make for a good bad guy. The movie does all it needs to do to satisfy my particular low-brow kaiju super robot itch, so for as many faults as I can find with it, I still think it's a success.

[JB0]

36 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

CGI was certainly VASTLY improved from the trailers.

That's good. The trailer CG is kind of... not good?

 

 

I'm still gonna wait until this is at the dollar movies, or "on Netflix", but there's actually a chance I'll watch it. 

I don't go to the movies very often anyways, and full price movie tickets are even rarer. There's only one movie I've ever watched twice at full-price, but Pacific Rim was worth it. This doesn't look like it is.

Edited March 24, 2018 by JB0

[sh9000]

I had the opportunity to watch a free screening of this a while back but it was on a work day.  I’ll probably watch it online and also just wait for the blu-ray.

[Dynaman]

It made under 30 million opening weekend on a 150 million budget.  I expect it won't be in theaters long and that there will not be a third one.

[renegadeleader1]

3 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

It made under 30 million opening weekend on a 150 million budget.  I expect it won't be in theaters long and that there will not be a third one.

We'll talk after the results from the Chinese box office come in. That market is the sole reason we even got a sequel in the first place.