I couldn't even enjoy Ron Perlman's role very much. It is such an extraneous, masturbatory sideshow inclusion. Elongates an already overly long film because del Toro has to flashily use his pal.

Oh, and they seriously more or less say, "They are parasites. They move from planet to planet, harvesting natural resources, then they move on." How novel. I find myself pining for the gold thieving space bugs in Cowboys & Aliens.

So I'm the only one here who unabashedly loved it? Okay. I'll just party by myself here in this corner...

Yes. See it on the biggest screen possible.

Maximize your headache with IMAX.

No headaches, just pure, unadulterated joy at this film's spectacle. Not my favorite movie of the year, but certainly my favorite moviegoing experience.

It is a graceless sensory face rape.

No, my critic colleague said that this is the best blockbuster he has seen this year and that to him, it is akin to Star Wars for a new generation.

PACIFIC RIM

It was an enjoyable mindless summer film. I think it could have been more compelling in some way. Maybe lead to a sequel perhaps but something was lacking. That's not to say it wasn't entertaining because it accomplished that. I loved the monster fights and the scope of the destruction. Poor Hong Kong. Place got tore up! I liked the lead performers in the film. Rinko, Idris and Charlie. Now Charlie Day of Horrible Bosses ended up being okay though I was worried he was gonna be annoying as hell when he first popped on the screen. I like the two minds connected idea in order for these machines to function. That was cool. Overall, I liked it and it was entertaining.

Grade - B

I wish it were the least bit frightening. Part of the Lovecraft charm is this sense of the to-the-bone blend of wonder and abject fear of standing in front of such a mysterious, outsize supernatural power. I no doubt invite criticism by saying this, but I believe Prometheus at its best captures this very well.

Here, everything is so casual, despite the chaos and destruction. Almost no sense of, "HOLY SHIT, THESE ARE MONSTERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA! WE ARE INSIGNIFICANT HUMANS AND GOING TO DIE."

I wish there were more Cloverfield in its DNA and less Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

I obviously wouldn't go that far, but I would call it my favorite tentpole movie of the summer.

I'll sound crazy here, but I cared about every character in this movie. Even Hunnam, even the Australian father-son duo, and especially Mako, Stacker, and Newt. The nice thing about humans controlling the robots is that I actually cared about the fights. I felt the weight of their losses and I felt their victories. For reference, I didn't give a damn about anyone or anything in the Transformers movies.

The sequence most emblematic of what I felt del Toro was going for in PR is when he depicts this awe-inspiringly huge kaiju fall into a building and destroy a ton of space.. and then shows a shot of the very end of the kaiju setting off the balls on a Newton's Cradle on a random desk. Not only did the contrast add so much weight to the size of these things, but it's such a confident and self-aware move to drop a comedy bit in the mix of so much action. That's the whole movie to me: the creative team knew exactly what they were doing, and I loved what they were doing.

Is it perfect? Hell no. There's nary an 'original' concept in the movie, and that goes for the character development too. But I think it's a gorgeously realized summer blockbuster on all accounts. It created a setting I fully invested in and a war I thought was thrilling to watch. The good guys are GOOD GUYS, and their world is so crazy and colorful and full of personality. It put a big fat stupid smile on my face and kept it there for over two hours. Like, no movie does that.

I give it 3.5 out of 4 secondary kaiju brains.

The ideas are too different. Cloverfield is straight-up horror, Prometheus is largely horror. Pacific Rim is an action-adventure.

I don't care. del Toro understands horror and suspense so well. He should have laced this with foreboding the way, for example, Spielberg did War of the Worlds. I wanted to feel fear for the characters and marvel at the hopeless scope of the situation they face.

"Let's go fishing!" Rah rah sis boom bah America. Groan.

Well how about Jurassic Park, War Of The Worlds, or even Jaws?

Jaws is horror, the other two are valid. Obviously better films too. But del Toro was aiming for something different here. The goal was to have giant monsters fight giant robots and make it look cool.

I'm glad Del Toro didn't get to do the Hobbit. His body of work fills me with little confidence. Though must admit when this was announced I was looking forward to it. Now not so much but want to at least see it on the big screen.

And for fifteen minutes he succeeded. The movie could have used a lot more robot vs monsters clashes, or at least more interesting ones. Is that all $185M buys these days?

Most of the running time is spent inside the bunker.

Why You Shouldn’t See “Pacific Rim” in IMAX

Thank you anyway but I saw it in 2D and thus have no plans to see it again for 16$.

This was surprisingly awful. The action sequences were all terrible - it was impossible to even tell what was going on. Also, all of the characters and the story in general were so underdeveloped. Charlie Hunnam is atrocious in the lead role. Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Idris Elba are all OK to good even though none of their characters leave any sort of impact. C-

I'm sorry to say this but you need glasses if you couldn't tell what was happening during the fights. C'mon now.

------> www.zennioptical.com

I think I may be the only one in this forum who loved the film. I just don't understand the negativety that you guys had about the film . It seems like most of the criticism that you guys have is that the shots were too enlarged or that the scenes in the bunkers were too long.

I love it because it was a great tribute to Godzilla films and definately borrowed alot from Neon Genesis. It had a great mix of action and humor yet the film doesn't get boggled down by obnoxious characters like in Transformers, Iron MAn and in some way Star Trek because of Captain Kirk.

I definately liked it alot better than Iron Man 3, MOS and Star Trek

I like the film as well and unlike other giant robot movies, I could tell what was going on. Cuts were not as quick and as disorienting as in Transformers and I thought the city destruction was more interesting than The Avengers, Man Of Steel, and Transformers.

The only problem I had was with the characters. Basically they are cookie cutter and dull but I did not care. I don't expect much out of giant robots fighting aliens. Was kind of surprised that Robert Kazinsky was cast since he looks so similar to Charlie Hunnam and I could see the audience becoming confused on occasion (or maybe I am assuming the average movie goer is stupid). The bond between Mako and Raleigh (puke name) was never clear. They both have experienced loss? Further, no clue why the father and son team had any bond. They seemed very opposite and like they would clash.

B+

I ab-so-freak-in-lute-ly loved Pacific Rim!!!

I mean dig that heroic melodrama, man - - with a sense of humor no less!

(...if only they'd done a tenth of that in Man Of Steel. :regret: )

And what makes Pacific Rim so special?!? The answer turns out to be delightfully simple - - it's got that secret ingredient that is in such short supply nowadays, though I daren't even type it out loud for fear it'll provoke the squawking minority opposed to it's use...


...but there it was, propelling viewers on an accelerating ride to the edge of their seats as it's running time flies by.

And forget Godzilla, forget Ultraman... if Pacific Rim borrowed from anyone, it was Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds - - it is at the very least, a subconscious homage to that great pioneer.

Best movie of the year so far.


Rating:

I'm shocked at how negative the reaction has been here. With all the hype and Del Toro directing, I thought this would be a slam-dunk for the A/B range almost entirely across the board.

I'm planning on seeing this at some point (hopefully in the theatre), but I will not take the IMAX route. I saw the trailer in 3D in front of Man of Steel, and it was tough to follow on a visual level.