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Review: Pacific Rim
Jul. 20th, 2013 10:48 amPacific Rim is Big Dumb Fun with occasional flashes of Batguano Crazy, and I'm glad I saw it. There's plenty of MSTy material here - stereotyped characters, cliched dialogue, and lots and lots of things that don't stand up to any level of logical examination. None of which has anything to do with why I'd go to a movie like this. The acting is a competent and better, the visual design of the monsters and robots is striking, the action scenes mostly work, and the sheer sense of size and scope is genuinely impressive. Director Guillermo del Toro, who also directed Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies, has a great sense of pacing and knows when to put in little touches (there's a brief shot of a Newton's Cradle that made me laugh out loud).
The biggest problem with Pacific Rim, not too surprisingly, is the sexism. (There's ethnic stereotyping as well.) Apparently, nobody here ever even heard of the Bechdel Test. There's only one female character of any significance, and she's a) the only one who cries, and does it often, b) is defined by her relationships with her father-figure and her partner/potential lover, and c) has only one short scene in which she appears strong. C'mon, Hollywood, you can do better.
I saw it in IMAX 3D. I'll give the IMAX a strong recommendation, as this is exactly the kind of movie that was meant for the huge screen. The 3D is a tossup. It did make some scenes more immersive, but some of the action scenes were too dark.
If any part of you reacts to the idea of giant robots fighting giant monsters with "Cool!", then yes, see this one.
The biggest problem with Pacific Rim, not too surprisingly, is the sexism. (There's ethnic stereotyping as well.) Apparently, nobody here ever even heard of the Bechdel Test. There's only one female character of any significance, and she's a) the only one who cries, and does it often, b) is defined by her relationships with her father-figure and her partner/potential lover, and c) has only one short scene in which she appears strong. C'mon, Hollywood, you can do better.
I saw it in IMAX 3D. I'll give the IMAX a strong recommendation, as this is exactly the kind of movie that was meant for the huge screen. The 3D is a tossup. It did make some scenes more immersive, but some of the action scenes were too dark.
If any part of you reacts to the idea of giant robots fighting giant monsters with "Cool!", then yes, see this one.
