Pacific Rim

 Finally!  A Summer movie that motivated me to get on my butt and blog!  In a Summer when the apocalypse is commonplace (off the top of my head, we're talking about Oblivion, After Earth, World War Z, and This is the End, although I am sure there are others) I have to admit that I was still unnaturally excited for Pacific Rim, which promised little aside from destruction --- destruction provided by giant robots fighting giant monsters, which brings with it awesomeness at almost a cellular level.  That was not the only reason I was excited, though.  This was another chance for director Guillermo del Toro to show once again why he is one of the greatest visual directors making movies today.  And then I saw the trailer and started asking questions.

Did Idris Elba just give Bill Pullman's speech from Independence Day?  Do we have to watch two people in spacesuits perform a synchronized dance instead of watching robots punching monsters in the junk?  Is Charlie Hunnam going to be a muscular version of Sam Witwicky from the Transformers trilogy?  If you need to know, basically, not really, and blessedly no, respectively.

Also, I can't be the only one who recognizes the old Fox Sunday football robots, right?

Pacific Rim opens with a voice-over from Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) bringing the audience up to speed.  In the near future, a dimensional rift opens in the Pacific Ocean and huge alien monsters come through.  These monsters are reminiscent of Japanese monsters movies, like Godzilla and Gamera, so they are called Kaiju, after that film subclass.

As you might expect, the Kaiju did some major damage, so the World Governments decided to team up and create the Jaeger program.  Jaegers are gigantic fighting robots that are piloted by two humans, who share some sort of Vulcan mind meld in order to pilot their metal beast.  For a while, the Jaegers worked.  Category 1 and 2 Kaiju --- that's a rating system based on their size --- were easy pickings for these awesome anime mechs/rock 'em sock 'em robots.

If a punch to the face is badass, how much more amazing is a ROBOT punch to a MONSTER face?

In fact, our narrator, Raleigh was a Jaeger pilot with his brother.  Unfortunately, they happened to be the first Jaeger to meet with a Category 3 Kaiju, and the brother was killed in action.  Years have passed and the Jaeger program is on hard times.  Their funding has been cut in favor of building large walls around major cities.

...which works out well

It is at this point that the Jaeger commander (Idris Elba) re-recruits Raleigh to join up with the much-depleted Jaeger corps.  Thanks to his crack science team (composed of Charlie Day and Burn Gorman), he thinks there is a slim chance of being able to close the dimensional portal in a crazy, suicidal offensive maneuver.  He needs Raleigh because he only has four Jaegers left, and Raleigh is the only living person who has ever piloted one of the models.  But who will be his soul-mate co-pilot?

To find out, they endure several Dance Dance Revolution trials --- in spaaaace!

I always take the time to discuss the acting in the movies I review, but is that really necessary with Pacific Rim?  It's really not, but I found the acting to be a pleasant surprise in a film that could have gotten away with a lot less in that area.  Admittedly, Charlie Hunnam didn't "wow" in this role, thanks to a combination of dull dialogue and serving as a plot device.  He wasn't bad, but he sure was bland.  Idris Elba, on the other hand, did some of his best movie work to date (his television work is still far better, though); his character was kind of a mish-mash of other end-of-the-world authority figures, but Elba was still able to make the part a little interesting.  Rinko Kikuchi was okay as Raleigh's partner; it can be tough making an introvert interesting in an action flick, but she was all right.  I was pleasantly surprised by Charlie Day, if only because this is the furthest he has gone from his role on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

SCIENCE!

He was charming and fun, and I would love to see him stretch his acting chops more in the future.  Burn Gorman wasn't as big of a surprise, but his portrayal of a scientist brought to mind Peter Lorre for reasons I cannot articulate, and that's probably not a bad thing.  Ron Perlman, unsurprisingly, had a small part in Pacific Rim, since he and del Toro are such good buddies.  Perlman's work here reminds us that he's not that good of an actor, just a good sport, willing to put on any makeup necessary to look cool.

Above: Perlman and two other actors.  Get it?  He's ugly.

Rounding out the cast, Clifton Collins Jr. and Max Martini were perfectly acceptable in small, decently likable parts.  Robert Kazinsky was obnoxious as the Jaeger equivalent of Iceman from Top Gun.  That may be the point of his character, but Val Kilmer sure was cooler.

How do they expect to play beach volleyball and high-five wearing that?

Most of the time, when I discuss movie direction, I focus on the camera work and the actor performances.  For Pacific Rim, though, so much of the movie was CGI that I am taking a different approach.  I really enjoy the work of director/co- writer Guillermo del Toro, if only from a visual standpoint, but I like what he did with the humans in this film. 

He scared them.

They could have easily been an afterthought, or worse --- an irritant, like those awful Witwickys.  Instead, del Toro introduced a reasonable amount of drama and character beats to a story that is essentially "punch monster in the face" for 85 pages.

Don't forget the four pages of "science-y doodads"

I was actually impressed that the story wasn't as predictable as I had assumed it would be; there was no unnecessary love story and the obvious choice for a sacrificial character was ignored.  Visually, this film was stunning.  The amount of detail that went into the set, robot, and monster designs was astounding.

Del Toro clearly put a lot of his efforts into the look and feel of this film, and it showed.  This felt like a plausible world, where giant robots had been fighting and breaking and being repaired for over a decade.  The script isn't very clever and del Toro still has not managed to really nail interpersonal scenes, but his work with broad visual concepts is impressive and exciting.

"Robots and monsters fighting in space" exciting?  Yes.  A thousand times, yes.

What is it about Pacific Rim that excited me, where others failed?  There have been so many movies lately that have shown vast urban environments being absolutely wrecked --- what makes this any different than, say, Man of Steel?  I think the biggest difference is in scale.  Because the robots and monsters are so gigantic, the camera is pulled far enough away for audiences to really notice and appreciate everything being smashed to bits.  That scale also seems to imply and accept large numbers of civilian casualties in a way that is expected and not ignored.  It isn't just that, though; several battles take place in the ocean and are still a blast to watch. 

I didn't get "action fatigue" watching Pacific Rim because it was fun and each battle did something else spectacular and over-the-top.  There was also enough wanton destruction to spread it fairly evenly over the entire film.  This isn't a back-loaded action movie where the cool stuff is all at the end --- some of the coolest scenes come during the opening voice-over.  If I am going to be perfectly honest, Pacific Rim scratches an itch I have had since childhood.  I played with Transformers and Voltron and build huge Lego things for them to smash.  While I have seen a lot (almost too much) CGI destruction of late, this is a film that captures the fun of playing with toys that are clearly scaled differently than everything else in your toy box.  Is Pacific Rim derivative?  Well, yes.  At its core, this is a classic kaiju movie done right, combined with combat mechs that animes seem to love so much and a large enough budget to make everything look good.  This movie owes a lot to many sources, but this is clearly a movie that loves what it is imitating, and even improves on its influences.  In a Summer of sequels, reboots, and outright flops, Pacific Rim stands out for being something I will be able to watch over and over, regardless of sobriety.

Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth

Looking at that movie poster, I wish I had gone out of my way to track down Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth.  It's pretty rare to see a static image that can cause epileptic seizures.  As it turns out, I accidentally stumbled across this movie while taking a trial and error approach to figuring out what channels my cable provides.  Fate must have been wearing a rubber suit that night, as I not only stumbled across this 1992 gem (it's the dubbed version, so I'll use the English translated names for the characters), but I got to watch the entire thing without commercials.  Let the Kaiju Mania begin!

Go Go Power Rangers!

Not so fast.  Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth doesn't exactly fly out of the gate.  Instead, it opts to show an Indiana Jones-esque character, Takuya, evading death and the hazards of Styrofoam bricks in an effort to take a relic from an old temple that absolutely does not resemble the set of a children's play.  Takuya narrowly escapes death by packing materials, but he is immediately arrested by the police, who were apparently waiting for him outside.  In jail, Takuya is faced with a choice; he can either sit and rot for fifteen years, or he can lead an expedition to investigate the effects of a recent mysterious asteroid.  That might not seem like a tough choice --- and it isn't --- but Takuya is being forced to work with his ex-wife, Masako, and his pay will go towards his backlog of child support.  Suck it, deadbeat!  The expedition is specifically going to investigate a surprising find on Infant Island.  When they arrive, the party survives several "comical" dangers in front of a green screen until they find the object.  It is very large, very smooth, and very hard.  What could it be?  Well, there were some cave paintings that our resident Indiana Jones analogue expertly dates as "a couple of thousand years" old that depict some animals (a moth, perhaps?) doing weird stuff.  For this next part, I want to point out that I am following the film's logic as closely as possible.  When Dr. Jones Takuya tries to determine what the object is made of, he immediately dismisses rock and metal.  Why, I don't know.  But what else could this very sturdy object be made from?  If you guessed "an egg," then you've seen more kaiju films than me.  Not only is this an egg, it is Mothra's egg, as some helpful miniature people explain.  They're not just your average miniature human that can hide behind flowers, though; these two are The Cosmos, and it is their job to keep the world in balance.

Um.  Okay.  So where the hell are the guys in rubber suits?  Not to worry.  Remember that asteroid?  It landed in the ocean and fell into the same underwater gorge where Godzilla had been hibernating.  Just as our characters were hauling the egg back to Japan, Godzilla attacks!

About damn time

But then, so does Battra!  Wait...who?  You see, Mothra is the protector of the Earth.  You didn't know that?  Yeah...neither did I.  Many years ago, there was an advanced civilization on Earth, but they started doing all sorts of ecologically bad stuff, like creating weather-controlling devices.  Apparently, they were latter-day Bond villains.  In response, the Earth created Battra, the destroyer of the Earth.  Last time, Battra defeated Mothra and destroyed that evil civilization.  With all the pollution and stuff in the world today, Battra woke up again and Mothra's egg became uncovered.  These two worldly forces are destined to battle once more, and the human race is at stake.  Well, Japan is at stake, anyway.  As for Godzilla, he's just an atomically-powered monster, caught in the middle.

I'm so glad the protector of the Earth still needs to metamorphose

I am certainly not an expert on kaiju movies, but when I sit down to enjoy a Godzilla flick, at the very least, I expect to see Godzilla kicking Tokyo's ass.  That is where Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth makes its first mistake.  Sure, we get to see Godzilla fighting Mothra and Battra, but there isn't a whole lot of wanton destruction coming from ol' greenie.  Instead, Battra is the one who ruins most of Tokyo. 

Godzilla fighting to keep his job

Now, if you've never heard of Battra before, that might be because he only exists in this single film; if there is nothing else memorable about this "dark" Mothra, at least the actor playing him is called Hurricane Ryu.  Awesome.

This is the first time I have ever seen a Mothra vehicle, and I have to admit that I was disappointed.  Is this his thing?  He's a larvae for half the movie, and then cocoons himself and then grows wings that look like they were upholstered with shag carpeting from the 70s?

Don't get me wrong, it was hilarious watching Mothra the larvae fire some sort of thread/webbing/jism at Godzilla, but the larvae form is just about the exact opposite of Godzilla on the cool scale.  To satisfy your curiosity, the exact opposite of a giant dinosaur on the cool scale would be "Homework." 

There are a lot of amusing things in Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth, even with Mothra busy being lame.  I loved the stupid miniature people, the Cosmos.  They synchronized their speech, randomly sang, and communicated with Mothra.  Oh, and they promised to to do what they can to save humanity "this time."  I love the implication there; the last time Battra erased a civilization from the planet, they either sat by idly, or they actively helped Battra.

Bitches.  Miniature bitches.

I also thought the Indiana Jones-ish opening was hilariously inept and out of place.  Obviously, you don't watch a kaiju film for the acting, but this was pretty bad.  My next favorite thing in this film was how Mothra opted to prepare for metamorphosis:

I can't be the only one who assumed he was having sex with a building, especially when that cocoon silk started spewing out.  All of that was amusing, certainly, but what took the cake was more of a conceptual joke.  SPOILER ALERT: Godzilla eventually kills Battra.  Hooray, right?  The Earth has been saved by the king of all monsters!  Well, not so much.  Nobody really celebrates.  Even odder, it seems that Battra --- whose purpose is to destroy humanity --- was planning to save the planet by destroying a meteor that would crash into Earth in the year 1999 (the year is currently 1992, remember).  Pause to consider that.  Battra apparently had an identity crisis where he needed to protect the Earth from a meteor that he somehow knew would not only hit the Earth, but ruin it.  Battra is a militant psychic environmentalist.  Even better, Mothra has a "conversation" with Battra, where he agrees to take on the burden of destroying the meteor, and so he sails into space.  The end.

Wait...what?  What just happened?  I did not see that ending coming.

I am not really sure how to rate this film.  On the one hand, it is absolutely terrible.  The acting, the direction of Takao Okawara, the action, the special effects, and the editing were all bad enough to qualify you for a medical prescription for whiskey, just to make your brain feel better.  The human storyline took up way too much time, was terrible, and was heavy-handed in its condemnation of industrialization.  On the other hand, this is a movie featuring men dressed up in rubber suits attacking poster board cities and model tanks.  Still, I would have hoped for an improvement in special effects since the original Gojira.  Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth is by no means good, but it is bad enough to entertain.  I give it a legitimate score of

and a Lefty Gold score of

Gojira

AIEEE...!!!  I think that's how all references to Godzilla are supposed to be prefaced, right?  When I noticed that my friend, Judas Pato, was reviewing kaiju (AKA giant monster) movies on his site, I realized that I had never seen one.  That means that I have accidentally avoided Gamera, Rodan, Godzilla, and all the Mecha-whatevers that have graced B-movie screens over the past fifty years.  That's just not right.  I asked around, and Judas and Danny O'D recommended the original Gojira as the best place to start with kaijus (because it actually kind of has a story), so that's what I did.  It is important to point out the difference between Gojira and Godzilla, King of Monsters!  GKOM is the American version of the film, which heavily edits the original, dubs in English dialogue, and randomly inserts Raymond Burr (whose character is named "the famous Steve Martin") into the film.  Gojira is the original, uncut film classic.  AIEE!!!

Above: Raymond Burr ironing Godzilla

The scene: night.  The Pacific Ocean.  A Japanese fishing boat is filled with fishermen, who are either fishing, dawdling, or playing guitar.  Suddenly, there is a flash of light.  Then, something else happens.  And then there is more light.  And everybody screams.

Create the scene at home: look at this picture, look away, then scream!

Later, it appears that the ill-fated boat never reached land; rescue boats are sent out, but they also disappear.  This somehow garners intense public attention, so the Japanese government sends some scientists to a nearby island to investigate (missing boats.  On an island).  There, they find giant, radioactive footprints.  Who could leave such huge footprints, and what does that say about the size of his genitalia?  I'll give you a hint: it begins with "AIEEE!!!"

Godzilla loves playing peek-a-boo with hillsides

The monster is named Godzilla (I guess he had a name tag or something).  The leader of the scientific expedition, Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura), returns to Tokyo and announces that Godzilla was created (or possibly just awakened...or maybe released...) by a nuclear explosion.  After arguing whether or not to keep a giant dinosaur a secret from the Japanese people, the government publicly acknowledges the existence of Godzilla.  To celebrate this momentous occasion, they try to murder the beast with depth charges, as Godzilla napped in the ocean.  This starts Godzilla's love affair with Tokyo; he opts to visit Tokyo Bay every night for the next few days.  Sometimes he stomps around and knocks stuff over.  Sometimes he just wanders around and returns to the ocean.  But when the Japanese government tries to electrocute the beast with what appears to be standard power lines, that's when shit gets real.

Fun fact: the Godzilla suit required a valve to drain the sweat from it

Godzilla knocks over many toy car and even tries to eat a train (allowing all the passengers to leave first, though).  He also pulls out his secret weapon: Super Breath.  I think it's supposed to be fire breath, but sometimes it's just a strong wind, so I'm not 100% sure on that.  Regardless, what the hell kept him from using this earlier?  Obviously, Japan can't keep taking hits like this from a creature that Mother Nature should have killed off millennia ago.  The solution?  Sigh.  This is going to require some explanation.

As luck would have it, Dr. Yamane's daughter, Emiko (Momoko Kochi) is engaged to a brilliant scientist/pirate, Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata).  Unfortunately, Emiko wants to break off the engagement to marry Hideto (Akira Takarada), a salvage boat operator.  Thank goodness there is a romantic triangle in my movie about a man wearing rubber lizard suit!  Even better, the main character is the salvage boat operator!  His important position virtually guarantees that he will make an important policy decision/challenge Godzilla in hand-to-claw combat not do anything of consequence in this story.

Hideto (far right), in the middle of his big action scene

The pirate, Serizawa, has created an "Oxygen Destroyer," which could kill the monster; he initially refuses to use it as a weapon, because he created it to do good.  Exactly what "good" could come from something that "splits oxygen molecules into fluids," I don't know.  And the science behind that fluids statement is hurting my brain (it makes compounds from splitting molecules?  Maybe?).  More interesting, though, is the fact that this device was intended for some social benefit, and yet he named it the "Oxygen Destroyer."  That's like creating something intended to help children and naming it the "Baby Smotherer."  Now, you may wonder what happens when oxygen is destroyed; Serizawa was kind enough to test it out for the movie-going audience, and it appears that destroying the oxygen in a fish tank melts the flesh from their bones.  Of course it does.  Is this weapon ultimate enough to defeat Godzilla?  Only time will tell.

Pirate science is awesome

Gojira is not a movie you watch for the acting performances.  I'm not going to waste time criticizing the lackluster work from this cast; they all play second fiddle to a man in a rubber suit --- that should give you an idea of their talent levels.  I found it interesting that Takashi Shimura was in this film; Shimura acted in more movies with Akira Kurosawa than any other actor, so you would think that his filmography would lean a little more toward the artsy side of things than the ridiculous monster side, but I'm not going to criticize the man for having varied tastes.  Even though his character --- who reminds everyone of the dangers of nuclear weapons --- is fairly unnecessary, he still does the best acting in the film.

Yes, that's the idea!  If at first you don't succeed...!

There is another Gojira connection to the legendary Akira Kurosawa; this film's director, Ishiro Honda, was apparently best friends with Kurosawa.  While Honda's career as a director was almost entirely devoted to kaiju movies, he also worked as an assistant director and/or a director's aide on Kurosawa's early and late works.  Don't expect to see any of that influence on display in Gojira, though.  His direction (not to mention his screenplay) is confusing, ill-paced, and the film is comically underacted.  The special effects are not at all impressive, even by the standards of the time; if the tagline to the Christopher Reeve Superman was "You will believe a man can fly," then the tagline for Gojira should have been "You will believe that men can wear rubber suits."  I would rant about the monster's complete lack of motivation in the movie and its apparently short attention span, but No Bulljive already covered that in detail.

Judging Gojira objectively, I would have to say that it is a pretty bad movie.  This is a special effects film with bad special effects; it's difficult to overcome that problem.

Then again, this film can be pretty enjoyable if you approach it with the right mindset (and maybe a few drinks).  If you're in the mood to laugh at ridiculousness, look no further.  The plot and dialogue are hilariously inept, and if you enjoy pointing out logical flaws in a story, you will be kept busy.  That doesn't even cover how amusing it can be to watch Godzilla tearing apart a scale model of Tokyo. 

The chew toy scene was my favorite in the film

And is it just me, or is the fact that the English version of "Gojira" simply assumes that the Japanese word mispronounces its "L"s astonishingly racist?  Sure, it's funny, but damn...!  All in all, I think Gojira is a pretty fun watch, with the right mindset.  I give it a Lefty Gold rating of