So I saw Pacific Rim today--went all-in on 3D/IMAX. Which meant I ended the movie with a bit of a headache, but it wasn't too bad. And it sure made everything seem BIG AND LOUD. Holy cow, so loud.

And hey, that was Max Martini as Australian Dude's dad. I've always liked him, it's weird he's now playing fathers.

I had gone in with the impression that there was no romance in the story, based on a snippet of interview with del Toro. So I was surprised when the romancey bits came up. Not unhappy, but a bit surprised. I would have liked it more if Mako had gotten to have more agency. She was good at what she did, but it didn't feel like she was much in charge of anything, really. And more than one woman in the movie would have been very nice. There was no reason one of the scientists, or more of the technical staff, couldn't have been women. Or even Ron Perlman's role!

Oh, speaking of which, I did get the feeling that maybe the guy who wrote Sharknado had seen an early edit of Pacific Rim... Heh.

Would it have needed to be an early edit? The London premiere was a week before Sharknado's debut, which seems plenty of time given the script quality and on-screen production values...

I thought this was an interesting post on the visual language of Pacific Rim: [link]

I did, too, ita, although I don't really think that such subtle signalling turns Mako into the lead character of the movie, which seems to be what some people were arguing in the comments. It does say a lot for del Toro's visual design, though.

he is a fantastic director. I heard him on a Hollywood KCRW podcast and he just seems like the nicest, most grounded person in the world.

From what I've read I guess some people thought Raleigh is the lead character, but I didn't question Stacker for a second.

Then again, I thought that one Marvel movie could have been called Heimdall, so I accept accusation of bias.

More seriously, though, I thought Mako & Stacker were the main thread of the movie, person-wise.

My takeaway from that article is that this guy needs to stop interpreting negative film reviews as personal attacks on his girlfriend.

Also, blue/gold is the color palette for 90% of all Hollywood films. Finding it in this one is nothing special, and someone who is such a super-special visual language snowflake should maybe realize that?

I thought Mako & Stacker were the main thread of the movie, person-wise.

Yeah, at least there's interaction and development there. Whereas Raleigh's issues are established at the beginning and then... just sort of sit there. His reaction to re-entering the Drift after Yancy's death isn't really developed at all. Not that I mind that what limited attention was available was given to Mako instead.

Oh god it gets so much worse in the comments. Anyone who brings up anything negative about this movie gets yelled at for privileging plot/dialogue over the OBVIOUSLY brilliant visual storytelling. Dude, if the only way to see this movie as brilliant storytelling is to ignore everything except what color things are, your argument is not as strong as you think it is!

I'm not even saying I disagree with his overall point - Guillermo del Toro has an incredible eye for detail and there is always more going on with his visual storytelling that there is in the script, but that doesn't mean this movie doesn't have some major problems going on in the non-visual areas. DINOSAURS FOR FUCK'S SAKE OMG.

blue/gold is the color palette for 90% of all Hollywood films. Finding it in this one is nothing special, and someone who is such a super-special visual language snowflake should maybe realize that?

Isn't the point about blue/grey and where it's used? If Mako's hair hadn't been blue, and instead it was a big piece of Raleigh's clothing, then, yes, there's as much blue as the movie would normally have, but less message. Del Toro seems welcome to correlate.

There is a lot of shit that was shown in the movie that didn't get dialogue. The images under the opening dialogues alone could do with exploration, but I like that they didn't, because just because the robot/monster punch movie has underpinnings doesn't mean the punching shouldn't start sooner rather than later.