The Last (Debut Among) Summer Blockbuster(s)

Film review: Pacific Rim (2013)

…“Best New IP”…sounds like shit.

----Jeff Grestmann on why Giant Bomb’s GOTY category “Best Debut” was called that

Whole those formerly of Giant Bomb used the D word to deny business bullshitting, I only used it in the title above just to delay such unpleasure. Debut here stands in for “the first in a franchise”. This concept would exclude things include but not likely limited to sequel, prequel, spin-off (“Cinematic Universe”, I curse thou name for all three!), soft or hard reboot, remake, adaption (By which I mean the kind that entitles someone somewhere to a paycheck for loyalty) and, last but not least, one-off (Mainly new installments in the “franchise” of Christopher Nolan.). Almost everything between Pacific Rim’s premier and the time of writing can have one or more aforementioned labels.

On the other hand, “original/new IP” really does not apply to Pacific Rim, especially the O word. The movie has many merits but they are mostly about playing tropes well. The movie did not particularly stand out back in 2013, but in the decade since it started to feel like something rather special. After the so-called popcorn cinema entered its dark age of “nostalgia for brands above all” since 2015, blenders like Pacific Rim became an extinct breed. While its sequels left a lot more to be desired, the 2013 flick still stands as a reminder that once upon a time in Hollywood, debuts had bred franchises.

Emboldened by a fellow resident of Shanghai named Chris Stewart (The brave soul behind History of China podcast), yours truly as a rude Chinaman decided to put Chinese, modern Mardarin in the subtitles. No characters for the limit of this site, so just pin yin.

Dong Man Hua Xi Lie/ Cartoon or Comic Series

Calling Pacific Rim a live-action cartoon is not criticism nor compliment. It would be just stating a fact. Its “mecha versus monster” narrative is a main stay for cartoon on both side of the Pacific Ocean. Though the way this movie’s co-writer and director Gullermo Del Toro embracing the nature of it

Cartoon series

Pacific Rim does not have wall-to-wall action. Structurally speaking, it has more in common with the about 20 minutes long animated tv episodes than most Hollywood action movie. Yours truly would not blame people who found it slow, since it’s very much a cartoon episode extended into feature length. Only, the 2013 movie was far from the first one to do it.

Gunbuster: Aim for the Top is a fellow Seiun winner of Pacific Rim’s. It could be considered as Hideaki “Known for EVA” Anno’s directorial debut. The series set in space was released as 6 VHS tapes “at launch” each contained 30 minutes. Binged, it’s just an almost 3 hours long movie.

In the audio commentary, Del Toro compared the tropey plots of Pacific Rim to those in sports films. Here is the “40 years old rookie” back on the team. Here is the locker room fight because people reacted badly to a foul-up. Here is the supposedly MVPs eating shit so the 40 years old rookie would save the day. On the other hand, Gunbuster was modeled after a comic book and its animated adaption about teenage girls playing tennis titled Aim for the Ace. (The horndogs at Gainax clearly went for pretty girls in mini-skirts and stayed for the drama). The 1970s’ tennis comic, the 1980s’ 6-episodes series and the 2013 Hollywood flick all share another trope: girl having a dying tutor.

Gunbuster moves slower than Pacific Rim as the latter opens with a mecha fight, the former does not show its titular giant death machine until after its halfway point was past. Then there will be 2 wins, and the endgames of both are “Destructoid guarding a Giant Bomb”. Only neither Giant Bomb worked as intended so the Destructoid self-destruction would be what does the monsters in.

Comic books

Idris Elba used “comic book” to describe this movie’s larger-than-life aesthetics. Personally, I would use the phrase to describe film’s structure. Del Toro was already no stranger to comic book adaption by the time Pacific Rim came his way, he made 3 of the bloody things by then (I for one found the Hellboy sequel to be more entertaining than Iron Man and Dark Knight combined back in 2008). Though the Blade sequel and 2 Hellboy flicks are closer to usual Hollywood action flick with brands attached. Pacific Rim was very much Del Toro doing a graphic novel.

For one thing, the movie does not have too rapid cuts. A movie about human pilot does one thing then the hulking mecha do the same, one would imagine it cutting rather rapidly between human motion and mecha motion during the calibration scene. But Pacific Rim is rather restricted on that front.

The whole thing can be roughly cut into 5 twenty or so minutes chunks like 5 issues of comic book. Issue one a triple prologue then the remaining 4 about a final assault to close a underseas breach.

“Gen Ju ‘You Fu’ Gai Bian”/ “Based on XCOM”

If an XCOM movie or series was announced, then a snake had truly eaten its own tail. The turn-based tactic game series is every variable in cartoony depiction of alien invasion thrown in for interactivity. Though seen through the eyes of Idris Elba as Marshal Stacker Pentecost, Pacific Rim does look suspiciously like an XCOM movie. The movie was in production the same time as XCOM Enemy Unknown was being developed, so they only ran parallel. Still, like XCOM commander the players take up, the Marshal is a fixed point both in front of and behind the scene.

After 16 minutes of the first 2 prologue and a late title card, the Marshal talked to representatives of countries attacked by Kaiju as they pulled his funding. With only 3 and later 4 Jaeger mecha crews, this “XCOM campaign” sure is as understaffed as those your truly abandoned. And ah yes, intelligence work involving a war profiteer played by long time Del Toro collaborator Ron Perlman (Currently Perlman roles’ good and evil ratio in Del Toro flicks: twice as bad guys, twice as the titular good guy, and one in the middle.)

While Pacific Rim and the first John Wick both have the problem of “I wish there is more action”, they used their down time rather differently. Chad Stahelski unfortunately has the bug to immediate Wong Kar-who, so the down time in his flick is too meandering for yours truly. Del Toro, on the other hand, is laser focus on the problem-solution loop and world-building for his science fiction blockbuster, so the down time does not feel like that at all.

Being someone who longed to bring a Lovecraftian tale to big screen, Del Toro sure brought some cosmic horror into the world building of this live-action cartoon, with the twist that extra-dimensional creatures are not the ones doing mind probing but we homo sapiens are. First, we used it to pilot hulking war machines known as Jaeger, then the scientist played Charles Day has the bright idea to get intel from the enemy. And a war profiteer,

In the audio commentary (With only the director, though it’s nice to hear him bringing up names fluently.), Del Toro mentioned 3 Japanese who love this movie, his boy Hideo Kojima, cult film director Takashi Miike and a certain Kasuhiro Otomo. Otomo is the one standout here, for he would be honored as Otomo Sensei by the Japanese for his graphic novels. Marshal Pentecost is very much in the same mold as the Colonel in Otomo’s Akira. Funny enough, I had heard someone comparing Russel “Stringer” Bell in the Wire, a role Elba is known for, to the Colonel in Akira.

This Marshal does have some treads that not fitting for player character. For one thing he is the doomed tutor, dying of radiation positioning. Though he just stoically nose bleed unlike many who would dramatically cough blood.

“Cheng Feng Po Lang”/ “Through storms and waves”

While Del Toro did not always show the giants in this one on camera in full, the method was different from Steven Spielberg avoided showing that poorly-made shark in Jaws and Ripely Scott not making the dickhead monster look like “man in suit” in Alien. Being a digital effect heavy flick of early teens (With the gimmick of 3D.), Pacific Rim is all about having more stuff on screen rather than less. The mecha versus monster fights mostly take place in rather wet places.

While the movie opens with the definition of Kaiju being “giant beast”, my brain cannot help but view it as a pun. The Chinese characters assigned to the term reads “guai shou” in Mandarin, meaning “weird beast”. “Hai shou”, meaning “sea beast” can also be pronounced as kaiju in Japanese. The Mandarin speaking Hong Kong residents call those “hai guai”, meaning sea monsters, pretty spot-on since they all came from a breach under the sea.

It was said that Del Toro’s original vision of his Hobbit movie would have seasons reflected on the plot. Then that project was resigned to Peter Jackson and crew, this tread was obviously brought into Pacific Rim. Gipsy Danger first fights in the storm far from the coastline, then in the rain near a coastline. The third fight is in a city, so at least it’s on dry ground and won in a place above the cloud. The fourth and final fight is underwater, when the water is nearly invisible for one is immerse in it. After the victory that is closing the breach where creepy clawleys came out happened, the sky became finally clearly.

Rain in different action scenes plays different roles. In commando movies. It’s said to dull the defense side’s senses to give the offense side an edge. In material arts adjunct things, it’s displaying powers, just look at Keanu Reeves’ career. So Pacific Rim does not set its fights in the wet and dark place to obscure anything. With the movie’s creature effect being all digital, water means to render more rather than less. Whether it’s Gipsy Danger’s first punch to cut through the rain, the Kaiju called Leatherback leap out of the sea and Otachi come up the shore, the large amount of water dipping from those giant objects makes them all the more awe-aspiring.

Gei Li De Yin Yue/ Killer Soundtracks

My interest in Pacific Rim now in the 2020s started with its music. Seeing footage of Armored Core Six cut to the film’s main theme in September, 2023 sure made me want to watch it again. Then I became interested in what Del Toro was thinking when making this one and bought the 2-disc blu-ray. Oh, Ramin Djawadi, you did well for your captain back then, you sure made good robot music.

I first head Djawadi’s tracks in 2008’s Iron Man. Many remember the selection of AC/DC songs in that flick, while I prefer the heavy metal tune of its original sound tracks. Its sequels and spin-offs unfortunately grew lighter as the polygonal make-up they put Robert Downey Jr. became increasingly weightless. It sure was sure nice to hear Djawadi going heavy with Pacific Rim.

On the monster side, “2500 Tons of Awesome” is basically the movie’s Kaiju theme, being a track just legally distinct enough from the Godzilla theme is the sweet point to be. Russia’s Chernobyl Alpha and China’s Crimson Typhoon do not have good enough on screen performance, but their shared track “Double Event” is a high light, as the different chorus representing the nations laid over a common electric and machine-like track for Jaegers.

Overall, Djawadi’s work was impressive in 2013, with Game of Thrones’ season 3 and Person of Interest’s season 2 made me wonder how he would do with a full orchestral. Came that summer, Pacific Rim answered “He would do just fine”.

Jie Lun/ In Conclusion

It was a raining day in late July, 2013 when I bought the ticket to see Pacific Rim in IMAX. Sitting in the middle of the last row and I was still blown away. Less than 5 years after that, when I walked out of the theatre into the sunny spring of March, 2018 after Uprising, I did not feel the same at all. I mean the Chinese pilots in the 2013 original did not get their hero moment on screen but at least I can laugh it off as a Red Shirts in Star Trek joke. The 2018 sequel is a case of being pandered rather than appealed to as a Chinaman myself.

Del Toro being a Spanish speaker broke into Hollywood, would have an inherent Greek centric view when it comes to man-made object. Gipsy Danger and Eureka (Ha, ha, ha indeed) Striker stood alone in the last battle not only because they were made by Yanks and Aussies respectively, but rather their Greek statue-like looks mark the right amount of development. The Russian mecha was not man-like enough and entered the fight without enough intel so it was destroyed. The Chinese one was overdeveloped with 3 arms yet none of those was fast or strong enough stop a monster’s tail going straight for its head while Gipsy Danger handled that tail with its strong arm. Even the most advanced Aussie one has more wins when it sticks to being a more brawler rather than pulling out its chest guns.

Pacific Rim is still, unfortunately, the best mecha movie Hollywood even managed to put out. Cartoonish as it is, the sticking to “problem and solution loop” sure would warrant its place in the pantheon of science fiction. I mean even William Gibson liked it. Only sad thing about it is that it marks the end of a good time rather than being a harbinger for better times. Still, watch it when you got it, you all.