New Pacific Rim Trailer

[Sergio Perez]

i normally don't use these words for my movies impressions, but, this movie was AWESOME.
For someone who grew up in Asia and saw all forms of anime with Giant Mechs, this is a fantastic tribute to the genre. In fact, this is a sci fi movie that truly deserves its trilogy, unlike a certain Merchandise tie in movie that goes for nostalgia for the brand and forgets what makes good movies, well, good movies: Great storytelling, interesting characters, good pacing and of course great visuals and directing.

Pacific Rim does have its flaws: It feels like there was a fear there was no possibility for sequel development so they crammed too much into this instalment, leaving many narrative and character development feel forced and too fast. I really feel that, provided a trilogy was green lighted from the beginning, this would be even better. There's great material here, from the "aliens" to the Governments and the Mech's organisation, as well as the back stories of many characters.

Am not a big fan of goofball characters, a bit of a cliché. Not a big fan also of stereotypical soundtrack behind the "national Mechs", and, of ourse, the American- Aussies Mechs (english speaking) are the heroes, but, hey, these are minor gripes. Visually its absolutely stunning. Del Toro is in top form here. Hope sincerely this breaks even and makes a profit for sequels. Enjoyed watching this much more than Superman and any other summer blockbuster so far- including a Pixar movie, which says much!

Go see it if you haven't. Forget the WTF moments. The soul and the ingredients are all there. And its great fun. And stay until the middle of the credits!

 

[Eryc Tramonn]

It's a huge endorsement of Del Toro for sure. Of the camera or tech? The film has less live action I would wager than Avatar. Renderman/Arnold/Vray/Brazil etc produced more frames than Epic.

It's actually not that great of a film for eye candy. Spectacle yes, but the FX themselves were a little underwhelming. I would say technically on par with Battleship. But OMG the spectacle!

Gavin:

Yeah, dude. You're right. The movie is one giant VFX extravaganza. I was finally able to see it in IMAX 3D this past weekend, and was thoroughly awed by the enormity of the spectacle. Absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing.

The textures, shaders, illumination -- all out of this FRIGGIN' world. The level of detail, modeling, set design, VFX integration and manipulation contained within each and every frame is astounding. It's the movie I envisioned making while in school...but I'm still not really sure how someone rises to that level. On my first viewing, the film presented a near perfect balance of practical set builds and CG extension/augmentation. It's the first time I feel a film has really nailed it. And to do it at that level of complexity is hard to grasp.

It's INSANE. INSANE.

What specifically did you think was lacking in the VFX department?

I know there has been a lot of philosophical rhetoric passed around over the preceding pages, but for the record, I'm the last person that means to insult or pass judgment on another filmmaker. Hopefully, my statements are NOT read that way. I prefer to say, "That's not my thing," and then present my take using my voice -- which can be difficult to convey in writing without the aid of inflection or other nuance to convey intent. Our art is far too subjective for simple, armchair criticisms, so that's really not my goal. My comments represent a desire to see films that arrive at a place where function at least tries to dictate form. And I feel Pacific Rim makes an earnest attempt to do just that.

Anyway, for a tentpole film about giant leviathans rising from the depths, Pacific Rim held together quite well. Comparing apples to apples, this film is COMPLETELY bad ass -- definitely at the top of its class. Anyone interested in seeing a fun film, should see this. Any student of filmmaking, should see this -- the scale, and scope are literally colossal. Now being a director who studies VFX (read: I am in no way an FX artist -- but I have been educating myself for quite awhile), I am SUPER curious to know just what level of direction is provided on a film such as this. Personally, I would imagine designing all the blocking and movement in extensive previz and then conferring with a contingent of production designers and VFX supers to achieve the look...dialing it in one step at a time. And then of course working with the actors to hone performances, and maintaining a high-level view of the narrative to ensure scene-to-scene cohesion. And lastly, working very closely with "offline" editorial.

But for some reason, even though I know better, I feel like most people view directors as magically doing EVERYTHING themselves. Robert Rodriguez excluded. Haha. Anyway, if this were true, we wouldn't have 30 minute credit crawls attached to these films.

I guess I'm trying to say, and please no one take this as a dig against del Toro because it is not (we've all read what a gifted, energy-filled filmmaker he is - and I don't doubt it), but how much or little does one have to do on a film like this to be considered a "director." Should the director be able to sketch out scenes like Ridley Scott, and then understand all the nuances of his/her post pipe to make suggestions on render tact? Where does it end, and what is reasonable? My questions are more an examination of the role of "director" in modern filmmaking.

I'm really curious to know what others think. At this point on the filmmaking evolutionary ladder, it seems that there may be a litany of VFX supervisors that have some pretty strong claims to the title "director," and might be even more impressive because they could actually execute the work themselves. That's where the real genius is for me -- within the army of minds physically building from projections, modeling 3D, rigging, texturing, lighting and rendering these scenes. As a "director," I imagine most having a general understanding of a lot of areas, but maybe not the depth to just jump into Maya and start mocking up characters. Maybe most do -- if so, I don't want to know about it.