Flickering Myth

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The Flickering Myth Reaction to the Pacific Rim trailer

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The Flickering Myth writing team share their opinions on the first trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim…


December has been a massive month for movies. Not only have we had huge releases like The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Jack Reacher and Life of Pi at the cinema, but we’ve also been inundated with new trailers for some of the biggest upcoming films of 2013. We’ve had glimpses of Star Trek Into Darkness, Oblivion, After Earth, The Lone Ranger, Man of Steel and G. I. Joe: Retaliation. One of the most surprising and fascinating trailers has been for Guillermo del Toro’s blockbuster Pacific Rim, inspired by classic Japanese cinema. The director of Pan’s Labyrinth appears to have crafted a film with an extremely intriguing and arty aesthetic, but on a monumental budget and scale. This rare combination has got the Flickering Myth writing team talking…

Chris Cooper: This has been on the far reaches of my radar for a while now. I hadn’t really taken any notice and didn’t know what it was. But after this, it has shot right up in my attentions – looks really impressive. Who wouldn’t want to see Idris Elba (Thor, Prometheus) fight massive monsters in a massive robot?

Luke Graham: On the one hand, the look of Pacific Rim is cribbing a LOT from other films. It’s hard not to be reminded of films like Real Steel, Transformers, Clash/Wrath of the Titans, Cloverfield, a list of films that are bad to middling at best. It even, bizarrely, has the voice of GLaDOs from Portal. On the other hand it looks so exciting! Del Toro is a fantastic film-maker and can easily elevate this kind of material above simple schlock. With a line like “Today, we cancel the Apocalypse” delivered by the always excellent Idris Elba, it already has better dialogue than the list of movies mentioned. I like the trailer so much I don’t even mind the presence of the Inception BWAUM!

Rohan Morbey: I’m with Luke Graham on this, looks good despite being an amalgamation of many films ranging from the good (War of the Worlds) to the baaaad (Transformers, Godzilla). I’m on board though, so GDT can sleep easy at night.

Luke Owen: I would never say this is an amalgamation of other movies. Pacific Rim is a love letter to Japanese kaiju cinema from the 60s and 70s – in particular the Showa era of Toho. The plot line is taken straight from their sci-fi movies, the monsters look to be based around the designs from Godzilla and Gamera, the Jaegers are based around tokusatsu shows like Ultraman etc. This is a kaiju movie made for a mass audience by someone who loves the genre. If you couldn’t tell, I am very, very excited for this movie. The visuals look so good and given del Toro’s history, we can expect to see some awesome designs for the kaiju. This could well end up as my favourite film next year. On top of that, should this film do well, it will really help Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla reboot next year. And if that does well, we could see 2013 Legendary Pictures become the American equivalent of 60s Toho.

Furthermore (I’ll be quiet after this I promise), even the trailer’s tagline: “to defeat monsters we create monsters” is going back to the very early days of Godzilla where each movie was an allegory for world messages (Gojira – nuclear war, King Kong vs. Godzilla – Commercialism, Mothra vs. Godzilla – Capitalism). I’m now done.

Liam Trim: Like Rohan, I agree with Luke Graham. Del Toro is a director with some artistic flair and that means that what could have been a standard ‘bigger is better’ blockbuster, with lots of gigantic robots smashing things to bits, is likely to be one of 2013’s most interesting mainstream releases. One of the thrillingly promising things about this trailer is the perspective of much of the action – whilst I’m sure there will be plenty of set piece battles between the machines and the aliens, large chunks of the scenes shown here are shot from the perspective of those on the ground. So we get intriguing, futuristic details at street level, as well as the reactions of actors to the unimaginable scale of the carnage unfolding way, way above their heads. Michael Bay would just give us mindless debris and the odd shot of Megan Fox pouting.

This seems like something with far more substance than a Transformers movie, despite the similarities on the surface. I also agree with Luke Owen that the tagline is telling in itself. Yes, it may be trying a bit too hard to be both dramatic and intellectual but it reveals that Pacific Rim will try to get your mind racing as well as your pulse. I hope it turns out to be one of those action films that has something meaningful, topical AND exciting to say.

Jake Peffer: After watching the trailer, this is now the movie I’m most excited for next year. Del Toro is a great director and I can’t wait to see what he does with a huge movie like this. The cast looks great as well. It’s always great to see Idris Elba in anything and this will be the movie that finally makes Charlie Hunnam (Green Street, Children of Men) a star, regardless of whether the movie is good or not. The only gripe I have with the trailer is that it makes the movie look very CG heavy, which isn’t a bad thing but it’s not always a good thing either. It looks like it works very well in the trailer though so I can only imagine it’ll be even better on the big screen.

Simon Columb: Between After Earth, Oblivion and Pacific Rim, it looks like there are going to be one too many sci-fi films in 2013. And in all of them, Earth looks like shit… so is there a pessimistic theme and attitude running through Hollywood?

Gary Collinson: After reading Anghus’ ‘Big Questions of 2013‘ article, I was wondering whether there was going to be a market for big budget kaiju, but now that the trailer’s here, I’ve got no doubt that this is going to do well. I think that apart from Star Trek Into Darkness this is probably my favourite trailer from all the ones we’ve seen this month. Of course, big spectacle doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get a good film, but it’ll put plenty of bums on seats.

Oliver Davis: Where’s Pan?
Anghus Houvouras: My inner child is doing back flips  My inner industry analyst is rubbing his goatee and going “hmmmmmmmmm”. I’m there on day one. Robots, giant monstrosities from another dimension, and Idris Elba declaring “cancel the apocalypse” is cause for celebration. I’m already clearing space on my shelf for whatever toy line is released in conjunction with the film. But let’s not delude ourselves. Del Toro has yet to deliver a big budget movie worth a damn. The Hellboy movies were profoundly mediocre. This is a level he hasn’t worked on before. Maybe this is his home run. Or maybe he’s made another movie that will have a hard time bringing anyone other than the hardcore geeks into the theatre  And don’t kid yourselves; the lack of a marquee name will severely limit the appeal of Pacific Rim.

Matt Smith: I don’t really want to say too much in terms of background to the film and what’ll happen, purely because this trailer is the first I’ve seen of Pacific Rim. Shows how much I’m plugged in to the world of film. I’m sure like a lot of people, the presence of Idris Elba is enough to get my attention. Del Toro, however, is a mixed blessing for me. He hasn’t made any film that has made me a genuine fan. His films, Pan’s Labyrinth in particular, are fantastic in design, but there hasn’t been anything that has grabbed my attention enough on an emotional level. Hellboy, for me, was a good film but not spectacular enough for his name to mean I’m going to watch. I’m just hoping del Toro hasn’t bitten off more than he can chew. It definitely has the potential to be a thinker as well as a heart racing, robot vs monster slugathon. My cynical side can’t help but question whether this is another case of a fantastic, genuine-work-of-art trailer for a mediocre film. But, as detractors of the modern, Internet-age ‘ADD’ sufferers might hate to hear, that was still one hell of a trailer.

What’s the verdict then? Is Pacific Rim worth seeing in 2013, a year that seems as if it will be crowded with big releases? Of course our critics are naturally sceptical and rightly wary of stunning trailers promoting profoundly disappointing final products in the recent past. But there is also genuine optimism about the passion and skill of del Toro, as well as the cast he has assembled. The most interesting debate seems to be about the motivations behind Pacific Rim as a project. Is it a love letter to Japanese cinema, as Luke Owen argues, or is that aspect going to be overshadowed by the demands of the Hollywood studios, who want the next profitable Transformers franchise, not an arty allegory? We’ll have to wait until the summer to find out, but keep checking Flickering Myth for updates on the film and reviews when it is finally released!

What did you think of the trailer for Pacific Rim? Do you agree or disagree with our writers? Leave your comments below!

Pacific Rim is scheduled for release in the UK on July 12th 2013. 

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