{"id":205767,"date":"2014-06-17T09:58:28","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T09:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/06\/17\/unlike-godzilla-pacific-rim-doesnt-try-to-be\/"},"modified":"2014-06-17T09:58:28","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T09:58:28","slug":"unlike-godzilla-pacific-rim-doesnt-try-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/06\/17\/unlike-godzilla-pacific-rim-doesnt-try-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unlike Godzilla, Pacific Rim doesn\u2019t try to be serious even when it\u2019s being serious. Characters have names like Stacker Pentecost and Hercules Hansen. The film requires you to believe that the best way to battle a giant monster is to build an even larger robot to fight that monster.<\/p>\n

Much of the Act 2 drama derives from inter-pilot tension airlifted from the Val Kilmer scenes in Top Gun. It\u2019s the polar opposite of the Godzilla school of drama, where everyone is a total professional who has absolutely no personal goal besides Saving The World. In Pacific Rim, Idris Elba is Rinko Kikuchi\u2019s Obi-Wan Kenobi, and two of the last Giant Robot-pilots in the world frequently get into sneering fights over who\u2019s the bigger badass, and Charlie Day is a scientist.<\/p>\n

So, for all these reasons, Pacific Rim is a movie that I\u2019ve heard perfectly smart people describe as \u201cstupid\u201d or \u201csilly.\u201d The problem with this line of thinking is that, really, that every blockbuster is pretty \u201csilly,\u201d in the context of Things Adults Should Care About. Godzilla is not less stupid than Pacific Rim just because people frown more. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The difference, I think, is that Pacific Rim glories in its own silliness. There\u2019s a flashback scene where Idris Elba rescues a little girl, and when he emerges from his giant robot, the sun shines upon him like he\u2019s the catharsis in a biblical epic. There\u2019s a moment when one giant robot swings an oil tanker like a sword. Then it grows a sword out of its wrist. Then it falls from space to earth.<\/p>\n

There are real complaints to make about Pacific Rim, I guess, all of them fair and most of them pedantic. I know a lot of people who have issues with the story. (\u201cWhy didn\u2019t they use the wrist-sword earlier?\u201d is a popular one.) Conversely, I don\u2019t really know anyone who minds the story in Godzilla, possibly because everything stupid that happens is prefaced by Frowning Watanabe saying \u201cThis is why the stupid thing that\u2019s about to happen makes sense.\u201d Godzilla wants so badly to make sense. Pacific Rim wants so badly for Ron Perlman to wear golden shoes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Darren Franich, \u201cEntertainment Geekly: A call for an end to serious blockbusters\u201d (via rahleighs<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike Godzilla, Pacific Rim doesn\u2019t try to be serious even when it\u2019s being serious. Characters have names like Stacker Pentecost and Hercules Hansen. The film requires you to believe that the best way to battle a giant monster is to build an even larger robot to fight that monster. Much of the Act 2 drama … <\/p>\n

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