Pacific Rim

The Personal Is Always Important

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So Rob showed me RWBY, a CGI animated series that fuses video game and anime styles. It’s by Monty Oum, and thus has quite a pedigree. I found it enjoyable if needing fleshing out, and did enjoy the use of game stylings a great deal – there’s a very definite Suda 51 vibe that appeals to me.

But what was weird in watching this fan production by a fan favorite is that I found my reactions were odd. How was I to judge it considering its pedigree? Considering it’s audience-friendly involvements and previews? Considering it wasn’t from a big company?

It reminded me when I saw Pacific Rim, which is a giant love letter to mecha films (both military and super). I mean I knew I liked the idea of it, I like what I saw, but my reactions felt strange. On one level it was totally targeted at . . . well me. On the other I wanted to judge it as I would any film.

Then I thought about Rogue Legacy, which I noted “spoke” my language. It was also a personal experience, and one that made judging the game different because that was the very goal.

I was not judging these things based on artistic merits entirely. I was evaluating them in a series of contexts like who did them, focus on the audience. It was very personal. Oh sure there were merits I could note, but in many cases they came down to merits that existed in a personal/social context.

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Spoilers For Pacific Rim

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Pacific Rim spoilers to share with your friends.

  • Idris Elba’s dance scene with Charlie Hunnam is really excellent.  They alternate leading.
  • The secret Jager is called “Rosebud.”
  • There’s a scene where Senators note that the science is not fully in agreement that the smashed cities were caused by giant monsters.
  • Even the character’s pets have Jagers, which is probably going to lead to an animated spinoff.  Triple Jager Hamster Vulcan is exceptionally cute.
  • Bill O’Reilly notes “Monsters appear, cities are smashed flat, you can’t explain it.”
  • There’s a powerful scene where Charlie Day’s character asks “What would Godzilla do?”
  • For a powerful moment, the tabloids in the film ignore the Kardashians.
  • There’s a great dramatic scene where the heroes argue who gets to form the head.  This gets deeply metaphorical.
  • Rinko Kikuchi’s line “my entire anime collection has been leading up to this” is a real tear-jerker.
  • Burt Gorman’s character has a shockingly violent scene where he gets the designer of the Jagers to admit the names are just random words his five year old strung together.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Steve’s Review Of Pacific Rim

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So I saw Pacific Rim. And I’m reviewing it.

I’d like to do some other, smarter, lead in, but as I’m interested in seeing people’s reactions to the film, I’m not putting in any opening spoilers. Between the successes, failures, and unexpected opinions I’ve seen on film, I’m interested in getting other people’s reactions, unaffected by mine!

In fact I was surprised by some of my reactions and some of what I saw.

So, now with that said, let’s get to my opinions. Kind of spoiler-free.

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