It's time to talk about Pacific Rim. Spoilers may or may not follow, but let's be honest here: If you haven't gone to see it by now you're obviously a terrible human being, so why should we care what you think?
So, to start with obvious thing, Pacific Rim is GOOD. Like, really rather GOOD. But more than that it's good in several interesting ways that I think bare further discussion.
Let's be honest, overall the current output of the cinematic arts is generally not great. Sure, there's the occasional decent film that comes along, but the general vibe one gets from perusing the reviews and listings in generally negative. How often have we heard the complaint of soulless mega budget spectacle over substance stupidity? How often have we lamented the endemic unoriginality of the current cinematic trend, where it's all reboots, remakes and adaptations that gut the source material to such an extent that one honestly has to wonder if the producers are just trolling the audience.
To which the answer is apparently a resounding "YES"
And then into this arena steps a film like Pacific Rim. A film which is shamelessly unapologetic about it's influences, yet builds on them rather than rehashing the same material. A film with big flashy effects and action sequences that work together with the story to build something greater, not a story that serves as an afterthought to get from one pointless set piece to the next. A story that is fairly straightfoward and direct without being stupid or insulting, where events proceed in a sensible fashion and build towards the final climax. With interesting and likable characters inhabiting what appears to be a fully fleshed out world. A world that seems to stretch out beyond the scope of the film itself, offering a potential wealth of other stories.
If you haven't guessed what I'm driving at here yet then let me say that I can only think of one other film that really achieved all that. And whilst I'm not trying to be hyperbolic I do think it's fair to say this:
Pacific Rim is this generations Star Wars.
Now, before we carried away let's be clear on one thing. In this particular context when I say Star Wars I'm talking about the episode subsequently known as 4, not the ponderous multimedia franchise. Baring that in mind, the parallels are quite remarkable.
And I don't just mean that each film opens with an info dump before something huge and wedge shaped shows up to wreck the heroes shit.
Am I REALLY the only one to be seeing this?
Star Wars was created as a love letter or homage to the classic sci-fi serials like Flash Gordon. Similarly Pacific Rim is also a love letter to it's influences, in this case Daikaiju Eiga, Mecha & Tokusatsu. But what's most important is that they both use those influences to build something new, to take all that came before, mix it up, and come out with their own thing. They're also both informed by a genuine love of the source material they build upon. I think it's these two elements that are so sorely lacking in the modern cinematic landscape. There's far to much churning stuff out for the nostalgia or brand recognition without anyone involved really GETTING what it was that made those things work the first time around. And the blinkered reliance on recognized properties simply means that properties are continually forced into shapes that they don't really fit, rather than taking your inspiration from those properties and building something new that would better suit whatever direction. Or at the very least not tarnish a classic just for the sake of it.
Another fairly major parallel with the original Star Wars in the story and characters. I'm not talking about any of that heroes journey stuff, or indeed any specific plot points or devices, but more in the way the story is structured. Let me see if I can explain.
One thing that never ceases to get on my proverbials is when people talk about big dumb action films and anyone uses the phrase "switch your brain off". The reason that these people need to go die in a fire is that there is in fact a difference between a simple or straightfoward plot and an insultingly stupid one. A simple plot is not a bad thing. Keeping things straightfoward and direct in order to do whatever it is you need to be doing in a film is a laudable goal. But that doesn't mean they have to be stupid. Both Star Wars and Pacific Rim succeed so well by having straightfoward stories where things unfold in a logical and sensible fashion. Each beat leads to the next and the whole thing comes together in the end. There is a certain elegance in their directness. You can sit back and enjoy the whole experience without having to strain yourself, if that's somehow a concern for you, and everything makes sense.
Compare this to something like Michael Bays Transformers. I actually watched that abomination. A friend told me it wasn't really all that bad, so we went to see it (Hi N-San, I will never forgive you for this. NEVER.). People might well say to just switch off your brain and enjoy the spectacle. But I couldn't because the whole thing was so amazingly bad my brain was actually trying to crawl out of my head and hunt down those responsible in order to bring them to justice via the medium of frenzied stabbings.
Don't you just hate it when this happens in the middle of a film?
It's very hard to switch off and relax when someone is continually yelling at you to go fuck yourself, even if they're only doing it metaphorically. Simple doesn't have to mean stupid.
One criticism I've seen levelled at the film is that the characters are thinly sketched. Now, I don't agree that the characters in the film lack depth, but I can kinda see where this particular complaint arises from. Whilst there are most certainly elements exploring character histories and motivations it's not like the film is paced or structured for a 3 hour introspective monologue on the lead female characters favourite shoes.
Okay, bad example. But you know what I mean.
And to be fair there are characters and elements the totally warrant further exploration but are lacking in screen time. For example the crew of Cherno Alpha, who basically just get to be Russian in the background and then die (spoiler alert).
I think they were called Mr And Mrs Zangief?
Partly of course this is down to pacing and structure. This, after all, a Giant Monster Movie. There's not time to focus on everyone without screwing up the pace and derailing things. But partly it's because there's really no need for that sort of tangent as there's a very solid core of character ARCHETYPE to pretty much everyone involved. Indeed, it adheres to that oft overlooked rule of storytelling: Show, Don't Tell.
Outside of the initial info dump the film is remarkably sparse with it's exposition. But by not explaining every little thing it achieves a real feel of a solid world surrounding the story itself, with the characters fulfilling identifiable archtypes which allows us as the audience to quickly get a sense of where everybody fits within that world without any characters having to explain stuff that they should already know to each other.
You know, like in Star Wars. You don't need 16 volumes of backstory to understand who Han Solo is in Star Wars. You just need 10 minutes of him onscreen. Same principle here. There is an alchemy between decent writing and acting that no amount of exposition can ever rival.
Of course, using such narrative shorthand does allow for us to get the special effects spectacle portion of the proceedings. And there's nothing inherently wrong with a bit of spectacle. The issue is always where spectacle takes precedent over all other concerns. Indeed, if there's one simple rule for basically everything ever it's that X isn't necessarily bad, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of Y. Balance in all things.
This is especially true in a Sci-Fi spectacular like Pacific Rim or Star Wars. Let the spectacle take precedence and you end up with the Phantom Menace or something. But let's be clear, we're not here to watch people sat moping around talking about their feelings either. Yes we want a good story, but part of the draw for Star Wars is still going to be epic space battles and Lightsaber duels. Just as part of the draw for Pacific Rim is Giant Robots & Monsters beating the crap out of each other. Keeping the balance between story and spectacle is the key. In Serious Drama™ you may not need to worry about taking too much time away from the giant robot fight, but here it's something you do need to think about. The key thing is that the story and action drive each other and everything works in context. It's this synergy that Pacific Rim shares with Star Wars.
Now, it has to be said that exactly how many of these parallels with Star Wars are intentional and how many are simply the product of my diseased imaginings is open for debate. There's really only a couple of overt references in the film itself, and really much of what I'm saying here is more meta than direct, but I find these things interesting to think about, so there you go. But there's so much more to discuss about this film. To say it's a veritable melting pot of influences is perhaps something of an understatement. But I think this particular post has rambled on long enough. So let's leave it for now and pick up where we left off next time shall we?
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