So, given that my topic for the day is Pacific Rim and EVERYTHING, where should we start?
Perhaps in the place you'd least expect?
As the film opens on the preparations for the battle between Gypsy Danger and Knifehead, there was only one question in my mind:
Did they REALLY just throw in a reference to Red Vs Blue?
Seriously, am I the only one to think that Tendo Choi is an overt reference to Vic from RvB? It's toned down slightly as the film progresses, but right of the bat he's TOTALLY channeling the speech patterns and appearance of a minor character from a web series based on a video game a decade old. I mean never mind getting bloody GLaDOS to do the computer voices. This, right here, is HARDCORE.
Or maybe it's just me? Anyway, back to the obvious stuff.
It's kind of funny in a way that the first obvious influence is also the most recent in terms of giant monster movies. At least those that actually get released outside of Japan. I am of course talking about Cloverfield.
Hey guys, what's happening here?
The use of news and documentary type footage showing the first attack is an obvious throwback to the handheld found footage style of the film, as is the attack on the bridge. But there's a bit more than just that. See, before going to see Pacific Rim for the first time I was thinking to myself "wouldn't it be fun to rewatch Cloverfield and pretend it's a prequel to Pacific Rim". Then the film gives us the details of K-Day, the first attack by the Kaiju Trespasser, and we realize something: Holy shit, Cloverfield IS the prequel!
Think about it for a second. What does the movie tell us happened? A giant monster crawls up out of the ocean and starts wrecking it's way through a city. The military try to fight it and fail, until finally they give up and just nuke the damn thing. Sound familiar? Sure, it apparently took them 3 weeks to put down Trespasser, whereas Cloverfield takes place over the course of about 24 hours, but still. And let's be honest, the only thing Clover himself is missing is some bioluminescent doodads and he'd fit right in. Just a shame they never made a reasonably priced figure, otherwise we could start customising our own versions.
Perhaps the most obvious (in more ways than one) influence is of course the Toho one. Sure, we could probably go on about the Evangelion influence, but honestly, is there much point? Practically everything with a Mecha in it has an Evangelion influence, ever since that show first came out.
Are you honestly surprised that Japan has the best posters for this?
I've nothing against the show, but I am at heart slightly more of a Tokusatsu fanboy than anime nerd. So rather than speculating if the Blue highlights in Makos hair are a reference to Rei Ayanami (or indeed thirty thousand other anime characters, but probably Rei) I find it slightly more interesting to talk about the golden age of Godzilla films. And I don't just mean in the sense that there's big honking monsters in them.
One of the consistent themes in the Daikaiju Eiga and Tokusatsu work of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsubaraya is a certain optimism towards the themes of international cooperation and the advancement of science. A faith in the power of progress if you will. Whilst their films were obviously centered around Japan they usually retained some international flavour. And this spirit is very much alive and well in Pacific Rim. Not only does the plot itself feature the nations of the world coming together and producing a defense against the encroaching menace through the raw power of SCIENCE! (which is like regular science, only involves giant robots), but the cast of characters shows an international scope that 1960s Toho budget could only dream of. Just think about it for a moment. Of the main hero characters we have only ONE white American male. 2 if you include the comic relief scientist, but we'll get to him later. The remaining white guys the rest are Australian. And their commander is a badass dude who is somehow both Black and, of all things, English. You don't see that very often. The female lead is Japanese, the main portion of the action takes place in Hong Kong. As steps in the right direction go this is leagues away from the standard white dudes in New York most action films seem to go for. Although admittedly it's not going to be passing the Bechdel Test any time soon, so I guess you can't win them all.
Outside of themes and premise there are lot's of little nods to the films of yore, from both Toho and it's competitors. Knifehead would appear to be inspired by Guiron, an old Gamera foe for example And Raiju is very much a modern take on the Ultraman monster Gabora. Then there's subtler nods, such as the way Otochai scrambles over various crumbling buildings, echoing various scenes of suitmation destruction where the model buildings were, whether by intent or accident, unable to support the actors weight. And when he later loses his tail the resulting wound is rendered in the much the same style as that inflicted on Gomora in his fight with the original Ultraman. It could simply be a coincidence of course, but the whole film just seems so steeped in these sort of details and references. It's positively redolent with love for the genre in fact.
One thing I particularly liked was the complete absence of both any romantic subplot, or any last minute nonsensical snogging. And not just because I'm bitter and lonely. See, Daikaiju Eiga is one of the very few genres that actually recognizes that it is in fact possible for a man and woman to not immediately leap into each others pants. Your average actionfest may well have a male and female lead who spend most of the run time hating each others guts, but will immediately start devouring each others faces come the final shot of the film. Not so the giant monster movie. The ladies here are sisters and daughters. friends or colleagues. The absolute most you'll ever get even if there is some genuine attraction is maybe holding hands. Partly this is, I suppose from the natural Japanese reserve. Partly it's from many of the various Godzilla films and what have you being marketed towards young boys who really have no interest in such things. So I guess it's slightly ironic that this is about the only place mature enough to recognize that there's more to life than sex outside of old school Doctor Who. So it was a tremendous relief for me when the film closed out with a relieved hug rather than a last minute snog. Which is kinda funny when you think about it as this is one of the few instances where it might have made sense, what with the two characters compatibility being a driving plot point and everything.
Perhaps the only thing one might assume I find disappointing is that there isn't more of an overt influence from Ultraman. But you might be surprised just how much there already is. Just look at the main characters. We have the handsome hero...
The stern and experienced commanding officer...
The comic relief scientific support....
The one who's angry and violent but doesn't get on so good as he's not the lead...
The woman...
Like I said, not passing the Bechdel Test. Although at least they got the dude from RvB to be the receptionist so at least she get's to go out and kick ass rather than spend half her screen time making the tea. The only thing missing here is the irritating child character, which frankly comes as something of a relief. Then there's the brief flash you get when Herman Gottlieb drifts with Newt where his younger self appears to be wearing something highly reminiscent of a Science Patrol uniform and playing with a model Jet VTOL. Although I'm sure it's something that just LOOKS kinda like that. Because if Ultraman was actually showing in the world of Pacific Rim it wouldn't have taken them so long to work out how fight the Kaiju in the first place.
I.E. beat it up for about 2 minutes then SPECIUM BEAM that sonofabitch in the face,
Another thing that gives off distinct Ultraman vibes is the Kaiju themselves. After all, the Ultraman shows were always quiet ingenious in repurposing old suits to create new monsters and there's even a bit of that here with at least 3 of the Kaiju being built around the same basic body. Stick a new head on it, lick of paint and maybe change the tail? Sounds like an Ultraman monster to me.
I think part of what helps ground the film in the sense of the genres history is how the design of both the Kaiju and Jaegers, whilst achieved in CGI, all have a distinct sense that they could be realized through the traditional arts of suitmotion. I mean, look at Cherno Alpha. It's the only Jaeger not to have a humanoid head, but they sure as hell made sure the design had somewhere for the suit actors head to go. Now, I'm not saying you'd get the same sort of effect or range of movement. Different tools do different jobs. What I am saying is that it's TOTALLY possible for a skilled craftsman to build a Knifehead suit. If you don't think you can build something with 4 arms like that then maybe you should look up that robot suit from this years comic-con.
And if you take that and combine it with that giant Gomora suit they made a few of years back...
All you need to do is fine tune the balance using the tail. And pretty sure they've already mastered that with the raptors from G98 and Jurassic Park. I will be massively disappointed if someone doesn't at least TRY over the next year or so.
Of course, it's this firm grounding in the history of the genre that makes Pacific Rim the baffling irony that it is, in the the context of modern cinema. Hollywood is continually rehashing old ideas, mining classic properties for name recognition and generally failing to come up with anything genuinely new or exciting. And the we have a film like Pacific Rim which is somehow seen as a brave new thing, a risky experiment in establishing a new property. And yet it has mined the past just as shamelessly as all those terrible reboots and soulless adaptations that the critical community take such exception to. And yes, it saddens me to not have to specify the critical community rather than general audiences, but what can you do? There's no accounting for a total lack of taste. The difference here is simply one of heart and respect. Something that seems to be lacking from an alarming amount of allegedly creative projects these days.
Still, the film does seem to have done reasonably well. Although whether reasonably well is ultimately good enough remains to be seen. The question then naturally turns to the future, to whether or not we've got a new franchise on our hands here. Because apparently these days it's franchise or nothing, and review scores are nowhere near as reliable an indicator of quality as the number of sequels. APPARENTLY.
Is Pacific Rim franchise material? Should it be? I think I'll talk about that next time. Stay tuned.
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