The online buzz surrounding Guillermo del Toro’s new robot action flick, Pacific Rim, is as brain frazzling as the actual film itself.
PacificRim premiered at the UME Shuangjing IMAX theater on Monday, July 29, ahead of its wide opening in China on Wednesday. The event didn't see any of the cast members attend, but brought out local luminaries including The Last Supper director Lu Chuan, Waiting Alone director Dayyan Eng, and actress Gong Beibi. We also know that Aftershock star Zhang Jingchu snuck in after the paparazzi took their seats. There was free popcorn, after all.
!['Waiting Alone' director Dayyan Eng (left) and actress Gong Beibi came out to see the big robots.]()
This is Hollywood in its most puerile form, expect no subtleties. But if you’re like me, and many of these film reviewers, whose taste in cinema is governed by that first glimpse of a star destroyer you saw in Star Wars 30 years ago, this film shouldn’t disappoint you.
!['The Last Supper' director Lu Chuan provided much-needed scale in the foreground.]()
1. Mind-blowing special effects
An editor from the Beijinger who saw the film describes it as, “getting punched in the face non-stop for two hours.” And Justin Chang, senior film critic for Variety couldn’t put it any better: “a crushed-metal orgy that plays like an extended 3D episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on very expensive acid.” (See the trailer above to get an idea).
2. Insane soundtrack
The simulation of getting punched in the face while watching Power Rangers on acid has a lot to with the film’s score. The guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello, and composer for Iron Man and Game of ThronesRamin Djawadi, put together a whopping soundtrack.
Djawadi explains to Rolling Stone, "Guillermo and I were discussing adding a rock element to the score and Tom's unique style and sounds really defined our robots." Morello adds, "When they asked me to put some giant robot riffs and screaming underwater monster licks on the film score, I was all in."
Listen: Pacific Rim
3.Original story
Angela Watercutter from Wired.com (whose kick-ass review inspired me to write this post) makes the point that out of all the other sci-fi blockbusters coming out this summer, this one is an original story – a legacy of the Star Wars and Ghostbusters films that defined our childhoods in the '80s:
“Pacific Rim is an increasingly rare breed in Hollywood: an original story. It’s not based on a comic or a prequel of a popular Pixar film or a sequel to a movie version of a popular TV show … a worthy contender for Most Worth Multiple Theater Outings, a film capable of recapturing that feeling of movie magic — the feeling that the purpose of movie-going is escapism.”
4. An Epic Hong Kong battle scene
Although the movies is pretty much one non-stop battle, the most hyped fight scene is set in Hong Kong. In another post, "Why Pacific Rim’s Hong Kong Battle Will Blow Your Mind," Watercutter quotes del Toro:
“When you go to Hong Kong the thing that is so impressive and beautiful is the sort of neon-color night. There is literally a time when the night is falling in Hong Kong that there is a light show that all the buildings do and the night becomes almost like a living comic book.”
And Industrial Light & Magic’s John Knoll pipes in, "[My] favorite moment is when [Jaeger] Gipsy [Danger] picks up a boat out of the harbor and uses it as a club to just wail on one of the creatures.”
5. Opinion leaders agree: go see this film
To many a nerd's glee, the genius behind Metal Gear, Hideo Kojima, reviewed Pacific Rim on Twitter, "The emotional rush I had inside me was the same kind I had when I felt the outer space via 2001: A Space Odyssey and when I had touched the dinosaur in Jurassic Park - animation and special effects movies and shows that I loved in my childhood days.”
Even Kanye Weststuck up for the film when he tweeted to the masses, “I saw a pre-screening of Pacific Rim yesterday and it’s easily one of my favorite movies of all time … This is not another “robot” movie. Guillermo del Toro is a master.”
How much we can trust West’s opinion is probably a good subject for another list post – "Five Reasons Not to Trust Kanye West’s Film Reviews," but when del Toro revealed the film’s logo in 2011 he said it would involve “giant f*cking robots versus giant f*cking monsters,” and for me that’s reason enough to go see the movie on a giant f*cking screen.
Pacific Rim is playing in theaters across Beijing, including in 3-D IMAX at UME Shuangjing.
Here are some more arts and culture events not to miss this week:
