Movie Thoughts: Pacific Rim Uprising
Apr. 4th, 2018 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI wouldn't say "a live action movie is the sure sign of a property having arrived" the way some people seem to, but I admit that close to five years ago now I was intrigued just by the thought of the movie Pacific Rim, and went to see it with what must have been some hope "piloted giant robots" might push a little further forward into the consciousness of some. In retrospect, though, I'm aware I bought the Blu-Ray afterwards (back when Target was still open on the corner of the block where I lived), but haven't got to opening it yet (although I suppose it's in ample company there).
Off-and-on rumours the movie had done just well enough to be permitted a sequel turned into reality at last, although a lot of people just seemed ambiguous Guillermo del Toro would be much less involved the second time around. I did watch the trailers not that long before the new movie opened, and didn't feel quite grabbed by them. However, a halfway positive comment or two did catch my eye, and perhaps John Boyega playing the lead role also got my attention; his role in the Disney Star Wars movies, I have to admit, left me with a feeling of "if only he didn't always seem to wind up fumbling comedy relief." I decided to see Pacific Rim Uprising on the second weekend, though, thinking there'd be no crowd. However, going to a different theatre a bit further away meant I was seated in one motorized recliner among not quite as many as there would be regular seats, and most of them did seem filled.
I might have been cautious to start with, but one thing that did sneak up on me was that while the comedy relief scientists from the first movie had returned, old thoughts coming to mind had me thinking they didn't seem one of the harder things to like now. It's just possible that alone made this movie improve in my mind. If there was one thing I might have had a bit more trouble with, though, it was that in featuring more pilots (the first movie had about as many giant robots, but I recall some of them were pretty quickly dispatched) a lot of them still seemed a little hard to distinguish by the end. John Boyega's character was interesting, anyway, although his using a completely different accent than in the Disney Star Wars movies did get my attention. In retrospect, though, I did get to thinking that while the trailers had shown me just how things would end up, some of the early sequences had seemed more a step towards "giant robots versus giant robots," if still some distance away from "protagonists versus antagonists with their mecha sometimes in between, and sometimes perhaps not." Whether we'll ever get to that point in a "Hollywood"-type live action production (aware near the last moment I'm not that aware of Japanese live-action special effects excursions in just such a way as to keep a certain awareness of the possibly broad, possibly misinterpreted appeal of anime and manga character designs in my mind), in this franchise or another, I don't know; still, I may yet add another Blu-Ray to my collection, and may even get around to opening it.
Off-and-on rumours the movie had done just well enough to be permitted a sequel turned into reality at last, although a lot of people just seemed ambiguous Guillermo del Toro would be much less involved the second time around. I did watch the trailers not that long before the new movie opened, and didn't feel quite grabbed by them. However, a halfway positive comment or two did catch my eye, and perhaps John Boyega playing the lead role also got my attention; his role in the Disney Star Wars movies, I have to admit, left me with a feeling of "if only he didn't always seem to wind up fumbling comedy relief." I decided to see Pacific Rim Uprising on the second weekend, though, thinking there'd be no crowd. However, going to a different theatre a bit further away meant I was seated in one motorized recliner among not quite as many as there would be regular seats, and most of them did seem filled.
I might have been cautious to start with, but one thing that did sneak up on me was that while the comedy relief scientists from the first movie had returned, old thoughts coming to mind had me thinking they didn't seem one of the harder things to like now. It's just possible that alone made this movie improve in my mind. If there was one thing I might have had a bit more trouble with, though, it was that in featuring more pilots (the first movie had about as many giant robots, but I recall some of them were pretty quickly dispatched) a lot of them still seemed a little hard to distinguish by the end. John Boyega's character was interesting, anyway, although his using a completely different accent than in the Disney Star Wars movies did get my attention. In retrospect, though, I did get to thinking that while the trailers had shown me just how things would end up, some of the early sequences had seemed more a step towards "giant robots versus giant robots," if still some distance away from "protagonists versus antagonists with their mecha sometimes in between, and sometimes perhaps not." Whether we'll ever get to that point in a "Hollywood"-type live action production (aware near the last moment I'm not that aware of Japanese live-action special effects excursions in just such a way as to keep a certain awareness of the possibly broad, possibly misinterpreted appeal of anime and manga character designs in my mind), in this franchise or another, I don't know; still, I may yet add another Blu-Ray to my collection, and may even get around to opening it.