In honor of the kaiju dominating the theaters, let’s go with Atarashi Gakko! and their latest, Tokyo Calling. Now you may ask yourself how does this remind you of kaiju? Well, if you clicked through and listen, you will know. Yeah, it’s got visuals on a miniature set, but also the song itself reminds me of the Godzilla theme with a sprinkling of the Mothra theme.
Anyhow…
We are marching! We are marching! We are marching!
How to Train Your Dragon 2 gets the thankless task of being the last film to open before the big juggernaut of Michael Bay’s Transforming dinobots or as I like to call it: The End of Days! Dragon doesn’t have the same action cache as a Michael Bay film, but it is a part of a better, coherent franchise.
Dragon 2 begins a few years after the first one ended. Dragons are the norm in Hiccup’s town; they are embraced, loved, and cared for. The town spends their time doing dragon races. Hiccup spends it exploring the world for more dragons. He’s grown up and may be ready for being the leader of his town. His dad thinks so. He doesn’t.
While exploring Hiccup eventually finds his mom. She’s a recluse living in a dragon world communing with dragons. She’s a natural dragon rider who believes her son has inherited her skills. Hiccup has but is not in a league like her mom. Hiccup has inherited his mother’s dragon nurturing skill. He’s nothing like his dad. But the movie will show that he will be his father’s son.
The mother could’ve been a more interesting character. She’s strong willed and talented. She knows dragons showing Hiccup a thing or two about the Night Fury he rides. Yet, as the movie progresses she becomes boring. She doesn’t get to use her dragon prowess to defeat the big bad. She disappears from the plot in the tail end of the movie. She could’ve been used better.
The animation looked phenomenal. The famous DP, Roger Deakins, is a consultant, and the camera work is absolutely amazing. It’ll wow you with its depth of field, shading, and lighting.
Finally, as with Godzilla, this film had kaiju. It’s a big kaiju lovefest.
3 of 5 stars.
I was expecting the latest Godzilla to be a reboot of the original, Gojira. Instead I got a “Godzilla versus” film. This one is Godzilla versus MUTOs, Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Objects.
The movie starts in the Philippines where a mining operation finds a large skeleton of something, but they unleash two MUTOs into the world. The first one finds its way to a Japanese nuclear power plant with Brian Cranston and Juliette Binoche as scientists worried about the seismic activity heading their way. The second one is stored in the US. These are not Godzilla. He seems to hang out in some far off land waiting for MUTOs to show up. I can’t wait for the sequel to see “Monster Island,” because I want to reference that classic Simpsons line: it’s actually a peninsula.
The MUTOs destroy Japan then head to America destroying first Honolulu then San Francisco. Godzilla follows them in order to stop them. He’s Nature’s exterminator. He kicks ass and shoots radioactive breath. He stomps and stomps, and doesn’t care for humans.
Neither does the movie. Humans and actors didn’t matter. It was just about big kaiju. I wanted to see kaiju; I got kaiju once more. Except it wasn’t so awesome. The action was there, but kaiju versus kaiju isn’t as satisfying as kaiju versus giant robot.
The humans weren’t so memorable. I couldn’t care about them. And their issues: trying to get home, trying to justify their craziness, trying to reunite with loved ones. Eh. Just give me kaiju.
Godzilla is a summer movie. Will it be the biggest, baddest of them all? We’ll have to find out. Here comes summer.
3 of 5 stars.
Pacific Rim was my most anticipated summer movie. I was so gung-ho for it since catching the teaser trailer last winter. Giant robots versus kaiju? Sign me up. I’m there.
Now it’s in theatres as we speak, but will it live up to the build up?
HELL YEAH!
Pacific Rim is about monsters from space attacking earth. In the beginning, these monster, or kaiju — from the Japanese ‘strange beast‘ — were tough to put down. Yet, earthlings fought back forming a Pan Pacific Defense Corps composed of giant robots, or jeagers — from the German ‘hunters.’ They beat back these monsters, but after awhile the monsters evolve and gain the upper hand. This forces the shutdown of the PPDC and the earthlings to build giant walls to keep the monsters at bay. In a last desperate attempt, the few remaining jaegers are thrown into the Breach to shut down the monster portal. It’s a plot out of an anime!
If you compare Pacific Rim to an anime, you’ll find it wanting. When you have 13-26 episodes (6-12 hours), you can fill it with characterization. You can make your characters, troubled high school kids who also must save the world. With a movie of 2+ hours, you’re left with shallow characterizations summed up in cliché: the father son team, the washed up pilot and the newbie. There’s no characterization, but these labels. The characters are defined by them and they live up to them.
But what you want in a movie with giant mecha and kaiju? Big, loud battles! You get them. And more. If you ever wondered what a Voltron slash would look like, it’s here. If you ever wanted to see the missiles released from giant mecha, it’s here. Pacific Rim lives up to it’s billing in the fights. That’s what we want, it’s what we get. Satisfying.
I won’t let the shallow characters ruin it. After all, for 2 hours with tons of mecha versus kaiju battles, I would rather see that than the characters. Let television and anime have it. Just give me giant robots!
4 of 5 stars.
Quick thoughts on Pacific Rim, which was awesome. And also with some reservations.
Ah, yeah! July 12, 2013. Fasten your seat belts. We are so there. Right!
I think I’m gonna watch some Godzilla, then move on to Evangelion. I’m starting right now.
Ripoff!
When’s this going to be on SyFy? And why isn’t it about Gorilla-bots from the future! Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Yet, you can not look away.
One of the trailers before The Hobbit.
I was about to stand up and cheer. I was going nuts in my seat. I absolutely can’t wait for this one. Hope they don’t fuck it up. When will we get this?!
I was never an Evangelion fan. I don’t worry too much about mecha. But with the live action mechas in this one, I may have to catch up with Evangelion before Pacific Rim comes out.
