The Spoileriffic Pacific Rim Open Thread

[jhameia]

BECAUSE I REALLY WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!

Please do not click and read if you don't want to get spoilers for the movie.

Please DO click and read and reply if you want to talk about ERRTHING in the movie.

<3

Comments

Re: Black Men Dying

[blacksentai]

I totally agree about the other pilots dying as well. I understand that dangerous racism is a super cool robot and all, but how does it survive where people who've been fighting for a while now got just totally obliterated. I also thought their deaths were super obvious and there was little to no emotional impact because I think there were like six lines totals between the Russians and the Chinese triplets in the whole movie.
Yeah, I was also thinking that Stacker and young dumb Aussie should've been able to eject themselves. The idea was that they were going to deliver the bomb and come back alive, so escape should've been a possibility. Even if they wrote in that the Jaeger was too damaged to allow escape they didn't have to write that.
I really liked the movie. I just think there is so much that could've been better.

Re: Black Men Dying

[jhameia]

I don't really get how Racist Danger is supposed to be BETTER.... AND I LAUGHED AND LAUGHED AND LAUGHED when they were all like IT'S ANALOG NOT DIGITAL SO TOTALLY APPROPRIATE FOR THIS MISSION like what that didn't even make sense!!!! XDDDDDDDDDDD

The thing about the other pilots dying too is that it becomes LESS about "the world saving the world" as a result. I know Mako is supposed to be Japanese and there's the Aussie robot, but at the end of the day the American robot is still the victorious, heroic one.

I really enjoyed the movie too! It hit a lot of really great spots for me, but there were so many things that could have been better and I really appreciate having people to share these feels with.

Re: Black Men Dying

[nyarlathotep]

I found it annoying that the Russian couple (who I assumed were siblings, but then I later found out were actually spouses) and the triplets didn’t make it, but their fates were kind of sealed by the fight that kills them, because they didn’t even get a single line until that scene began. Dead giveway, there.

Even Stacker’s death was carefully choreographed and foreshadowed right from the beginning of the movie, with all that angsty pill-eating and random bleeding all over the place. Having him survive would have been a great plus with the movie, but knowing fucking Hollywood, they wouldn’t be happy with a black man character having all the lines and surviving. The beast needed to eat, so it had to eat the noble black guy and the asshole man-child who barely gets any redemption.

Actually, Hani suggested that the reason why the asshole man-child bit the dust was to balance out the emotional output of Stacker’s death. They didn’t want Stacker’s noble death to totally torpedo the victory feels you were supposed to get, so they tossed in the asshole-manchild, who gets a perfunctory redemption scene beforehand before they all bite it, just so you don’t feel too bad for cheering the death an asshole who’s supposed to be nominally a hero. Especially since the asshole is a white boy.

Looking at it this way, you have to admire the kind of work that goes into this, even if the end result is fuckery and more fuckery.

What struck me was blacksentai’s observation that there were no other black or POC major characters other than Mako and Stacker — even Tendo, who is supposed to be Chinese-American, is played by someone with German and Mexican ancestry, who apparently finds work in portraying Latino parts. So, apart from the token POC presence, everyone in it were fucking hipsters. Even Hannibal Chau.

Actually this is probably one of the few roles from Ron Perelman that annoyed the crap out of me. Sure, the guy plays gruff asshole (something he’s used to playing, I am sure), but the fact that the dude had to appropriate an Azn name just… made me not care when the fetus-monster swallowed him whole.

Re: [REDACTED] Danger being “analog” | Re: Black Men Dying

[nyarlathotep]

I was going to shrug past the fact that [REDACTED] Danger being “analog” when I realized — hang on a minute, [REDACTED] Danger was also running GLaDOS, so technically the EMP should affect the Jaeger as well. What gives?

Re: [REDACTED] Danger being “analog” | Re: Black Men Dying

[jhameia]

EXAAAAAACTLYYYYYYY there's NO real significant difference between the Mach 3 and Mach 4 models that was really that visible within the cockpit; so much of the tech was the same! Thaaaaaaat's not how analog tech worrrrkkkssss.....

Re: [REDACTED] Danger being “analog” | Re: Black Men Dying

[nyarlathotep]

Maybe those HUD effects on [REDACTED] Danger were supposed to be hallucinations from being bathed by insane amounts of radiation and the neural bridge kot?