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I went and saw Pacific Rim on Friday night. I ended up seeing it in 3D, as not all of the group I was going with could make the earlier showings in glorious 2D. That being said, the use of 3D in this movie did not feel gimmicky at all, which is the usual problem I have with movies with 3D.
But I've been sort of avoiding other discussions of this movie because I've been mulling it over in my head. I want to go see it again, but we'll make due right now with my initial analysis of one of the more interesting points of this movie. (I could write reams of meta on this movie.)
Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie. This seems rather obvious, as it is giant robots fighting monsters, and you might be giving me the side-eye as to what else it could possibly be. But this is really important: Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie. It exists in the giant mecha genre. And because of that, it draws on, pays homage to, and ultimately in some cases, subverts the tropes of that genre. A lot of the beautiful genius of the movie comes from embracing those tropes.
I've seen Pacific Rim described as a B-movie. I'm not sure how much I agree with that. It certainly had a larger budget than a lot of B-movies I've seen (and I've seen a lot of them), but perhaps that description comes from not understanding that it is a giant mecha movie in the fundamental sense. This is a genre that includes Mazinger Z, Gundam, Macross, Robotech, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Martian Successor Nadesico, and Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann. This is a genre born of an animation tradition that did not have the powerhouse budget of Disney or Hollywood.
Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie. (Hell, Go Nagai and Hideaki Anno have both said very complementary things about del Toro's movie. We are in the "high praise indeed" territory here.)
Having said that, I am now going to ignore the robots for awhile. Because despite just how much my hands were twitching to start building models again during the movie, the robots aren't the most interesting thing here. It's how the various homages to the genre play out. There's the obvious bit about how some of the readouts and how the Jaegers are actually piloted look like they came straight out of Neon Genesis Evangelion (specifically, "Asuka Strikes!" and "Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!", early enough where one might be forgiven for thinking Evangelion was a fun, action-y series). Considering Evangelion is a deconstruction of the giant mecha genre, this is unsurprising.
But here's where things start to get interesting. In a lot of giant mecha series, there is your main hero. He is the pilot of the main robot hero. He's usually young and either cocky or in over his head. He's also usually the complete rookie who succeeds despite all odds being against him. He's usually got the best simulation scores or some unusually high attunement with the mecha or both. He's the one everyone underestimates until he proves them wrong. He's often also driven by revenge. This is a list that includes Simon, Akito Tenkawa, Amuro Ray, and yes, even Shinji Ikari.
There's also the counterpart to the young, rookie hero. It's the older mentor. Often a veteran of the fight or just a big brother figure. Maybe he's washed-up or just a tired vet. Maybe he used to be the ace pilot. He's generally the one that believes in the hero, even when no one else does, and tries to get him to do his best. (Also, he often dies.) These are the characters that include Kamina, Roy Fokker, and Gai Daigohji.
If you've seen the movie, here's the interesting thing about those two character descriptions: the mentor character is our viewpoint protagonist Raleigh. The mecha hero character is Mako.
Yes, that's right. Pacific Rim gave Mako Mori the character plot beats normally given to the shounen hero.
Which, all said, is a beautiful subversion. And works because it draws on those beats and typical character arcs. Which meant I would have totally been unsurprised if Raleigh died at the end, because that's what his character beats were leading to. It was a wonderful use of subverting audience expectations, but it only really works right if you read the movie as part of the giant mecha genre. And I'd been doing it subconsciously and didn't realize until after that I totally expected him to die during that sequence. And it was because I was reading the tropes of the genre.
Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie.
But I've been sort of avoiding other discussions of this movie because I've been mulling it over in my head. I want to go see it again, but we'll make due right now with my initial analysis of one of the more interesting points of this movie. (I could write reams of meta on this movie.)
Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie. This seems rather obvious, as it is giant robots fighting monsters, and you might be giving me the side-eye as to what else it could possibly be. But this is really important: Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie. It exists in the giant mecha genre. And because of that, it draws on, pays homage to, and ultimately in some cases, subverts the tropes of that genre. A lot of the beautiful genius of the movie comes from embracing those tropes.
I've seen Pacific Rim described as a B-movie. I'm not sure how much I agree with that. It certainly had a larger budget than a lot of B-movies I've seen (and I've seen a lot of them), but perhaps that description comes from not understanding that it is a giant mecha movie in the fundamental sense. This is a genre that includes Mazinger Z, Gundam, Macross, Robotech, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Martian Successor Nadesico, and Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann. This is a genre born of an animation tradition that did not have the powerhouse budget of Disney or Hollywood.
Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie. (Hell, Go Nagai and Hideaki Anno have both said very complementary things about del Toro's movie. We are in the "high praise indeed" territory here.)
Having said that, I am now going to ignore the robots for awhile. Because despite just how much my hands were twitching to start building models again during the movie, the robots aren't the most interesting thing here. It's how the various homages to the genre play out. There's the obvious bit about how some of the readouts and how the Jaegers are actually piloted look like they came straight out of Neon Genesis Evangelion (specifically, "Asuka Strikes!" and "Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!", early enough where one might be forgiven for thinking Evangelion was a fun, action-y series). Considering Evangelion is a deconstruction of the giant mecha genre, this is unsurprising.
But here's where things start to get interesting. In a lot of giant mecha series, there is your main hero. He is the pilot of the main robot hero. He's usually young and either cocky or in over his head. He's also usually the complete rookie who succeeds despite all odds being against him. He's usually got the best simulation scores or some unusually high attunement with the mecha or both. He's the one everyone underestimates until he proves them wrong. He's often also driven by revenge. This is a list that includes Simon, Akito Tenkawa, Amuro Ray, and yes, even Shinji Ikari.
There's also the counterpart to the young, rookie hero. It's the older mentor. Often a veteran of the fight or just a big brother figure. Maybe he's washed-up or just a tired vet. Maybe he used to be the ace pilot. He's generally the one that believes in the hero, even when no one else does, and tries to get him to do his best. (Also, he often dies.) These are the characters that include Kamina, Roy Fokker, and Gai Daigohji.
If you've seen the movie, here's the interesting thing about those two character descriptions: the mentor character is our viewpoint protagonist Raleigh. The mecha hero character is Mako.
Yes, that's right. Pacific Rim gave Mako Mori the character plot beats normally given to the shounen hero.
Which, all said, is a beautiful subversion. And works because it draws on those beats and typical character arcs. Which meant I would have totally been unsurprised if Raleigh died at the end, because that's what his character beats were leading to. It was a wonderful use of subverting audience expectations, but it only really works right if you read the movie as part of the giant mecha genre. And I'd been doing it subconsciously and didn't realize until after that I totally expected him to die during that sequence. And it was because I was reading the tropes of the genre.
Pacific Rim is a giant mecha movie.
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