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Author Topic: Giant robots. Giant monsters.  (Read 1946 times)

Silas Vitalia

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Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« on: 09 Jul 2013, 12:08 »

I got into an advanced IMAX 3D screening of PACIFIC RIM tonight.  Will report on the level of awesome.

As someone of an age who grew up seeing many saturday matinee monster movies and generous portions of Voltron, etc, this will hopefully be what I wanted to see in a movie as a ten year old :)

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Esna Pitoojee

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #1 on: 09 Jul 2013, 12:33 »

I want to like it, but some of the concepts seem a little silly, even for a "B-monster" movie.

e.g., "We have a problem with giant monsters. We shall build a giant mecha to fight it!"
"And put lasers and naval cannons and missiles with armor piercing warheads on it?"
"No... it shall punch the monsters."

or

"This mecha needs two people operating in a delicate and synchronized mindlink to make it work correctly."
*Other mecha runs just fine on one pilot.*
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I like the implications of Gallentians being punched in the face by walking up to a Minmatar as they so freely use another person's culture as a fad.

Lyn Farel

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #2 on: 09 Jul 2013, 13:10 »

IMAX = awesomesauce
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Alain Colcer

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #3 on: 09 Jul 2013, 13:54 »

e.g., "We have a problem with giant monsters. We shall build a giant mecha to fight it!"
"And put lasers and naval cannons and missiles with armor piercing warheads on it?"
"No... it shall punch the monsters."

 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Morwen Lagann

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #4 on: 09 Jul 2013, 13:57 »

e.g., "We have a problem with giant monsters. We shall build a giant mecha to fight it!"
"And put lasers and naval cannons and missiles with armor piercing warheads on it?"
"No... it shall punch the monsters."

 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

This reminds me of a discussion we've had about "badass" capsuleers who insist on physical hand-to-hand combat to settle every disagreement. :P
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Lagging Behind

Morwen's Law:
1) The number of capsuleer women who are bisexual is greater than the number who are lesbian.
2) Most of the former group appear lesbian due to a lack of suitable male partners to go around.
3) The lack of suitable male partners can be summed up in most cases thusly: interested, worth the air they breathe, available; pick two.

Silas Vitalia

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #5 on: 10 Jul 2013, 10:22 »

Turn off the critical part of your brain, pay to see it in IMAX in 3D.   

Absolutely worth your money, but only in a large-screen spectacle of entertainment sort of way.   Will be decidedly less interesting on a small screen.

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Anslol

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #6 on: 10 Jul 2013, 10:45 »

I want to like it, but some of the concepts seem a little silly, even for a "B-monster" movie.

e.g., "We have a problem with giant monsters. We shall build a giant mecha to fight it!"
"And put lasers and naval cannons and missiles with armor piercing warheads on it?"
"No... it shall punch the monsters."

or

"This mecha needs two people operating in a delicate and synchronized mindlink to make it work correctly."
*Other mecha runs just fine on one pilot.*

All of my this tbh.
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Silas Vitalia

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #7 on: 10 Jul 2013, 11:07 »

Like I said, you have to turn off critical / rational part of your brain or you won't make it 5 minutes into the movie.  Once you let yourself be a kid you will be more than excited about giant robots physically bashing in giant lizards, instead of the more 'realistic' concept of them being blasted from a safe distance.

Seriously though, on a giant ten-story screen, the monsters, robots, and spectacle of $100 million of CGI budget are extremely impressive and absolutely worth your time.   Watching it at home on your big tv will be decidedly 'meh'.

 
Despite thoroughly enjoying the monster bashing here are the spoiler criticisms:


I think I would have appreciated some alterations to keep the 'world' of the movie self consistent.  Movies like this quickly set up their own 'rules' for how the world works, and you get on board and as long as it stays consistent then you can roll with most anything.

If I'm going to build giant robots to physically punch and kick giant monsters, give me an explanation of why this is necessary and why shooting them doesn't work too well (Their hides are too thick for our conventional weapons! We have to bash their brains in its the only way! Sure, ok, I'll go with it). 

If that's the case that you build giant punching robots to do this, then don't give the damned robots ranged weapons that they use on the monsters.  In some of the fights there were 'finishing move' sorts of things with missiles or giant plasma arm cannons, etc.    You better believe if I have a giant plasma cannon I'm going to park the thing a mile away from the kaiju and blast his brains out from a distance, etc.

Sometimes there were giant robot sized special cutting blades (swords, etc), ok sure! That looked neat as hell, I'll roll with it....... althoug I'm still going to opt to build one of these giant cutting weapons and put the thing on a catapult and fling it at a monster instead of attaching it to something that is going to get munched on.

I think what I've often preferred in many of the Japanese versions of these things is that the giant human mecha have an awesome array of crazy weaponry; lasers, guns, missiles, who knows what. The hand-to-hand stuff sometimes happens as a last resort, but in like Robotech most of the time its flying around and blasting people.

I would have preferred a little more 'assists' during the Kaiju fights - lots of little planes and tanks and missiles and I don't know, creative ways to show it's more of a military team effort. maybe we get to see the kaiju being blasted a bit before the mecha come in to 'finish it' who knows.



« Last Edit: 10 Jul 2013, 11:19 by Silas Vitalia »
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orange

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #8 on: 10 Jul 2013, 20:06 »

If that's the case that you build giant punching robots to do this, then don't give the damned robots ranged weapons that they use on the monsters.  In some of the fights there were 'finishing move' sorts of things with missiles or giant plasma arm cannons, etc.    You better believe if I have a giant plasma cannon I'm going to park the thing a mile away from the kaiju and blast his brains out from a distance, etc.

Incoming semi-realistic-technobabble.

About those ranged plasma cannons... from more than 10m away (we are talking about giant robots and monsters) they become ineffective due to tracking issues.  At over 1 km away, the plasma dissipates to much to be effective even against tank armor.  See, we have to get up close to the giant alien to even effectively use the finishing plasma cannon.

The reason we can't fit the plasma cannon on missile is a power-plant problem and there are again some associated tracking issues.

But none of the above really matters, because it isn't meant to make you think.

Quote
Like I said, you have to turn off critical / rational part of your brain or you won't make it 5 minutes into the movie.  Once you let yourself be a kid you will be more than excited about giant robots physically bashing in giant lizards, instead of the more 'realistic' concept of them being blasted from a safe distance.

I realized this after seeing a few trailers (I have not seen the movie).  The kid in me was finally able to break through and scream at me "Dude! It is giant robots fighting giant aliens! Isn't that cool!?!??!"
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Saikoyu

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #9 on: 12 Jul 2013, 13:05 »

I watch anime, I probably don't have a rational part of my brain anymore.  Thanks for the review.

:thinks about finding babysitter and dragging SO to see this:
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Vincent Pryce

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #10 on: 14 Jul 2013, 01:37 »

This movie was so much awesomesauce, I felt like a kid watching this. Saw it on firday in Cineplex UltraAVX ( imax 3d and assorted goodness ) in Winnipeg. So much echoes of Neon Genesis Evangelion in a good way. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

And yeah if you go see this, unleash the inner child and don't think - just enjoy. YOu can see and feel the 90s anime in this movie, right up with finishing moves and special weapons styles. It's not meant to make sense, it's live action anime.

PS. Where the hell is my goddamn shoe!?
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BloodBird

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #11 on: 14 Jul 2013, 03:27 »

I want to like it, but some of the concepts seem a little silly, even for a "B-monster" movie.

e.g., "We have a problem with giant monsters. We shall build a giant mecha to fight it!"
"And put lasers and naval cannons and missiles with armor piercing warheads on it?"
"No... it shall punch the monsters."

or

"This mecha needs two people operating in a delicate and synchronized mindlink to make it work correctly."
*Other mecha runs just fine on one pilot.*

All of my this tbh.

Quoting to agree fully, but not to start an argument. Can have other treads for that.

Also Silas, you sure about that advice? My TV screen is pretty rad and I do enjoy all my movies on it.

Also:

<- Does not have any cinemas inside acceptable distances so can't see this in cinemas as it is. (Unless I want to spend an estimated 2 days walking to the nearest city that has a cinema I can see it on, and by then I'll be sleeping through the whole think most likely  :lol:)
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kalaratiri

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #12 on: 16 Jul 2013, 04:40 »

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Joh

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #13 on: 17 Jul 2013, 15:51 »

Pacific Rim is awesome. Saw it  twice in IMAX 3d. If you see it don't expect anything but kaiju fighting mecha.
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Gottii

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Re: Giant robots. Giant monsters.
« Reply #14 on: 17 Jul 2013, 17:17 »

This is a movie that makes a clear choice.

If there is ever a fork in the road, where the movie can either choose to be intelligent or awesome, this movie picks awesome every time. 

Love it.  Probably should be enjoyed as a drinking game.
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