Stompy Robot Time: Pacific Rim

[Lord Relvenous]

There are video game cutscenes and YouTube clips waiting for those people. There certainly needs to be a context to prevent the action being literally meaningless, and I think it's interesting that the standard of robit media is such that those not wholly ignorant expect an interesting and meaningful framing of the punch up. We can hope that we don't get typical event movie unnecessary exposition and shit, but I'm not sure it's fair to expect it to be much better than typical American monster/robit/event movies (Christ it's like a trifecta of fail).

Oh, I certainly don't expect it to. While the movie looks entertaining, the trailer didn't give me any reason to think that this movie will be any better than its contemporaries. I would honestly be surprised if it was any better in the plot department than G.I. Joe or Battleship.

[LadyTevar]

Given that I liked the first G.I.Joe movie as a mindless popcorn flick, I will be very content to have Pacific Rim match that level. I am not looking for Oscar material here, I'm looking for mindless robot-monster beat-em-up to waste a few hours of the day while I eat overpriced popcorn and nachos.

But who knows, I might get a decent movie out of it. If so, that's gravy. Face it this is a movie that's going to live more by the strength of it's CGI than by plot no matter what. It's not going to be IronMan, Thor, or any of the Avengers Movies. So why expect more?

[Stark]

Because there are literally hundreds of hours of material presenting a 'how to' guide?

Perhaps its all too complicated for the target audience defined by the word 'mindless'.

[LadyTevar]

Stark, face it, 90% of moviegoers are "mindless". Otherwise why would the Twilight series have made so much money?

[Stark]

For sure, whether or not its mindless probably won't impact its success; its an 'event movie', so nobody expects it to make any fucking sense. But I think in the specific ourve of 'robit stuff' its sad that they apparently didn't even try to make good/interesting/compelling robits, or robit combat, or whatever.

The water does look very nice, though.

[Sky Captain]

This movie looks even more hilarious than Independence Day. Maybe I will go and watch it because of CGI and for laughs.
I wonder why they don't attack monsters with conventional weapons other than fighter uselessly firing machine gun at it. If it can be beaten by giant robot in hand to hand combat then stuff like massed heavy guided bomb and missile and artilery attacks should also be effective. Then there always is a Nuclear Option. Monsters came from the ocean so an attack submarines with nuclear torpedoes and ships with nuclear depth charges should be the most effective.

[Stark]

There's a big difference between selling a conceit and people just not getting it. It doesn't matter why they don't use regular weapons really, and whatever the conceit is nerds probably won't like it anyway. In Evangelion they went out of their way to show nuclear weapons being useless and people STILL said OMG why no nuclear bomb tanks?!?!

You should really ask why western artists decided that showing alternatives being ineffective or impractical should best be shown in really stupid ways. But y'know maybe wait till the movie comes out? :v

[Connor MacLeod]

Stark, face it, 90% of moviegoers are "mindless". Otherwise why would the Twilight series have made so much money?

Yeah they are, but in some ways thats just making excuses sa much as stating a fact. There is nothing WRONG with mindless entertainment, but if one restricts one's expectations (or interests) to JUST mindless fiction, it may get boring and/or limited (and it can be limiting on the genre as well.) One of the things I most often hate about 40K is how it emphasizes more of the wargaming aspect, especially when it comes to pushing Space Marines, because there are so many other vivid aspects of the setting worth exploring (and with a fanbase), but that gets neglected because Space Marines are where the sales (and wish fufillment) are.

And Space Marines are a good example that embodies the 'mindless' aspect pretty well here. It can be enjoyable for awhile, but if you get nothing but HOT SPACE MARINE ACTION all the time, it gets bland and dull (for me, at least. Of course my tolernace for HOT IMPERIAL GUARD action is far greater because I am biased that way, but also because expectations are generlaly lower for the guard cuz of their 'theme'. LOL)

[LadyTevar]

[Alkaloid]

"I was very influenced by anime."

We fuck me dead, whoda thunk it?

[Majin Gojira]

"I was very influenced by anime."

We fuck me dead, whoda thunk it?

I like that he said that, and then followed it up with saying he insisted on avoiding references. That adds a lot.

[LadyTevar]

And this is why there are TWO PILOTS. One alone can't handle the stress.

[Grumman]

And this is why there are TWO PILOTS. One alone can't handle the stress.

Which still makes no damn sense. Now instead of synchronising with the Jaeger, you're synchronising with the Jaeger and your copilot.

[SylasGaunt]

IIRC it's a left brain/right brain kinda thing.


I should also point out that it IS possible to kill kaiju with conventional and nuclear weaponry. That's how they killed the first 4 or 5 of them that showed up before the Jaeger's went operational.

The problem is that they seem to be essentially suicide weapons that beeline straight for population centers which basically means whether you go conventional or nuclear you can't kill the thing without losing a city unless you get lucky and lure it back out of the city before you nuke it (which they did with one that attacked Sydney). If you try to kill it without nuking it you end up having to drop a ton of conventional firepower on it which in addition to doing plenty of destruction on its own, also scatters bits of kaiju and their blood all over.. which then decays into kaiju blue and poisons the whole area anyway.

[Professor Dire]

The "year Zero" graphic novel covers the concepts of the bridge connection's development, and yes the Kaiju are very toxic when they die. IIRC Kaiju have an ammonia based biology.

[SylasGaunt]

Hmm, I don't know about you folks but this businessman seems legit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWLOJU-YVGs

[Tsyroc]

Hmm, I don't know about you folks but this businessman seems legit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWLOJU-YVGs

"At your local black market today".

[phred]

I like that he said that, and then followed it up with saying he insisted on avoiding references. That adds a lot.

I think he was trying to say he wanted a giant robot movie, but didnt want people pointing at the robots and saying 'Oh look, it's an EVA and a Gundam!'

Hmm, I don't know about you folks but this businessman seems legit.

Well it's Ron Perlman. Of course you can trust him.

[CaptainChewbacca]

One thing I saw in a trailer that seemed interesting is that the more similar the pilots' memories are, the stronger the connection. That explains why a lot of the Jaeger teams are families like a father-son, loving couple, and three triplets. Its a cool twist.

Edit: This is a stupid question, but once we get good at detecting where Kaiju are in the ocean, why can't we just pop one with a tactical nuke?

[Raw Shark]

Edit: This is a stupid question, but once we get good at detecting where Kaiju are in the ocean, why can't we just pop one with a tactical nuke?

If by "pop one with a tactical nuke" you mean "punch one in the face with a fist-mounted tactical nuke," I think the Rules of Cool operational here will allow it...

[Lord Relvenous]

One thing I saw in a trailer that seemed interesting is that the more similar the pilots' memories are, the stronger the connection. That explains why a lot of the Jaeger teams are families like a father-son, loving couple, and three triplets. Its a cool twist.

Edit: This is a stupid question, but once we get good at detecting where Kaiju are in the ocean, why can't we just pop one with a tactical nuke?

It seems like the Kaiju only operate near large cities, meaning nuclear strikes could easily ruin the city you're trying to protect. Of course, the trailers make it out to be an extinction threat, so you'd think we'd get a bit more desperate. Also, I would guess that the ocean itself would protect the Kaiju somewhat from the blast (of course, that could be entirely wrong).

[Sea Skimmer]

If by protect you mean massively amplify the blast wave via water being incompressible compared to air, then yes, it totally would. The water won't even protect against the radiation if a nuclear torpedo was used that went off with a contact burst, as opposed to just dropping a nuclear depth charge nearby.

Reasonably you could also just load a series of giant steel tube with thousand ton of bulk ANFO or similar explosive charges, and moor them in the harbor approaches as mines. Kaiju would be a lot more dangerous though if they communicate somehow, but it magic or whatever, and could warn each other of tricks like this and make less predictable approaches. Somehow I bet this will not be the case, but who knows.

[Lord Relvenous]

If by protect you mean massively amplify the blast wave via water being incompressible compared to air, then yes, it totally would. The water won't even protect against the radiation if a nuclear torpedo was used that went off with a contact burst, as opposed to just dropping a nuclear depth charge nearby.

Reasonably you could also just load a series of giant steel tube with thousand ton of bulk ANFO or similar explosive charges, and moor them in the harbor approaches as mines. Kaiju would be a lot more dangerous though if they communicate somehow, but it magic or whatever, and could warn each other of tricks like this and make less predictable approaches. Somehow I bet this will not be the case, but who knows.

I was thinking deep ocean, not coastal waters, for some reason.

[Sea Skimmer]

Well, deep water would only allow for even more effective nuclear depth charges. Deeper the water the more tamping effect it will have on the blast. If you were thinking a nuclear airburst above the water, then yes, depth would provide protection but no reason exists to use the nukes like that. No nation is known to still have nuclear depth charges in service, though I bet Russia does, but the old ones may not all be dismantled, and many of the historical ones such as the British WE.177A were nothing but special operating modes for otherwise conventional gravity bombs. Modding any nuke into a nuclear depth bomb would be a very quick process.

Movie might still be pretty good though as long as it doesn't try to be any more serious then say, Godzilla Final Wars.

[tim31]

Saw the movie last night. All of your questions will be answered, people. Maybe not to your satisfaction, but by golly they'll try.

I enjoyed it. I don't know if Del Toro intended for the cast to be OTT so that we wouldn't take them too seriously, or whether he was just channeling Anno, but it totally worked for me. I'm going to see it again.