[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vKz7WnU83E]
When I say I have undulating feelings about Pacific Rim, make no mistake, they undulate between so excited I could cry and gripping my seat with shaking anticipation. Ok, so maybe I exaggerated my claims a little, but I am seriously stoked for this movie. I have known about this movie since this past summer, since it came to Comic-Con 2012 and my friends got into the signing with Del Toro, but I wasn’t sure what it was about. I knew who was starring in it and who was directing, and that was enough to warrant that I would definitely see it, but I was not sure at all about what it was. Then the trailer hit and my world changed.
Let’s just have a little moment where we go through the trailer, ok? I know it is nothing new, since it was released in mid-December, but every time I see it when we go to the movies, I die a little on the inside. It’s kind of like how I feel when I listen to The Hobbit soundtrack and I hear Richard Armitage sing. So it starts with a pretty familiar view of people panicking and apocalypses happening, and then we hear Charlie Hunnam’s beautiful voice, those who watch Sons of Anarchy know him as Jax Teller, a biker-fied Hamlet. Now, admittedly, I laughed a little when I heard the phrase “underwater portal, between dimensions”, and then when I saw this massive creature akin to a dinosaur take down a bridge I laughed a little more. And so the trailer moved on, we were counted on to fail fighting these evil creatures, and I’m bored already. But then an interesting little twist comes about in the form of a familiar female robotic voice. Yup. It’s the voice of GLaDOS! Now imagine me in the theater, surrounded by a group of people who have not played Portal, freaking out and whisper-yelling that it’s GLaDOS. They judge me and tell me to shut up and eat my popcorn. Still though, now this movie has my attention. If nothing, I’ll see this just to hear her snarky tone. Now if we could toss in Westley my life would be complete. I know that Guillermo del Toro is a huge Portal fan and wanted to give them a nod, but this is more like a two-hands-in-the-air wave with a voice as distinct as Ellen McLain’s.
Anyways, the screen moves through several post-apoc scenes and I’m getting more pumped for this. I love most things that are post-apocalyptic, I just like seeing that people survive after an apocalypse and life and still go on living. That’s all fair and dandy, but when the mechs come out, we’ve pretty much signed the deal that I’m going to enjoy this movie. Come on, massive mechs fighting massive monsters? All the corniness is washed away with massive booming effects that are made to please a crowd.The pilot suits look like the Mass Effect Cerberus armor had a baby with the Prometheus suit, and I love it. There’s a bad ass Rinku Kikuchi facing down with Charlie Hunnam, the most awesome image of Idris Elba suited up, Hunnam battling a creature as he pilots a mech, all to the electro boom reminiscent of Inception in the background. It takes Idris Elba telling me that today we are canceling the apocalypse for me to just want to go jump in a suit and fight along side him. If you liked Transformers, Cloverfield, or even Godzilla, I’d say be as pumped for this as I am. And although we didn’t see him in the trailer, Ron Perlman is also in this? Awesome. Though, I’m half expecting the rest of the SoA Samcro gang to pop out in cameos.
To be honest, the biggest reason why I want to see this movie is because of the cast of actors. I love it when movies have diverse casts and believable characters, like the addition of Kikuchi as a rookie pilot or Elba as their leader. There is a sense that we are, in fact, fighting for the human race and not for the anglo race. Two of my favorites, Hunnam and Elba, are often neglected on the big screen. Fans of shows like Luther and Sons of Anarchy can attest to their acting chops, and yet somehow they keep getting pushed on the back burner. I loved Elba in Prometheus, but we only got to see a couple glances at him. Plus there are definitely some rumors of Elba being considered for the next Bond, and true or not, with Pacific Rim on his rap sheet hopefully it can get him noticed. I’m sick of telling people that I love these two guys and that they’re some of my favorite actors and having people look at me with a confused face. Even if you don’t have big fat crushes on the actors like I do, you should still be excited for this movie. Rarely does Guillermo do anything that flops, and this looks too beautiful to do anything but be a hell of a ride.
Pacific Rim comes out July 12, 2013.
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