Luke Owen discusses the new trailer for Guillermo Del Toro homage to classic kaiju cinema, Pacific Rim
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As a member of the male species, I am tuned into thinking that giant robots are cool. Couple that together with some giant monsters and have the pair duke it out over easily-destroyable landscapes and you get the debut trailer for 2013’s Pacific Rim from Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro.
This is a movie that I have kept on my radar since it was initially announced mainly due to my love of the kaiju genre and my appreciation for the work that del Toro has produced. The viral marketing campaigns kicked in a few weeks ago and got me even more excited beginning with the Kaiju warning test and the Kaiju attack news footage. And now we have a trailer, and it has risen the excitement bar to a whole new level.
The trailer starts off with a slow build, detailing the backstory to the rise of the Kaiju and where they came from (which sounds right out of a 60s sci-fi movie – I love it) before giving us several money shots of the them rising from the water, destroying bridges and fighting off attacking planes. The human race is beaten, what can we do? We make monsters to fight monsters…
Enter our first motion shots of the Jaegers (we’ve seen some concept arts and viral blueprints in recent weeks), giant humanoid robots controlled by pilots using what appears to be mind manipulation. Then the trailer just goes into overdrive as Idris Elba (Thor) delivers a thumping speech over footage of the Jaegers and Kaiju doing battle. It’s incredibly epic and gives us a glimpse of the size and scope of the movie. The final shot of the Jaeger being thrown through a bridge? I think that might just be the tip of the iceberg…
I get the impression that the majority of the footage seen in the trailer will come in the last third of the movie. As Pacific Rim appears to be a love letter to the Japanese kaiju cinema of the 60s and 70s (at least the more serious side like The Mysterians), we can expect the first half of the movie to be the set-up with one big attack bridging the two halves of the movie. But if what is in this trailer is just a taste of what we’ll see in the final product, then holy hell we’re in for quite a ride.
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The visuals look absolutely brilliant and the small glimpses we’ve had of the Kaiju show off some interesting designs. From the trailer we know of at least two monsters – the Godzilla-esque monster at the end and a Guiron looking kaiju that is attacking the bridge and planes. Given del Toro’s track record with his imagination, we should expect to see several other kaiju in the movie and I expect them to reflect or at least homage established kaiju from Godzilla and Gamera etc. (I’m secretly hoping for a King Ghidorah-inspired monster personally).
For me though, Pacific Rim is going to do three things – 1) be a good Western monster movie, something that has been missing from our cinemas for far too long. 2) introduce the word “kaiju” into Western movie language (it’s a word that is known by fans of the genre, but by calling his monsters Kaiju, del Toro is educating us on the history of Japanese cinema – kudos to him). And finally 3) he is making a movie that will be a stepping stone for 2014’s Godzilla reboot. That is a movie that is going to be plagued with the memory of the terrible 1998 Roland Emmerich remake and the more it can disassociate itself from that and towards this, the better.
Back on topic, the trailer for Pacific Rim is stunning. Cool looking robots, awesome looking monsters and a massive amount of destruction filmed in a way where you can see what’s going on (take note Mr. Bay). While comic book movies like Man of Steel and Iron Man 3 may be strong contenders for the blockbuster of the year award, my outside bet will be this one. I can’t wait until next year.
Pacfic Rim will also feature Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom), has been written by Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) and will be out July next year in the UK.
Luke Owen is a freelance copywriter working for Europe’s biggest golf holiday provider as their web content executive.![]()
This is a movie that I have kept on my radar since it was initially announced mainly due to my love of the kaiju genre and my appreciation for the work that del Toro has produced. The viral marketing campaigns kicked in a few weeks ago and got me even more excited beginning with the Kaiju warning test and the Kaiju attack news footage. And now we have a trailer, and it has risen the excitement bar to a whole new level.
The trailer starts off with a slow build, detailing the backstory to the rise of the Kaiju and where they came from (which sounds right out of a 60s sci-fi movie – I love it) before giving us several money shots of the them rising from the water, destroying bridges and fighting off attacking planes. The human race is beaten, what can we do? We make monsters to fight monsters…
Enter our first motion shots of the Jaegers (we’ve seen some concept arts and viral blueprints in recent weeks), giant humanoid robots controlled by pilots using what appears to be mind manipulation. Then the trailer just goes into overdrive as Idris Elba (Thor) delivers a thumping speech over footage of the Jaegers and Kaiju doing battle. It’s incredibly epic and gives us a glimpse of the size and scope of the movie. The final shot of the Jaeger being thrown through a bridge? I think that might just be the tip of the iceberg…
I get the impression that the majority of the footage seen in the trailer will come in the last third of the movie. As Pacific Rim appears to be a love letter to the Japanese kaiju cinema of the 60s and 70s (at least the more serious side like The Mysterians), we can expect the first half of the movie to be the set-up with one big attack bridging the two halves of the movie. But if what is in this trailer is just a taste of what we’ll see in the final product, then holy hell we’re in for quite a ride.
For me though, Pacific Rim is going to do three things – 1) be a good Western monster movie, something that has been missing from our cinemas for far too long. 2) introduce the word “kaiju” into Western movie language (it’s a word that is known by fans of the genre, but by calling his monsters Kaiju, del Toro is educating us on the history of Japanese cinema – kudos to him). And finally 3) he is making a movie that will be a stepping stone for 2014’s Godzilla reboot. That is a movie that is going to be plagued with the memory of the terrible 1998 Roland Emmerich remake and the more it can disassociate itself from that and towards this, the better.
Back on topic, the trailer for Pacific Rim is stunning. Cool looking robots, awesome looking monsters and a massive amount of destruction filmed in a way where you can see what’s going on (take note Mr. Bay). While comic book movies like Man of Steel and Iron Man 3 may be strong contenders for the blockbuster of the year award, my outside bet will be this one. I can’t wait until next year.
Pacfic Rim will also feature Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom), has been written by Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) and will be out July next year in the UK.
Luke Owen is a freelance copywriter working for Europe’s biggest golf holiday provider as their web content executive.
