That is very true, but again, it goes along with the tonal difference of the films. In Godzilla, we are helpless against the monsters, whereas in Pacific Rim, we have begun effectively fighting back. That being stated, the moment in PR when Mack Gehrhardt and son are about to shoot flares at the kaiju in a last ditch effort to save Hong Kong, was more humanitarian, heroic, and heartwarming than anything the humans did in Godzilla IMO.
Originally posted by Lestov16
That being stated, the moment in PR when Mack Gehrhardt and son are about to shoot flares at the kaiju in a last ditch effort to save Hong Kong, was more humanitarian, heroic, and heartwarming than anything the humans did in Godzilla IMO.
Even when a group of soldiers started shooting at the monster even though they knew it was useless just to give time to get the nuke away from the city?
Originally posted by Estacado
What Im saying that there are ass load of useless stuff in movies like this.
I cant care about the little japanese kid who got left on the train.
Neither about Aaron's annoying wife yet they force you to watch all that nonsense.
I sympathized with all of those characters. And the reason they were flashing back to Brody's wife was because when she was trapped and was not reported with her son, Brody pretty much thought she was dead, just like his mom. Added emotional depth for me.
I like all the characters in Godzilla, but I found the fleshed out characters of Pacific Rim far more interesting. I found Raleigh and Mako's emotional plight and desire for retribution far more engaging than Brody's comparatively simple desire to race back to his family. Stacker was three dimensional. Even Newt and the British guy had believable emotions and motives. They had a passion, drive, and believable emotional state and reactions that I felt was lacking in Godzilla.
But as I stated, the main problem with the humans in Godzilla is that they are ultimately useless to the plot. The entire nuclear fiasco subplot literally only serves to put him in the middle of action, which I don't mind because that puts the audience in the middle of the action, which is good from a viewing standpoint, but poor from a writing standpoint. The showdown in San Fran would have occurred whether the nuke was there or not there.
This is why I give Pacific Rim the edge. One of the things I noted when I saw the film was how much I enjoyed the plotting of the Hong Kong fight. A lesser writer would have just made it so that a Kaiju just shows up at random, but instead it was weaved into the narrative so that it was the natural progression of the logical outcome of events, and it also served to progress the plot and and was relevant to the final outcome of mankind's last hope. In order for any sub-plot to have any effective emotional weight on the audience, it must be a factor in the final outcome of the main plot. The humans were relevant in Pacific Rim. The humans in Godzilla were bystanders.
This goes back to the idealist/cynicism opposites I was discussing earlier. Godzilla is a critique of mankind's arrogance, and our mercy at primordial titans whom are beyond our control, and who threaten mankind not of malice, but out of mere existence. there is no good and evil. Morality is relative in the reaction of nature. Human are insignificant bugs in the scheme of these monsters, and we pose no threat to them whatsoever. Even Godzilla hunts the monsters not out of a moral desire to save humanity, but for instinctual predatory obligation to hunt it's natural prey (although he is nicer). To paraphrase Serizawa, who essentially summarized the film, mankind is not in control of the natural world, and there are forces beyond our control to whom we are insignificant. It's kind of Lovecraftian when you think about it.
Pacific Rim is entirely different. The kaiju (or at least their masters) are clearly malicious, absolutely evil beings who want to take over the world for their own inhabitance. While they present an overwhelming threat, mankind, who are clearly the moral good guys, use ingenuity, altruism, and hope in humanity to beat the odds and stop them once and for all. Pacific Rim is an optimistic view of human endeavor and persistence.
While this definitely give Godzilla and MUTOs menace, it again makes the human characters entirely irrelevant to the main plot of the film. Well I won't say that because
Spoiler:, so technically his presence there did effect the final outcome, that's still just pure coincidence, because Brody could have died several times beforehand and happened to luck out. With Raleigh, it made logical sense why he was there, as well as Mako and everyone else. Pacific Rim just seemed to have a more consistent logical progression of events to it.
Brody distracting the female with the nest burning allowed Godzilla to get an advantage on the male and eventually the female
Speaking of Pacific Rim, the characters are more interesting because unlike the characters of Godzilla, who are merely bystanders watching beings beyond their control fight for Earth, the characters themselves are the beings who are Earth's last hope. As I said, the flare gun scene had more emotional weight and badassery to it than any human scene in Godzilla.
As I stated in my prior post regarding this matter, Pacific Rim was just more of an overall spectacle to me. It was Star Wars like projecting you into the Kaiju infested world and cultures. It was more imaginative, beautiful, and just overall more interesting. Godzilla was a realistic look at a monster mash that projected you into it's scenes and offered a life-size look at the Godzilla we've always imagined, but artistically, Pacific Rim was just more awe-inspiring and thought provoking.YMMV
Originally posted by WildBantha88
Even when a group of soldiers started shooting at the monster even though they knew it was useless just to give time to get the nuke away from the city?
Yeah, what happened in Pacific Rim was more heroic. As you said, they sacrificed their lives to benefit plan B. In Pacific Rim, shooting the flare guns was plan B. They had no hope whatsoever and no idea that backup would arrive.
Was it the building? I thought it was the two MUTO's gang-banging his ass for ten minutes and then him using some power that makes his entire body glow and is obviously a last-resort weapon and then getting crushed by a skyscraper that TKO'd him.
edit- Apparently this movie is KILLING it at the box office. Sequel all but guaranteed.
Originally posted by Lestov16Can we get some respect for that bus driver? Dude was the most awesome human in the movie
I'd say Bryan Cranston's character was more awesome but the fact that I can't even remember his characters' name makes the bus driver win by default.
I wonder if the director can make the possible sequel actually be about Godzilla? I felt the guy was almost a cameo in his own movie.
Some of you aren't giving PR the credit it deserves. Nothing even close to it has been done in the big screen at that scale, it was a feat of world building and color. Obviously the goal was sheer entertainment, but the movie delivered.
Godzilla in the other hard is a very enjoyable movie... Specially when you ignore the other 10 Godzilla movies that exist with similar plots and varying success on the formula. This movie, as great as it is, has been done to death. And better. But as a rendition of the genre I'm all behind it, and I'm glad that people are giving it props, because Godzilla IS good enough to gather recognition 👆