Topic: Pacific Rim punchup
It occurs to me that Pacific Rim could have been a lot better with some minor changes. A couple of brief scenes here and there could better humanize our heroes. Here are two I think would help.
To Trey's point about Mako suddenly being okay between attempt 1 and attempt 2, they could have had this scene in between (like when Mako mistakes Raleigh's door for her own).
RALEIGH
We just haven't fully made the connection we need. There's still a lot of tension here.
MAKO
(looking up at him now)
How should we fix it?
RALEIGH
Let's go.
MAKO
Where are we going?
RALEIGH
We're going to do some more fighting.
MAKO
(standing her ground)
No. No more fighting.
She touches his face and gazes into his eyes, then PULLS him into her quarters, which is elaborately decorated in traditional Chinese style.
RALEIGH
Wow. This is NICE.
The door CLOSES behind them.
And this scene between Idris Elba and Robert Kazinsky regarding Stacker becoming Chuck's partner.
CHUCK
Not YOU.
STACKER
I need the Striker Eureka out there, and that means I need you. And THAT means you need a partner.
CHUCK
I've lost my partner. There's no one I'm compatible with. I'm BARELY compatible with my father.
HERC
That's a fact.
STACKER
When I drift, I bring no baggage. There's no rank. There's no emotion but determination. You know anybody else like that?
[Chuck looks away. Then Max the bulldog catches his eye. His eyes light up.]
CHUCK
Yeah. I DO.
STACKER
You cannot drift with a dog!
CHUCK
Why not? He's my best friend!
[Stacker walks away.]
STACKER (OS)
We don't have a suit that fits him.
I also think it would help if the characters actually said each other's names more often or more clearly. During the movie, I could remember Mako's name, but by the end I could only remember that Hercules Hansen identified himself clearly in his final announcement, and I couldn't name a single other character. It was weird.
Last, it just wasn't clear what was going on in the fights enough. Not only were they all shot at night in the rain or underwater, they were all framed very tightly. Loosening up that a little and adding some voiceover about what the plan was would allow the audience to understand better when the plan went awry, and they'd feel more for the characters.
Last edited by Zarban (2013-07-21 15:43:16)