Pacific Rim

[chris_gerrib]

Over the weekend, I went to my local dinner-and-a-show theater to watch the new-ish movie Pacific Rim. I have to say I was a bit "meh" about going - it looked like the stupid comic book movies I'm not a fan of.

To a certain extent, I was right. In a kaiju-vs-Apache gunship fight, my money's on the gunship. Speaking of helicopters, the movie-makers had optimistic views of their lifting capacity and range, and the movie confused nuclear reactors with nuclear bombs. But....

Damn was the movie enjoyable! Science fiction is romance (in the 19th century meaning of "grand story") and Pacific Rim was a grand story. There was sensawunder by the gallon, served with a nice side of chop socky, and stuff got blown up real good. Character development was above-average, at least for the somewhat relaxed standards of summer blockbusters. All in all, it was an enjoyable evening.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

"...optimistic views of their lifting capacity and range..."

Oddly enough, this was the only physics issue that bugged me. (I don't know the difference between the other two, which is kinda sad.)

But I agree with your final assessment ;o)

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

To get an explosion, you need to compress the nuclear material. Reactors are designed so you can't generate the compression needed.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Ooooh...I see. (I suspect that's a super-simplified version, which helps. I only had six weeks of high school pyhsics. But I -did- take Aerospace Science, which is why I know about the helos)

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it more than I did.

I felt a lot like the idea was good and then right as I was trying to snuggle under my nice movie blanket of suspension of disbelief, they dumped a bucket of water on me in the intro and then left me dripping wet for the rest of the movie.

So many problems, and I found the characters to be cardboard cutouts {sorry}.

[Manual Reactor Detonation requiring the same method to detonate, and thereby destroy the engines of an M-Class Star Freighter got a chuckle out of me.]

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have the analog of your reactor problem every time Hollywood tries to use a computer in a movie.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

You mean like the Mk 3 Jaeger being EMP immune because it has a nuclear reactor...and all those pretty computer displays? ^_~

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

That whole EMP thing kind of threw me - you notice that the Jaegers crapped out but the city lights stayed on.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

My pad is hardened, you mean yours isn't? ^_~