Pacific Rim Rocked!

[jcs]

I had seen the previews for Pacific Rim and wasn't really motivated to see the movie. Giant robots fighting giant aliens? If somehow giant aliens from another dimension were stomping around Earth, simple bunker-buster bombs with high explosives, tactical nukes (actually overkill), would be sufficient to stop them. Even current lasers would work- these slow moving creatures could be cooked slowly as they approached cities. Microwaves or masers could also work, as could biological agents. That's what flashed through my mind after seeing the previews and I gave it no further thought.

 

A director friend of mine called me today and asked if I wanted to see a screening of Pacific Rim at the Linwood Dunn theater in Hollywood, with a Q&A afterwords with the director Guillermo del Toro and VFX superviser and head of ILM, John Knoll (who also created Photoshop back in the 90's). I hadn't seen my friend in a while and the Q&A sounded interesting, so I went. At the beginning of the screening we were told Guillermo was sick, but John Knoll would still be available for Q&A.

 

The movie was presented in Dolby 3D, which uses glasses that have a metallic orange and greenish reflection. I have found the Real 3D circular polarized 3D glasses provide the best stereo 3D experience, however a special silver screen which preserves light polarization is required (not needed with Dolby 3D). The Dolby 3D glasses use 'wavelength multiplex visualization' which is somewhat like anaglyph in that it uses a color filter, but unlike anaglyph, provides full color. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_3D.

 

With very low expectations, the movie started. The stereo 3D effect was excellent, and well done: no eyestrain and the use of depth actually helped the presentation. There was action immediately, with amazing special effects. As a guy who has written a great deal of code for graphics rendering and physics simulation, I was blown away by the sheer amount of physics simulation and rendering effects happening at once. Rigid bodies, fracturing, soft bodies, tearing, skin simulation, light scattering, radiosity, large and small scale fluid dynamics, smoke & gas simulation, dust & clouds, character IK, and the list goes on. Pretty much every VFX effect was used and for an incredible story telling and entertaining effect. The music and sound FX were also excellent, building emotion and maintaining pace all the way through to the end. It was easy to ignore some of the weaker acting as there was so much entertainment and excitement. To sum up the plot: a mix of Armageddon and Independence Day with a touch of Godzilla (other than giant robots, nothing like Transformers except the destruction). Ridiculous plot? Yes! Great movie? Yes!

 

The Q&A with John Knoll was cool. The best quote perhaps was it would take 7000 years to render the movie on a single modern fast workstation. John explained what we saw: an insane amount of effects were used in the movie. It sounded like the most complex VFX work done by ILM to date.

 

The box office hasn't been great for Pacific Rim yet, however an 8/10 at IMDB is pretty good: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/. Read some of the reviews- passionate! This movie is so cool with so many amazing shots/scenes, I'm motivated to see it again. I can't remember the last time I wanted to see a movie again. I would think that once word gets around that this is actually a great movie, it will have legs and perhaps be a top movie of the summer. This movie is also a lot deeper than many folks realize- paying homage to many other movies, genres, & cultures. 10 out of 10!