Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Will Godzilla be in Pacific Rim? Let's hope the superstar of kaiju movies puts in an appearance.

Shark kaiju looks angry.
Over on io9, writer Meredith Woerner posted an exclusive video (CLICK HERE TO VIEW) that Warner Brothers sent to them explaining the background process that Guillermo and team went to in order to create the kaiju for Pacific Rim. I urge you to go and watch it because it is simply AWESOME.

My thoughts (after viewing the video like four times) start with this: Guillermo del Toro is doing to kaiju what Steven Spielberg did for dinosaurs when he created Jurassic Park more than twenty years ago. To borrow a term from Andrew Leon in a blog post he wrote, this is a "game changer." I still remember the lead up to Jurassic Park. The studios and test audiences were awed by the realism of the dinosaurs on screen, how their eyes would dilate, and how their skin would move over bones, all thanks to computer-aided graphics. And oh boy have we come a long way since then.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Guillermo del Toro (who dispels any notion in me that this movie will somehow NOT be the movie of the entire summer). Seriously, I know this is a bold claim, but I personally think I will see this movie every single day on its opening weekend.

"When I watched a monster movie, the big money shot for me was the monster. In kaiju movies, that's what it was about." 
This is a screen grab I made from the io9 featurette. How would you like
to be in that submarine. This moment in the film is totally what del Toro
is talking about when he refers to the monster as the money shot.
del Toro is honoring kaijus that appeared in older Japanese films that were
cheesy but fun. Here is one that bears a remarkable similarity to the one
featured above. I like it when directors know their subject matter so well
it literally paints them as a fanboy of their own work.
My thoughts: Guillermo totally gets this right. I've seen plenty of monster movies, and I always loved it when the monster showed up. Take King Kong...it wasn't interesting until Kong showed up and started wrestling with multiple T-Rexes.

"Kaijus in Japan have many forms. We wanted to stick to the basics...we tried to echo real animals. We tried to echo a gorilla. We tried to echo a shark."

My thoughts: I love this approach. It's basing a monster on something we are familiar with and making a chimaera: a creature that's got components of something familiar and already terrifying and doing drastic things with both its scale, its power, and its appearance.
In this screen grab from the io9 video, see the scale of the Jaeger robot as
compared to a jumbo jet and a T-Rex (the tiny lizard that doesn't even reach
to the kaiju's elbow. Scale is going to be one reason this show is made for IMAX.
"The moment you saw it [the kaiju] on the screen the first time, you knew they were deadly, and capable of destroying the jaeger. One of the rules I gave to the designers is to try and honor the spirit and feeling of the classical kaiju. Two-legged [just like in the old Japanese films] And once a week we would do an American idol and eliminate the silly ones."

My thoughts: I think American Idol style elimination for silliness is brilliant. George Lucas could have benefited from this by opening his prequels to criticism. And as writers, many of you will no doubt agree that critical input at just the right time can make or break a story.

Okay, so here's the big question I have for you oh kaiju fans. There's been no mention of Godzilla. But you know del Toro is a huge fan of Godzilla. So...do you think Godzilla will make an appearance in Pacific Rim? If so, I think it would be too awesome for words and would most likely come at the end. Here is your moment of zen:
Note that it's being made by "Legendary Pictures" which is the same studio bringing you "Pacific Rim." Tee hee I so want a Godzilla cameo.

17 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to watching Pacific Rim; bit I'm thinking with all the expenses I have with my daughter's wedding and paying the medical bills for my broken ankle, I'll have to watch this on DVD.

    Oh, I'm over 55 per cent through Nightshade's Apprentice. The POV and details are time consuming, but I have been reading it as time allows since I downloaded it. Thank you for sending it to me.

    ........dhole

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  2. I remember that monster from an old Gamera film.
    I doubt there there will be a Godzilla. I think he's making his creations original. Although Lovecraft creatures come to my mind even before Godzilla.
    And I still have high hopes for Edwards' Godzilla next year.

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  3. Maybe Godzilla will turn up post credits like Nick Fury in the Avengers. Gathering a new set of monsters for the sequel.

    mood

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  4. those kaijus really look like they were birthed in hell itself :) Can't wait to see if the film will be the biggest blockbuster this summer, having in mind that they cover lots of regions within the film itself.

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  5. I'm hoping for a Gamera cameo followed by the stupid kid "Kenny" from that movie screaming "Gamera is good!" even as he's smashing Tokyo into kindling.

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  6. LOVE me some monster flicks! And the money shot is spot on. Look at cloverfield - all we wanted was to be able to see what was destroying the city.
    Man i can't wait for Pacific Rim

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  7. I've always loved Godzilla and get a bit nostalgic whenever anyone mentions him. I'm not convinced he'll make an appearance in Pacific Rim- but I think it would be wicked cool if a new version of him did.

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  8. Godzilla may be too famous ... but I'd love to see Mothra make a cameo.

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  9. I hope you get your Godzilla cameo. But let's not bring back Mothra. I hated Mothra.

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  10. It won't be complete unless it has Mothra.

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  11. Guillermo is a genius. Pacific Rim has to rock the summer. As long as it's good I'll check out a Godzilla movie. Thanks for sharing this awesomeness Mike.

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  12. Where's your countdown clock? Since you've been trumpeting this movie so much, you should have a countdown clock, counting the seconds until the first opening show (which I assume you'll be at, right?).

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  13. The trailers look awesome for Pacific Rim, and it's be cool if Godzilla made an appearance!

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  14. Didn't I say Pacific Rim reminded me of Godzilla with robots? Yeah..might as well put him in there.

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  15. I like that you're so enthusiastic about Pacific Rim, pretty much the way I was about Star Trek. And realistic monsters can be so awe-inspiring and scary. In Jurassic Park I pretty much screamed every time the velociraptors showed up, which made me glad the sound was jacked up throughout the movie theater because I was really starting to embarrass my nephew.

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  16. Godzilla is the intellectual property of Toho Studios and already scheduled for his own movie next year, so it's unlikely he (or any other Toho monsters) will pop up in Del Toro's movie.

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