Though their capabilities for destruction are obvious, the tactics employed by their British commander (Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost) focuses on minimizing casualties. In "Pacific Rim", in contrast, del Toro's jaegers are called upon to protect and defend. military more than ready to launch a strike.
Bay's "Transformers" evokes a more warmongering outlook, with robots highlighting their fetishistic arsenals hand-in-hand with the U.S. This is again easily demonstrated by comparing the war machines of Michael Bay and Guillermo del Toro. In film, context matters more than content. But it's not merely what is shown that determines our reactions, but how. Ever-improving special effects continue to blur the genuine from the phony and add to our amazement or horror. But mass destruction has been a staple of escapism for decades, and the ability to visualize our dreams and nightmares is one of cinema's wonders. Another Piece of Disaster Porn?Īs both The Guardian and The Economist have shown, "Pacific Rim" is sometimes cited as an example of disaster porn, where the presence of mass casualties supposedly reflects a desire to portray entertaining carnage for uncaring audiences.
Del Toro's robots lack consciousness, but their human operators are afforded more dignity and respect, and by extension so is the audience. Michael Bay provides his supposedly intelligent extraterrestrials with misogynistic and militaristic qualities that betray his self-aggrandizing sentiments rather than convey the adventurous spirit their source was known for. His "money shots" of jaegers and kaijus are easy to see, and at every point in the story we know where everyone is and what's at stake.Įven in terms of characterization, the contrast is staggering. The slow motion of his mechas communicates their scale and heft, and though his action sequences take place in the dark, they're still nowhere near as murky as confusing as Bay's battles between Autobots and Decepticons. Del Toro sets a much higher bar, with masterful pacing, build-up and release. His shot composition can be all over the place, making little juxtapositional sense when the action starts. Michael Bay is capable of some amazing sights and perspectives, but his reliance on slow motion and "shaky cams" belies his weaknesses as a director. They appear more humanoid than machine, supplying a suprising grace and providing a smaller divide for the audience to bridge. Guillermo del Toro's "jaegers" (through Industrial Light and Magic) in contrast, are modern yet somewhat classical (in the mold of Yutaka Izubuchi's "Patlabor" or Yohsiyuki Tomino's "Gundam" designs), showcasing flat-plated surfaces with all the details in between. Giving Optimus Prime a moving mouth may have been Bay's greatest mistake, providing just one of many ways of distancing this admirable father figure to a generation of kids, into a shiny albeit ungainly weaponized machine. Michael Bay's version of these alien robots focused on sheen and extravagance, highlighting outlandish designs that strayed far from their archetypal origins. But that similarity is as far as it goes, as they both couldn't be more different in tone and style. The obvious dig is to compare it to Michael Bay's " Transformers" movies, with their shared subject of monstrous-sized mechas. Though "Pacific Rim" has received a lot of praise overall, there have been more than a few criticisms dismissing the film as another loud movie featuring giant toys (which it is, though it's also much more). Though it might seem like an unlikely candidate for a genre-embodying film, you could say the same about "Pacific Rim." It is, as Hideo Kojima put it, a love letter to Japan's literal celluloid giants, a film that isn't content to merely visualize canon but looks to reclaim a childhood awe by forging new ground. " Raiders of the Lost Ark" honored its globe-trotting escapist roots, as Roger Ebert wrote that it celebrates "the stories we spent our adolescence searching for in the pulp adventure magazines." Before " Star Wars" became a mere episode in its never-ending saga, it was the mother of all space operas. " Once Upon a Time in the West" was not only one of the greatest Westerns, but it was a lyrical ode to the very idea of the cinematic West. But rarely does a film come along with so much adoration for its canonical inspirations that it aims to be a tribute.