Pacific Rim Could've Been a Great Franchise

[Music] in 2013 GMA Del Toro dropped an absolute classic in the form of Pacific Rim a Kaiju film that garnered a lot of attention and praise from audiences and critics pulling in $411 million on $180 million budget making it del Toro's highest box office pool ever and the movie was a success in just about every Department audiences liked it critics liked it and it made some money so it checked all the boxes but more importantly it was a new IP and one that people liked so Studio saw this as a perfect opportunity to expand this newly established world and it really had the potential to be explored and after a few short years of waiting we got our first new entry in the franchise and it flopped hard doing the complete opposite of the first film audiences didn't like it critics didn't like it and it didn't perform that well at all actually losing money so with their first attempt at making this the next big franchise they fumbled it and since then it hasn't recovered and interest has seemed to dwindle over the years now we're over a decade removed from the first film and people seemingly have moved on so I guess we can discuss what happened and where things went wrong and why this failed to turn into next big franchise or Series so we'll go ahead and talk about what led up to the making a Pacific Rim why it worked so well and then we'll talk about where things went wrong so I guess we'll go ahead and do a little backstory and infu dump on the first film and explain how this came to be you ready let's get into it so Pacific RM was originally created and written by Travis beachman Beckman this guy who got the idea while walking on the beach and thought it would be cool seeing a giant robot and monster emerg from it and fight to the death that was back in 2006 the following year in 2007 he wrote a rough draft that was apparently only only about 25 pages long but it must have been a pretty good outline cuz he eventually had a meeting with legendary who liked the idea so much they purchased it in 2010 and around this same time gal delor was working on trying to get a movie made based on hp's lovecrafts at the mountains of Madness which actually had a CG visualizer leaked a few years ago and it was pretty interesting but apparently that was scrapped and Del Toro was pitched to this movie with only the rough outline and he loved it he worked with Bachman for another year or so on the screenplay before they finally moved into production and apparently writer Neil cross assisted and did some regrets as well but he didn't get credit for it so legendary back the movie along with Warner Brothers and filming started in 2011 and well you know how the rest goes movie comes out Everyone likes it and it made some money but now was chat a little bit about the movie itself and why it worked so well one of them babies Tri to eat me I ate him first well for starters delor was already a big fan of Kaiju films so he already had an idea what fans wanted to see all these movies cuz you know he himself is a fan and really the whole film just kind of felt like a celebration of the genre it was all about big cool monsters fighting big cool robots which is what the vast majority of fans wanted if they can get na these sections down then it could easily win over a lot of people and this film had it down packed the fight scenes were big beautiful creative and it showed the sheer power scale and destruction of these giant robots and kaijus so if you came to see just the big fights it's got you covered basically it knows what it wants to do and what the audience wants to see and just does it but it does it in style seriously this is one gorgeous ass movie but something else this film does just as well it's striking a great balance between the human characters along with their personal drama and the overall story with the monsters and fights yeah most people are here just to see the giant fights but you never really get bored when the human characters are on screen and the way they accomplish this is by having the human characters being pretty likable and honestly you can get a pretty quick read on their character but more importantly their personal problems and drama around them always involve the Kaiju to some degree so even when the Kaiju aren't on screen they're still the focal point and driving force for the entire movie it's very simple but you'd be amazed how easily this is messed up in other movies other films usually Focus way too much on human characters and the Monsters get pushed to the background or there are supplies that take up too much attention away from the monsters it's really a balancing act and filmmakers can easily slip and trying to do it but Pacific Rim does it with no problem also the tone is balanced pretty well too yeah at times it feels a bit silly or maybe goofy but when the dramatic moments happen you are still invested even though the movie still has like slightly silly aspects to it but it bounces all very well to the point where the jokes and humor don't overshadow overtake the more dramatic and serious moments but the final ingredient is the World building it's pretty damn good it touches on how mankind has been dealing with these giant monsters and what the world became it also touches on different type of Jaggers the different pilots and the different countries to beginning intro does a fantastic job of just easing you into the world quickly going over when the Kaiju started to attack how the world reacted to it and then currently how the world is now that it's lose in the fight against the Kaiju hell they even touch upon the black market and criminal underbelly that spawned after the arrival of the Kaiju also the stor of the monsters was pretty interesting too they even connected it back to the dinosaurs such an interesting concept so it's all very fascinating and lends itself to being explored more so just overall in short the movie was great the reception overall was positive and the box office did some solid numbers especially for a brand new blockbuster IP remember this didn't have the the brand recognition like Godzilla or King Kong did so the fact that it was able to get this much attention on its own Merit is a huge accomplishment and one that many filmmakers dream of getting with a brand new IP but yeah you get it the movie was a Smash Hit but what happens next well it's clear that they had potential for a new franchise on their hands the fan interest and the opportunity to expand was there so it was time to capitalize on it so after the success of the first film The Talks of a sequel were quickly underway originally Del Toro himself was closely working on the script during 2014 14 as well as still being set to direct it this time around legendary pictures teamed up with universal with universal acting as a Distributors this time and it seemed like things are moving along pretty well at least for a moment apparently some issues started to arise between legendary and Universal that halted the film's production the original goal was to begin filming by 2015 but now that was up in the air deloro still got a script made and presented it to Universal but this didn't lead anywhere as production on squel was still on pause and then around the same time legendary pictures was bought by the Chinese company Wanda group for $3.3 billion and with this new ownership and financial backing the sequel was now back on the table though there were some changes for starters Del Toro announced in 2016 that he would no longer be directing and instead firsttime director Steven S denight will be taken up the role at least this will be his very first theatrical film he comes from a television background and the original script deloro worked on was now being Rewritten now the main reason for del Toro's departure was that the new rights holder Wanda group wanted him to film in China where they're located but Del Toro was currently working on the shape of water and didn't want to relocate so he opted to take a producer credit instead but considering he was Focus focused on his own projects around this time and the original script that he worked on was Rewritten apparently twice in 2016 and just judging from the final product itself it's clear that he didn't have much input on the actual production of the sequel so it was no surprise on how the film turned out flush that turd down the drain yeah it was a less than Stellar outing Pacific Rim Uprising was eventually released in 2018 and the reception wasn't good to say the least now I'm just going to have like a list of some rapidi reasons for why this is the case and I'm just going to start listing them off if you want like a full review there are several already out there breaking down this movie and what it did wrong but for now let's just make it simple and list off these reasons and these are in no particular order the overall look of the movie just feels cheaper the CGI and sets aren't as good and it doesn't feel as connected to the previous film as it should yeah we see some reoccurring characters and some familiar robots but the overall look and feel just isn't the same it feels like it's mimicking the world of the first film instead of actually being part of it not to mention all of it feels kind of goofy with his jokes that are very similar to MCU type of banter and quips I mean this was 2018 so I'm not surprised honestly and the Jers himself feel light and like lifeless the sense of scale is like lost a bit the Jaggers don't seem as big or as powerful like yeah they're big but they don't feel big they don't move the same as they did in the first film they don't feel heavy or powerful or destructive if anything they feel and move a lot closer to like the Transformers do and a lot of it does have to do with the way this movie is shot in the first film thanks to all the perspectives that you see of the Jaggers accompanied with the way they move and interact with things around them it gives you that sense that these things are real and how they would actually move in the real world but in Uprising you don't get that same feeling they're ability and the way they interact with the environment around them is just completely different the Jaggers destroyed roads when they walked they destroyed buildings when they moved around here it's just not the same so right out the gate it just feels disconnected from the already established World from the first film just the overall look and feel is completely different now speaking of the World building it did try to expand in several different directions but it didn't capture them all that well I liked how it showed people trying to get by in this world after the Kaiju threat especially in the areas that were left in ruin but it also touches on this Corporation trying to make these drone type Jaggers and you have the cadets that are trying to be Pilots then there Charlie Day's character bringing back Kaiju to destroy mankind cuz he's been drifting with aiju and now they're infecting his brain yeah it's a weird thing in the movie then of course we got our main character who's the son of Idris El's character from the first film played by John boa and he doesn't want to be a pilot but he's actually really good so he's kind of forced to be one there's just a bunch going on here and some of it is pretty interesting but not all of it is good and there was a bigger focus on human characters this time around and well unfortunately they're just not that interesting I mean yeah the characters in the previous film weren't the most complex but they were likable which made it easy to get invested and follow their story and remember that tight RPP I mentioned before the one about balancing the human characters and the Monsters yeah that's pretty much a gone in this film because probably one of the biggest problems with this is the absent of the Kaiju so these characters take up majority of the run time and unfortunately they're just not that interesting the big monster fights are what a lot of people are here to see but they just aren't that prevalent hell the Kaiju themselves just really aren't that important until the end of the movie so you spend the first half of the movie just kind of folling around characters that really aren't interesting in a movie that just feels disconnected from the previous one and there is action don't get me wrong but it's it's really not as interesting as anything from the first film it's not as big it's not as powerful it's not as badass not as destructive and overall it just doesn't feel the same or hit the same really this all just accumulates to a very lackluster and boring experience it doesn't look as good as the first the action is as good as the first the characters take up way too much of the time and are overall very uninteresting the Kaiju and fights aren't as involved as they should be I guess in a way it literally did the opposite of what the first film did and puts its attention in the wrong areas it seemed like they tried to go bigger with the story and have a lot more things going on and a more focus on character but most of it just didn't come across that well honestly a lot of it was just kind of dumb and silly too silly so this was a clear attempt to turn this into a franchise with a bigger story more characters and even more Jaggers that can easily make for some pretty decent action figures but it fell flat on his face right out the gate and after rewatching it it's more disappointing if anything but Uprising showed that just because you have big robots fighting that doesn't mean people will like it there's a lot more to these type of movies than people actually think in the first film nailed it perfectly while this one basically ignored all of that what I'm in love with a man a man called God so following Uprising release the plan sequel was canceled the third film hinged on the second film success and only a few months after uprisen release they pulled the plug on the third film the director Steven S denight had this to say about the possible sequel if enough people show up to this we've already talked about the plot of the third movie and how the end of the third movie would expand the universe to a Star Wars Star Trek style where you can go in many many different directions you can go main Cannon you can go spin-offs you can go one-offs yeah that was the plan and he even mentioned mention the possibility of doing a crossover with the monsterverse since you know that's also owned by legendary so a lot of possibilities but it all hinge on Uprising being a success which it wasn't from this statement it's clear they definitely wanted this to be the next big giant franchise but after only their second outing they canceled basically all of it the only project related to Pacific Rim that's been released since then was that Netflix anime show that aired back in 2018 which was received pretty well and ran for two seasons but it just didn't hit the same as a giant liveaction Blockbuster and honestly it's not really the same Market if someone is a fan of a film franchise then switching mediums won't appeal to the majority of them in this case it's live action to anime but there's also examples from other series that have tie-in novels or Comics that aren't nearly as popular as the original live action version there's just not that much crossover on a grand scale so even if a product is good like this Netflix show a large portion of the audience still will probably never see it but now here in 2024 11 years removed from the first film and 6 years from the second fan interest has slowly fizzled out what is white trash about that so before I could really get going Pacific Ram as a franchise essentially died with only two film an animated show and some Comics failing to capitalize on the success of the first film and really establish itself now the reason for the failure is pretty simple actually having the head guy not being involved in the series past the first one was a huge blow in the writing and directing departments having Del tour more involved in production of the film would have benefited greatly because he established the world and how it operates but then it was completely ignored in the sequel and considering his original script was Rewritten twice it seems he didn't exactly know where to take it after Doro stepped out of the director's chair it had the potential not only because of the stylish robot and Kaiju fights but also the world that it introduced it had monsters it had aliens it touched on how the world and Mankind learned and lived around these giant monsters it had the criminal underworld and black market different possibilities but none of it is going to be expanded upon now I have seen people say that the gaps in projects also contributed to the loss of interest in Pacific Rim and even though I do kind of see what they mean I don't think it's as much as a factor as the quality if you look at something like the monsterverse that only releases movies three or so years apart those still do pretty well despite the gaps and releases so I think if Pacific Rim Uprising was a better movie then fans would have stayed engaged and not mind waiting but I do see what they mean when you have a new franchise or IP you kind of want to keep people's attention by releasing pretty often but I think if the quality is good the people are willing to wait now as of right now there's no word or even a rumor about a third release and no one from legendary to GMA delor himself have mentioned anything about a third film so Pacific Ram as a franchise is just done and it had the potential to be great but it was quickly fumbled with one Bad sequel and then just ditching plans for future installments all together I think if they take this idea and put it in the right hands you know some more experienced writers and directors then they could possibly make a third film and turn it around but considering how expensive these movies are to make maybe it just doesn't seem worth the risk anymore Pacific Rim really was a lightning and a bottle type of situation and really embodies that Zack Snider quote that I love combination of have fun but don't make fun be reverent to the genre but also push it it felt like a celebration of the genre and knew what fans wanted and just brought it to them and even though I do think it could probably work with giving the right direction it more than likely won't happen given how long it's been it's pretty obvious that they're just done at this point but hey you know what we always had the first film so that's great so that's going to do it for the video hope you guys enjoyed I just want to talk briefly about how awesome the first film was and how it's a shame we're never going to see another continuation in this franchise but you know what after seeing Uprising maybe it's for the best who knows well that's all I got see you C like anything we can do to have you not talk about like sucking penises or getting raped in the butt yo I'm a [ __ ] homosexual

Channel: Tex

Views: 101,416

Keywords: tex, pacific rim, pacific rim uprising, pacific rim 10 years later, pacific rim uprising review, pacific rim review, pointlesshub pacific rim 2, pacific rim 2, pacific rim could have been a great franchise, pacific rim 3, pacific rim retrospective, guillermo del toro, charlie hunnam, idris elba, is pacific rim good, transformers, godzilla x kong the new empire, godzilla, king kong, monsterverse, zack snyder, james gunn, dceu, dc comics

Id: Ub9U65HjN_s

Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2024