We used to think of of ourselves like King
Kong. But we ainât who we used to be. Our hopes, our dreams, even the distant memories
of those dreams. Just gone. What if we were all monsters just fightinâ
to stay alive? Fightinâ against hell every goddamn day
just to find a lick of peace in this rock? We faced down the monsters but we had to make
our own to do it. Who can tell where one monster ends and the other beg ins? We couldnât even find peace amongst ourselves,
what made us think the Kaiju would just give it to us because we made some comically-gargantuan
dumbass robots? This is our reality now and this is our purpose. Only this. Only death. There is no end except your own. We donât celebrate birthdays no more. Just another thing
on a long list a shit that donât matter no more neither. We fight for the privilege of fightinâ again
tomorrow. We wake up, some of us die, and we go to bed. Then we repeat it again tomorrow, only less
of us are alive this time. Sucks for me most of all, though. Patrick just did a great goddamn video on
Terrance Malick. But it wasnât to be. Michael, you fool. Watch Patrickâs video itâs really good. Hey, hereâs a lot of super complicated stuff
to talk about! We need to ask broad questions here that might
not have simple answers. Broad examples that span entire cultures through
the lens of the same medium. Allow me to illustrate, for example the depth
of this impossible-to-solve cranial bone-dumpster could be centered on: Before you answer,
Kaiju, culturally and etymologically, are a Japanese invention. Itself a Japanese word meaning STRANGE BEAST. There are vague references in literature before
this point but the concept of Kaiju as mainstream in the modern era will come from our journey
in film. We open in 1933 with the release of Wasei
Kingu Kongu in Japan. Itâs just a dude in a gorilla costume. This was released the same year King Kong
was in America. The turn around on this was incredible. Then later in 1938 Japan just made a King
Kong movie. Then World War II happens. And we move to 1954, Godzilla comes out and
thatâs where the modern idea of Kaiju really comes from. IshirĹ Honda made a film where the monster
and the havoc it wreaks, is personified by a giant monster that destroys cities, but
really itâs a stark reminder that humans are the people caught in the unimaginable
horror of nuclear holocaust. Even the silly stereotypes about Godzilla
movies about dudes in suits come from a panic created intentionally after the movie was
released in America that cut 16 minutes of footage out of the film and made Raymond Burr
an American journalist and gave that character V.O. that just talks over everything that
they didnât bother to translate in the first place. and oh whoops, deleted all of the subtext
and nuance about the consequences suffered on innocent people as a result of the world
entering the nuclear age. America pretended it was a dumb monster movie
about a dude in a rubber suit because thatâs what America do. Which makes scenes like this one in Steven
Spielbergâs sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World, really weird. America referencing their own racist trope
based on their own misunderstanding of a classic film, making a joke about their own censorship
of said film. Bra-f***** g-vo, US. King Kong and Godzilla suddenly take on meaning
as symbols of identity. The most serious action in all of human history
and its repercussions that are still felt today, is at the center of monster punching
movies. In a lot of ways, Godzilla was art made to
try and help a culture understand an evolving, extremely difficult world. This is at the heart of Kaiju and Kaiju culture. LOOKING AT YOU, Sora no DaikaijĹŤ Radon! In 1962 King Kong in fact did fight Godzilla
in a movie called ⌠hang on, sorry ⌠King Kong vs. Godzilla. Ok. Some of the artists working on this movie
list the original King Kong as an inspiration in their work at Toho on Godzilla. These monsters are intrinsically linked in
ways that modern studios absolutely do not appear to understand or worse, appreciate. Okay, smash cut to Ultraman! [Del Toro] âI loved the TV
shows like Ultraman, UltraQ⌠I grew up watching that too.â Power Rangers. Voltron. Frigginâ Rampage. Neon Genesis Evangelion. A thing people have a couple of opinions on. BUT DID YOU KNOW that Frankenstein is a Kaiju? I know! Itâs a turbo-funky world, yâall. Kaiju culture is big and over the top and
hilarious and somehow endearing because thereâs generally a heart yearning for meaning our
shared worldly chaos. You donât have to think about big monster
fights too hard, but itâs awesome when we see deeper meaning in films, especially when
theyâre about huge-tastic robots punching through space avocados [can say] something
about who we are and where we came from. Letâs talk about the movie, and by extension
Guillermo Del Toro and his effusive, never-expiring joy. Pacific Rim is a 2013 gigantic robot film
written by Travis Beacham and Guillermo Del Toro, directed by Guillermo Del Toro. It is the canonical sequel to Robot Jox. Not a lot of people know that, because it
is, in fact, wrong. âHe puts so much attention to the detail,
and cares so much about how it looks.â Weâre going to talk about this movie through
the gleeful eyes of Del Toro who asked that designers not use pop culture references when
having conversations about design. Donât reference Evangelion. Not Voltron. Pretend youâre really canceling the apocalypse
with giant robots and solve it with design. So, letâs talk about those Jaegers. To start thoughts on visuals and stories were
agreed upon, reworked to include the engineering and space for some mechanics a Jaeger would
actually require, then went to the outside and designed the vents, exhausts... [del Toro] âAnd then we pulled back and
started designing the vents and skin on top of that." Thereâs gonna be a theme here where everyone
tries exceptionally hard to deliver on the love letter to robot punches. The designers created distinct and interesting
robots and then made them work. You can go down the rabbit hole for hours
on just the Jaegers. Take Cherno Alpha for example, the oldest
Jaeger still fighting the fight, powered by a nuclear reactor. [del Toro] ââŚand sort of a nuclear reactor
on top of that. It looks like a giant headed robot but if
you look at it carefully itâs actually a smaller robot carrying the reactor like this.â It looks like a big, slow ass beater, who
puts big cylinders in its hands called âthe roll of nickelsâ to punch better. A move Gypsy Danger later steals, only this
time with shipping containers. At its heart, Pacific Rim is about the world
coming together to put up a final defense against their own extinction. They put up a sea wall against an apocalyptic-threat
that came from the ocean because subtlety is for mimes. Ya burnt, mimes. Did I mention Idris Elba is in this movie
as a tough as nails commander with a secret? âToday we are a cancelling the apocalypse.â You see, Pacific Rim is a bit of a tone salad. Just whatever is in there. Ay, name an ingredient you canât put in
a salad, take a moment if you need it Pacific Rim wants you to have a good time. Itâs summer-level camp played not just straight,
but with conviction. âIf weâre going to do this, I need you
to protect me.â We have differences we must work through. Itâs endearingly simplistic in this day
in age. The earthâs in some real trouble here and
the only solution is.... Guillermo is a huge fan of Kaiju art, in seemingly
all forms, and he pays respect the history of this art form as well as its future. Also these clips will never get old. Iâm not sure how many times in any perso nâs
life where the opportunity to make a gigantic monsters-fighting-robots movie will come across
the olâ plate, but if you say yes, and youâre tapping into a deep, cultural touchstone,
you need to execute a thing with respect and also justify your own existence. It is a very simple message about the entire
world coming together to face down their own extinction and it hits Independence Day levels
of hoorah-ah-ah. Which is a nice, clean message. Multiple academy award-winning Guillermo Del
Toro took a straight B-movie level premise and delivered a AAA film that a lot of people
hold very dear, while still delivering the B-est of movies. Yes, I see what I did there also. Itâs weird, and pretty gross while simultaneously
being oddly-beautiful, and operates with a details-obsessed level of filmmaking, and
a less than obsessed approach to physics. Which is not a complaint. Itâs telling to see what this movie takes
seriously and what it doesnât. The virtual cameras in this film operate on real camera rules. A shot can go where you could theoretically
build a thing or have a helicopter near said thing. Where âthingâ is used here to denote a
massive city-eating leviathan or a 7,000 ton machine. Pacific Rim does not have cameras that draw
attention to themselves and make you feel like youâre watching a video game. Jaegers move slowly and arduously, and they
can only punch so fast, so you might as well put a rocket on its elbow so it can shoot
rocket punches and somehow that tangle of words I just called a sentence checks out. âYeah uh, hey I have some feedback. The average infrastructure of a city wouldnât
support massive robots and kaiju running around and bopping each other on the heads on top
of metropolitan streets cuz like the whole city would just collapse or whatever. Iâm very smart. I talk on the internet.â I think practically everyone involved in this
movie knew that absolutely none of this could happen in real life. Thatâs why itâs a movie. âCandy doesnât have to have a point. Thatâs why itâs candy.â The world of this movie absorbs the Kaiju. They build new things out of their bones. Thereâs an entire black market devoted to
their anatomy. There is so much thought, and care, and effort,
and joy in every single frame. You can dig in this sandbox for hours and
still find new things. Guillermo has a heart for monsters. They arenât just villains, theyâre just
⌠another character. And they go out of their way to characterize
everything in this film. And I appreciate that even if it wasnât
something I always did myself. So I guess what Iâm saying is itâs time
to come clean about something. I always wondered, if it came down to it,
does that person even exist? That fabled but unproven, one person that
mirrors every fundamental aspect of your existence? The one. Drift compatibility. They said, outside of kinâmaybe people youâve
known since your toddlinâ stretch, if youâre looking hard enough. But itâs too fundamental of connection to
be random. Fate of the world, right? Take no chances, but youâll probably have
to anyway. Who, is drift compatible, with me? Itâs a big question. Scope of the universe type shit. If it comes down to it, is your mind in sync
with someone elseâs so well, that you could save the world? I havenât always appreciated this movie. I use that word purposely. I did not value what this movie was offering,
but knocking it because of what it wasnât. And every trusted friend that came to me and
told me maybe I was missing something, I didnât listen to. My biggest gripe. My biggest beef. The thing I couldnât wait to tell everyone
about⌠was about why drift compatibility was this massive port of call for storytelling
and I held it against this movie that they didnât do what I wanted them to do with
that concept. You see, drift compatibility would allow you
to see a personâs entire life: all of their guilt, all of their worst romantic encounters,
all of their family drama, all of their fear, every mistake youâve ever made and that
means DRAMA. But that wasnât what this movie was trying
to do and I myopically believed that made me somehow superior. Youâre probably asking yourself, When is
He Going to Talk about the Title? Right now. I called this episode Pacific Rim: The Best,
Dumbest Movie. Hey, real talk, being a Youtuber is hard. You have to come up with a topic and provide
meaningful insight on a topic every few weeks. And if you take too long, or people disagree
loudly with your conclusions or how you made them, ya burnt. Last year, I started putting together a schedule
of loose ideas toward the beginning of the year, so at least I have some idea what Iâm
doing next after I finish a video. It gives me comfort to plan in this way. So, earlier this year, I had an idea to talk
about how Pacific Rim was the best B movie of all time. I didnât mean dumb as a pejorative, but
it was still operating on that belief I had that Pacific Rim was not as smart as it could
be, even if itâs the best time you can have at a movie. I was wrong. Iâm overjoyed I did this episode because
I can say that I was wrong. Pacific Rim was a conciliation movie. Del Toro had spent years on a film called
At the Mountains of Madness, a Lovecraftian oovrah. He worked on this movie for two and a half
years, during which Avatar came out. Del Toro then got James Cameron on board as
a producer, but even that wasnât enough to sway Universal Pictures to part with 150
million dollars. All of that left the door open for Pacific
Rim, a film that would highlight his entire life, and the things that brought him joy. Del Toro credits Pac Rim as being the only
film shoot he has ever enjoyed, fully, completely, from start to finish, every single day. He took a history, he himself lived in almost
daily as a child, and put the dreams of all of the people that have made these incredible
kaiju films over the years up onto the screen. In a way no one had ever seen before. He was in a position to take a massive swing
at celebrating the entire history of a genre, and he succeeded on such a scale, if it was
anyone other than Del Toro, I probably wouldnât believe it was possible. When you see the breadth of what they were
attempting to do, itâs hard not to stand in awe. I probably should have changed the title after
I announced it, to something like âPacific Rim: Wow! Gee-Whiz! Goodness-golly-glaciers!â but I also think it puts a punctuation mark
on what I mean. A ton of people think Pacific Rim is a dumb
movie, I used to be one of âem. And for me itâs almost a joke to me at this
point but I think itâs a badge. I think itâs endearing. I think a lot of people look at Pacific Rim
and say "I think this is a dumb movie." And now I can look them in the eyes and say
âYeah. Itâs the BEST dumbest movie.â hey It's my voice again I'm actually here for
the credits. With David Mcintyre, A wooden leg, brosephine,
Matt Hessinger, Ken Burns, John, Bret Brizzee, Trey Bushart, Sam Bacon, Jennifer Adame, Christopher
Woo, ..... MAN this is so Blacktoothbob. I can do 'em all! uh, hey. How's it going everyone? I really thought I was gonna get through that. Uh, cuz I'm dumb. Um this is scrolling way too fast. Yes, I pay good money just to see these in
the credits. And I say good things to keep you in them? I dunno. Yeah, so this dealt with some of my existential
dread about doing this. Sort of connecting up some of my feelings
over the past few years. I mean, Pacific Rim came out a long time ago
but I carried that with me for a long time. And I wanted to come clean and be like 'I
was very wrong!' unlike Sandy & Jayremy Lester who are always right. Little known fact. A lot of people don't know that. Go to patreon.com/movieswithmikey please. If you want to support us. Also like this video, subscribe to the channel. Just make our metrics blow up I'm told that's
what "metrics" ..... uh, cuz youtube is confusing and I'm old. And Benjamin A straub is not. Actually I dunno how old that guy is. Henry Kropf. Kelly Naylor. Richard Scott. A lot of people. I've been saying their names for a long time. Walrus, Axel Lehmann, James Masten, Kevin
Hoctor, Garrett Lathey, cyclopsboi, jakub koziol map, you are all amazing thank you
for the continued support. support creators. bye.
OMG, so they built bots in full engineering "theoretical" design... so all we have to do is get these drawings and we can make our own Jaegers!
Fuck you mikey
I'll never understand why so many people clamor to call Pacific Rim "dumb". Like, relax, you're not going to be exiled to the void because you like a genre movie.
(That said, the video was alright. Not the backhanded compliment montage I was expecting.)