MYST POST #7: Pacific Rim

Seeing how i nearly praised this movie in my Godzilla (2014) review, I decided to discuss Del Toro's Pacific Rim which was released in 2013 by Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures (coincidentally the same studios that distributed Godzilla 2014). The creation of Pacific Rim was actually very complicating. A man named Travis Beacham conceived the idea of Pacific Rim while walking on a beach. There he imagined a giant robot and monster battling it out, however, the movie originally went by a different name. Travis Beacham's Killing on Carnival Row was to then be directed by Del Toro back in 2006. It was only later that Beacham also thought of the idea of 2 pilots in the robot, and wondered "what happens when one of those people dies?" Legendary then announced the new title Pacific Rim, and then the film continued development. When approached again to work on the project, Del Toro said that he would work on the project only if his latest project, At the Mountains of Madness (an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's work) was cancelled. After the movie's production began to fail due to budget and rating restrictions, Del Toro turned to Pacific Rim.

To really bring out the monstrous size of the Kaiju Del Toro decided to shoot many of the shots from below the Kaiju. The scene above features a Kaiju busting through buildings and debris while attacking a city. The shot is clearly at a lower angle, and the buildings can serve as a scale as to how big the creature really is. There is also a scene where a Kaiju named Leatherback rises up from the see into a sky down pouring with rain, followed by an enormous roar. The scene was purposely shot from below to bring out the true size of the beast. Del Toro's main inspiration for these kinds of shots throughout the film was from Francisco Goya's The Colossus, wanting to achieve the same "sense of awe" from the painting.
Industrial Light & Magic was chosen to do the film's effects. Del Toro specifically stated that he wanted to distance this film from other blockbusters. He said that he felt that the movie "'needs to be theatrical, operatic, romantic.' We used a lot of words not usually associated with high-tech blockbusters … We went for a very, very, very, very saturated color palette for the battle for Hong Kong. I kept asking John to tap into his inner Mexican and be able to saturate the greens and the purples and the pinks and the oranges." With this unusual style, the film's visuals stood out among other films featured at the time.

MYST POST #6: GODZILLA

Ever since I was little I always enjoyed a nice Godzilla film every now and then. For years I have been waiting for this new movie, which for a while it was called Godzilla 2012. In 2011 I received one of the older scripts for the upcoming movie. While the human characters were fairly bad, many of the concepts and scenes throughout the film of the radioactive carnage from Godzilla was amazing. When I went to see this movie last Thursday at the first showing in IMAX 3D, I was expecting a film filled with epic carnage. The film I got was a bit more what I was fearing.

The Godzilla film from 1998 was loathed by critics and G-fans alike. Everyone disliked the film due to its inaccuracies to the character of Gojira, and its childish plot (however, Godzilla the series, the sequel cartoon series to the movie, was loved by G-fans and critics). When the new Godzilla film was released, it immediately became popular among G-fans. But then the unimaginable happened. The film gained criticism from the most unlikely of things:

These comments are the three main issues of the movie. The first was that it didn't have enough Godzilla in it. The first time he truly appears is halfway into the movie. To be fair, he also appeared halfway in his previous movie. Even so, Godzilla still has more screen time in Final Wars than 2014. The reason could be due to director Gareth Edward being an independent movie maker, so he would naturally use techniques to keep the monster scenes short. The second problem is that the film is a bit boring. I too felt the slumber approach me as I watched this movie. It was only later that I realized why.

In Pacific Rim, there is a variety of different people with different personalities, making the film feel bigger, and all the characters go through some sort of character development. In Godzilla 1998, the characters are shown with huge personalities and sometimes comical personalities, and have gradual character development. In Godzilla 2014, the dialogue and character development was very strong with the father figure, but not so much with anyone else. Once our main character became a young military kid, whose name sounds a heck of a lot like Brony, all sense of character development and any personality for this character is sucked out. The same goes for his wife and child. Heck, most of the adults and all the children in this film had no personality. Without an engaging story behind a character, why should the audience feel sympathy for them? 

In the Pacific Rim film from last year, most of the shots were purposely shot from below the kaiju to make them appear huge. Even in the first American remake of Godzilla used a variety of low angle shots to make the monster seem and feel bigger. Godzilla 2014 didn't use this technique. There are a few good shots that make the Kaiju seem big, but the shots are usually far away from the monsters to show their entirety. There was a scene where a glow from Godzilla became apparent and the camera panned to the left and revealed his fire breath. That shot was worthy of the audience's applause. However, many of the other shots make the monsters seem small. Previous Godzilla films were able to use the low angle technique many times, specifically the original. That is how the illusion of a giant monster can come into play. But as i have said before, this movie chooses more straight forward and simpler shots.  

The final reason is most likely why this film has gained so much praise. We, as humans, fear a changing world. We are always afraid to try something new. This is also why when Pacific Rim came out last year, it did horrible in the American market. Because Godzilla has been around for 60 years and Pacific Rim is brand new, the audience trusts Godzilla more than Pacific Rim. Even then, most of the Godzilla films were only released on video in America and were never released into theaters, making audiences come to the conclusion that 2014 is the best one, without knowing it's only the best out of a few. With that said, it is merely human nature that makes a franchise thrive or fall.

So was this movie bad? I'm not entirely sure. The whole set up of conspiracy theories surrounding Kaiju was freakin epic, and the ending was definitely a classic. I mean, there are many good things I want to say about this film, but the negative out weigh the positive, and I feel that keeping the negative away from the public will only let these negatives live on in Hollywood. Here's to hoping for a better sequel.

Formal Film Study #2: The History of Kong

The Kaiju genre can be seen either as the most underground influential action genre or the most well accepted horror genre. These ideas can be traced to the fact that only recently has hollywood began its destiny to produce bigger budget Kaiju movies, such as Pacific Rim or Godzilla (2014). But most, if not, all of these films would not have even existed without the massive influential push by the King Kong films. The 3 films we will be looking at all have the same name "King Kong". The first came out in 1933, the next in 1976, and the latest in 2005. As for the horrendously beautiful B-movie spectacular "Kong Lives" or "Godzilla vs King Kong", I may mention them here and there, but they can be considered as their own separate films.

Very few zoos throughout America and the world featured apes and primates as the demand to see these amazing creatures grew. So people began to ask and beg Hollywood to start filming the interesting beasts. This was the beginning of a small yet large new age of film.This group of movies was known as Jungle films. Jungle films were a huge success and quickly became very profitable. The problem was that much of the information in these films was not entirely accurate, for Hollywood was more interested in the visuals and ideas than the facts. Beasts in the Jungle from 1913 is largely considered the first of the sub-genre. A lot of trick photography was also used in most of these films. Just as all other genres of movies consisted of a formula, the Jungle films also had their own. The formula was putting sexy woman and primative apes into the movie. This new craze eventually led to the groundbreaking epic that is King Kong from 1933, which also was green lighted by RKO mainly did so because of the idea that "gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits"(Erish).

The original film has a very different style from its followers. The film features more basic shots throughout, possibly mainly due to the painstaking work of stop-motion. The style also displayed the island as a cramped and very dense jungle. The shot above gives a perfect example of what most of movie consisted of. The shot makes it clear that the greenery has consumed most of this island, and easily transfers us all into it. The shots also last longer than most films today. They even return to the same shot throughout this battle between Kong and the V. Rex. Another feature that seperates this film from the others is its special effects. All of the creatures, including Kong himself, are featured in black and white stop-motion. However, there are some scenes where Kong is a giant animatronic, which in itself was all the more groundbreaking for its time. This movie's special effects gave practically gave birth to Toho's Godzilla franchise, Gorgo, Jurassic Park and countless other classics.
Overall, the first Kong movie seems as if it was trying to be a big-budget horror film. There are countless shots of Kong stomping on, or even devouring people. There are also numerous shots of people being attacked and even killed by some of the other interesting beasts living on Skull Island. The tribal people alone may terrify the audience with their cannibalistic and sacrificial nature. There is even a deleted scene where spiders devour people. However, the film can also be viewed as an adventure movie. A group of people travel to an island where they must confront numerous creatures to bring back one of their own. Of course, the plot later turns into an obviously insane director who brings Kong to New York and pretty much causes much destruction. This story sounds similar to that of numerous adventure movies from years before.

 Many, if not all, of you have probably not heard of this one; Heck, you've probably heard more of King Kong vs Godzilla than this movie! But I have to review this one, even if it was just made for reasons that even included the infamous sequel "Kong Lives" (which is a fantastic movie, mainly because of Dr Who and MechaKong). The Kong movie from 1976 at first glance seems as if it was made mainly for the lust of the leading actress and the greed of the possible profit that would be received. However, after a quick watch, it honestly wasn't that bad of a film. It was a campy film that was decent at times.
As stated previously, the film's style is more campy than its more revolutionary and famous predecessor. Rather than a dense and mysterious jungle, this film goes for a more B-movie budgeted feel for its numerous jungle scenes. Kong's arms, when holding the main actress throughout the film, were actually huge animatronics. This was done to make it easier for the actress to interact with Kong. The big ape himself was made using state of the art costumes, as well as animatronics. The scene above is a perfect example of what many of the shots of the film were like. The girl and hand were shot in front of a green screen, while Kong in the background was filmed separately. The campy quality of most of the shots also leaks out from this image, specifically with the mask looking face of Kong, and the shades and colors of the background.
Also, many of the famous scenes, such as the Rex's mouth being ripped open, were saved for the sequel, and instead we get a giant snake.

The latest Kong movie that has been released, and that we will be talking about, is Peter Jackson's masterpiece from 2005. The film was what really brought the CGI company Weta Digital, which was also created by Peter Jackson, on the map. This Kong movie is one of the very few remakes that has been considered better than the original. The movie was created by Jackson mainly because he had a huge history with the beast. He remembered crying when he first saw the giant monster fall off the building, and even attempted to remake the film with his Super 8 camera. The film became his life blood and fuel to become a film maker. Universal Pictures began seeing Jackson's work, and immediately became impressed. When given the chance to remake the creature from the black lagoon, Jackson declined and Universal learned of his obsession with Kong. The Kong character was Public Domain at the time, so it was decided a remake would be made. Jackson surprisingly declined the offer to remake Kong, but then decided to immediately sign on because he "quickly became disturbed by the fact that someone else would take it over," (Pryor). 
The film's style was definately reminicent of that of the time period the film takes place in. The cars are vintage, the people's clothes are vintage, even the discrimination of women is made apparent in the movie. One big thing this film did different than the previous ones was that there was no scene where Kong's hand reaches into a building and grabs the main character. Instead, she goes to him to try to calm him down and stop destroying the city.
The scene above shows how artsy many of the shots are throughout the film. Jackson was always concerned with the amount of screen time all the creatures were getting, so he made sure there were many full on views, and that many of the shots lasted longer than many of the previous film's.