Ruk's Count Down 65 Movies from 2013 ('Yes, I'm actually going to finish this.' edition)

[rukaio101]

Okay, I won't delay thing any longer. My real No 1 film of 2013 is....

 

1. Pacific Rim

"Fuck. Yes."

 

 

I loved this film. Loved loved loved loved loved it. Loved every kaiju-punching, jaeger-riding minute of it. This was one of my most anticipated of the year and it still blew past all my expectations. I walked into the theatre expecting great action and maybe weakish plot/characters. I walked out having watched some amazing action and, contrary to other people’s beliefs, surprisingly deep and interesting characters. Especially the main heroine, Mako, (who was probably intended to be the true main character (Hunnam was portrayed much more as an older brother mentor figure and was probably only centre stage because Hollywood executives are inherently sexist)) and is one of my favourite characters in any film I’ve seen this year. The way more and more layers to her character are revealed and develop as the film proceeds is just fascinating. And don’t get me started on that flashback to her past. A serious contender for one of my favourite scenes of the year.

 

Anyway, as my No 2 may have tipped you off (as well as that whole Anime thread I’ve got going), I’m a pretty big anime fan. And, while I’ve only watched a handful of mecha anime (like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) even I can see how much of a love letter this film is to those sorts of series. And I suspect, as I watch others, I’ll only come to appreciate it even more. One of the reasons this works so well as an homage is because it takes its source material quite seriously. There’s none of that self-referential ‘oh isn’t this all kind of goofy’ stuff you see so often from these kinds of film. Pacific Rim treats its subject material and the genre it pays homage to with the utmost respect and I think comes off stronger for it. But it still keeps that sense of fun and enjoyment you get from those sorts of series. You can tell Del Toro is really passionate towards this genre and, quite frankly, that’s what makes this movie such a great experience for me. It’s just made with passion. When I watch a film like Transformers, I see a movie being made to make money and to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I don’t see any real passion for the Transformers franchise or film as a medium, it’s just a paycheck movie. The only real passion show is from scenes involving the military and, honestly, those tend to be some of my favourite parts. Pacific Rim, from beginning to end, is made with passion. You get the feeling that Del Toro was having the time of his life making this film and that enthusiasm is practically leaking from the film.

 

 

Another reason I love the film is the sheer scale of it. Lots of blockbusters claim that the whole world is in peril, this is one of the few films that made me feel it. Humanity has pushed back and worn down over and over a long period of time, rather than a single disastrous attack and things genuinely feel pretty desperate. The opening monologue at the beginning helps establish the current world and there are interesting smaller details to it, like the kaiju scavengers. There have been major battles, victories and losses only mentioned by word, the whole film has an interesting, untold history which really helps the world feel fully formed and different from your everyday blockbuster. The impressive diversity for a Hollywood blockbuster helps this along to. In addition to the typical American hero, you have Japanese, Australian, Russian, Chinese, British, everyone. This isn’t just your typical ‘America saves the day’ crap like ID4, this really feels like the entire world banding together to fight back. The battles also end up feeling much bigger, both metaphorically and literally. The battles are fucking huge. And this is one of the reasons I get so pissed when people claim it’s just a ripoff of Transformers. The Transformer robots are about the size of a small house. The Jaegers are the size of a fucking skyscraper and they move and fight like it. Transformers are dashing and jumping all over the place, shooting everywhere. Jaegers move much slower, but have such a power and might to them that it’s hard not to feel impressed. Honestly, I can’t think of a single film that’s had fight scenes like Pacific Rim. Yes, there have been fights involving monsters skyscraper sized, but a no-holds barred beatdown between two skyscraper sized combatants? The only ones I can think of are the old kaiju films (little surprise there, considering Del Toro’s passion for them) and the effects there are nowhere near as impressive as the effects here. These things look nearly real and every time they smash through a building, it looks like a real building is being smashed through. How many other films can boast something like that? And Del Toro doesn’t just take to the cliché ‘city/desert’ action scenes like some other films, I care to mention. He really goes out there and sets them in original, but awesome places. The middle of a raging storm. Miles underwater. Even briefly in the stratosphere.

 

 

Now, I suppose I should take a few minutes to talk about the characters (or specifically Hunnam and the Australian guy, since those are the ones people tend to have the biggest problem with), since that seems to be most people’s problems with the movie. And I stand by what I said at the beginning. I think they’re great. The thing is, they’re also kinda subtle which, in this world of blatant, in-your-face characterisation is something a lot of people tend to miss. I still maintain that Hunnam is not supposed to be the protagonist of this tale. He’s an older brother mentor, one who experienced a severe trauma at the beginning of the film and locked his emotions away because of it. Notice how, even when working on the wall, he’s a loner and never really has anyone to say goodbye to when he leaves. He returns to the fray, not because he wants to, but because there’s no other choice and he slowly, but surely, begins to be drawn out of his shell while tutoring the lesser experienced Mako. Notice how Hunnam seems to be at his most passionate and emotional when defending Mako to Elba. The rest of the time, him ‘being dull’ is a deliberate emotional wall he’s built around himself after his brother’s death. That’s subtle characterisation! While I admit the Australian rival/jerk could’ve probably used more development, he also has interesting sides to his character if you take the time to look, including his issues with his father and his jealousy towards Raleigh that sprouted as a result. Again, subtle characterisation. Nowadays, it seems we as an audience have become kinda self-entitled, expecting the film to do all the work in explaining a character rather than reading into things ourselves (and that’s something I’ve kinda noticed when it comes to plotholes as well, where they can be easily explained if you just put a little thought into them). Admittedly, this isn’t the case with every film, sometimes bad is just bad no matter how much you read into it, and I’m sure there are people who think the characters in Pacific Rim are like, but at least take the time to think a moment, instead of dismissing them out that gate. You may end up pleasantly surprised.

 

Okay, I suppose I should probably start to wind down now, although I could talk about this movie for many hours more. For me though, I think this personifies the idea that you don’t need to be an Oscar baity drama to be a truly great movie. You don’t need to be uber grimdark. You don’t need to be artsy or anything like that. You just need to have passion. And, like I said, that’s what really makes this film for me. Even shot is filled with passion, from Hunnam  arriving at the hub to Day and Gorman bickering in their lab to Gypsy Danger clobbering a kaiju with a fucking trawler ship. You can tell the man absolutely adores everything he’s doing. He’s not making the film to appeal to a demographic or to make millions of dollars, he’s doing it as an enormous love letter to both the genre he loves and the medium of film itself. And that’s why I love Pacific Rim. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s subtle, it’s original, it gives you things you’ve never seen before and, beyond all that, it is passionate in what it does. It’s not a perfect film, no film is, and there are notable problems with it. But the film is what it is and doesn’t pretend for one second otherwise. And that’s why it’s my No 1 of the year. 

Edited May 12, 2014 by Za Rukaio!

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

 

Now, I suppose I should take a few minutes to talk about the characters (or specifically Hunnam and the Australian guy, since those are the ones people tend to have the biggest problem with), since that seems to be most people’s problems with the movie. And I stand by what I said at the beginning. I think they’re great. The thing is, they’re also kinda subtle which, in this world of blatant, in-your-face characterisation is something a lot of people tend to miss. I still maintain that Hunnam is not supposed to be the protagonist of this tale. He’s an older brother mentor, one who experienced a severe trauma at the beginning of the film and locked his emotions away because of it. Notice how, even when working on the wall, he’s a loner and never really has anyone to say goodbye to when he leaves. He returns to the fray, not because he wants to, but because there’s no other choice and he slowly, but surely, begins to be drawn out of his shell while tutoring the lesser experienced Mako. Notice how Hunnam seems to be at his most passionate and emotional when defending Mako to Elba. The rest of the time, him ‘being dull’ is a deliberate emotional wall he’s built around himself after his brother’s death. That’s subtle characterisation!

It's also boring characterization to be honest with you. I will admit that I liked your analysis of Hunnam; however, it still leaves me unconvinced. There is never a moment where we understand that the reason he is bland is because he has no brother. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking that the film have him tell me that he feels loss through obvious dialogue, but maybe a few more flashbacks (I think they had one) or some other visual cues could have built in that would have made it clearer that the reason he is bland is because of the loss of his brother and not poor writing. But moreover, the point of film, imo, is to get me to empathize with people. Even if your analysis checks out, all I know is that I still didn't find myself empathizing with Hunnam. His brother barely left an impression for me and we never got to truly understand how much Hunnam's brother meant to him. I felt some slight pity, but never any real emotion. As a result, this emotional thread, if it does exist, feels weak as opposed to strong.Ultimately, I didn't enjoy the film. I found most of the characters to be bland and expected. There were a few emotional moments (the scene where Elba meets Mako was pretty good and then at the end, when he says goodbye was also good. But  most of the moments felt flat, contrived, or underdeveloped. I thought the action was good though, and I will agree that any comparison to the latter two Transformer films is off-base as this film at least tries to give us a good time. But it doesn't work for me.Still, nice write-up and good list. 

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

Though, Matt Zoller Seitz seems to agree with you.And he is the best film critic alive these days...sohttp://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pacific-rim-2013 

[Jessie]

Okay, I won't delay thing any longer. My real No 1 film of 2013 is....

 

1. Pacific Rim

"Fuck. Yes."

 

 

I loved this film. Loved loved loved loved loved it. Loved every kaiju-punching, jaeger-riding minute of it. This was one of my most anticipated of the year and it still blew past all my expectations. I walked into the theatre expecting great action and maybe weakish plot/characters. I walked out having watched some amazing action and, contrary to other people’s beliefs, surprisingly deep and interesting characters. Especially the main heroine, Mako, (who was probably intended to be the true main character (Hunnam was portrayed much more as an older brother mentor figure and was probably only centre stage because Hollywood executives are inherently sexist)) and is one of my favourite characters in any film I’ve seen this year. The way more and more layers to her character are revealed and develop as the film proceeds is just fascinating. And don’t get me started on that flashback to her past. A serious contender for one of my favourite scenes of the year.

 

Anyway, as my No 2 may have tipped you off (as well as that whole Anime thread I’ve got going), I’m a pretty big anime fan. And, while I’ve only watched a handful of mecha anime (like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) even I can see how much of a love letter this film is to those sorts of series. And I suspect, as I watch others, I’ll only come to appreciate it even more. One of the reasons this works so well as an homage is because it takes its source material quite seriously. There’s none of that self-referential ‘oh isn’t this all kind of goofy’ stuff you see so often from these kinds of film. Pacific Rim treats its subject material and the genre it pays homage to with the utmost respect and I think comes off stronger for it. But it still keeps that sense of fun and enjoyment you get from those sorts of series. You can tell Del Toro is really passionate towards this genre and, quite frankly, that’s what makes this movie such a great experience for me. It’s just made with passion. When I watch a film like Transformers, I see a movie being made to make money and to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I don’t see any real passion for the Transformers franchise or film as a medium, it’s just a paycheck movie. The only real passion show is from scenes involving the military and, honestly, those tend to be some of my favourite parts. Pacific Rim, from beginning to end, is made with passion. You get the feeling that Del Toro was having the time of his life making this film and that enthusiasm is practically leaking from the film.

 

 

Another reason I love the film is the sheer scale of it. Lots of blockbusters claim that the whole world is in peril, this is one of the few films that made me feel it. Humanity has pushed back and worn down over and over a long period of time, rather than a single disastrous attack and things genuinely feel pretty desperate. The opening monologue at the beginning helps establish the current world and there are interesting smaller details to it, like the kaiju scavengers. There have been major battles, victories and losses only mentioned by word, the whole film has an interesting, untold history which really helps the world feel fully formed and different from your everyday blockbuster. The impressive diversity for a Hollywood blockbuster helps this along to. In addition to the typical American hero, you have Japanese, Australian, Russian, Chinese, British, everyone. This isn’t just your typical ‘America saves the day’ crap like ID4, this really feels like the entire world banding together to fight back. The battles also end up feeling much bigger, both metaphorically and literally. The battles are fucking huge. And this is one of the reasons I get so pissed when people claim it’s just a ripoff of Transformers. The Transformer robots are about the size of a small house. The Jaegers are the size of a fucking skyscraper and they move and fight like it. Transformers are dashing and jumping all over the place, shooting everywhere. Jaegers move much slower, but have such a power and might to them that it’s hard not to feel impressed. Honestly, I can’t think of a single film that’s had fight scenes like Pacific Rim. Yes, there have been fights involving monsters skyscraper sized, but a no-holds barred beatdown between two skyscraper sized combatants? The only ones I can think of are the old kaiju films (little surprise there, considering Del Toro’s passion for them) and the effects there are nowhere near as impressive as the effects here. These things look nearly real and every time they smash through a building, it looks like a real building is being smashed through. How many other films can boast something like that? And Del Toro doesn’t just take to the cliché ‘city/desert’ action scenes like some other films, I care to mention. He really goes out there and sets them in original, but awesome places. The middle of a raging storm. Miles underwater. Even briefly in the stratosphere.

 

 

Now, I suppose I should take a few minutes to talk about the characters (or specifically Hunnam and the Australian guy, since those are the ones people tend to have the biggest problem with), since that seems to be most people’s problems with the movie. And I stand by what I said at the beginning. I think they’re great. The thing is, they’re also kinda subtle which, in this world of blatant, in-your-face characterisation is something a lot of people tend to miss. I still maintain that Hunnam is not supposed to be the protagonist of this tale. He’s an older brother mentor, one who experienced a severe trauma at the beginning of the film and locked his emotions away because of it. Notice how, even when working on the wall, he’s a loner and never really has anyone to say goodbye to when he leaves. He returns to the fray, not because he wants to, but because there’s no other choice and he slowly, but surely, begins to be drawn out of his shell while tutoring the lesser experienced Mako. Notice how Hunnam seems to be at his most passionate and emotional when defending Mako to Elba. The rest of the time, him ‘being dull’ is a deliberate emotional wall he’s built around himself after his brother’s death. That’s subtle characterisation! While I admit the Australian rival/jerk could’ve probably used more development, he also has interesting sides to his character if you take the time to look, including his issues with his father and his jealousy towards Raleigh that sprouted as a result. Again, subtle characterisation. Nowadays, it seems we as an audience have become kinda self-entitled, expecting the film to do all the work in explaining a character rather than reading into things ourselves (and that’s something I’ve kinda noticed when it comes to plotholes as well, where they can be easily explained if you just put a little thought into them). Admittedly, this isn’t the case with every film, sometimes bad is just bad no matter how much you read into it, and I’m sure there are people who think the characters in Pacific Rim are like, but at least take the time to think a moment, instead of dismissing them out that gate. You may end up pleasantly surprised.

 

Okay, I suppose I should probably start to wind down now, although I could talk about this movie for many hours more. For me though, I think this personifies the idea that you don’t need to be an Oscar baity drama to be a truly great movie. You don’t need to be uber grimdark. You don’t need to be artsy or anything like that. You just need to have passion. And, like I said, that’s what really makes this film for me. Even shot is filled with passion, from Hunnam  arriving at the hub to Day and Gorman bickering in their lab to Gypsy Danger clobbering a kaiju with a fucking trawler ship. You can tell the man absolutely adores everything he’s doing. He’s not making the film to appeal to a demographic or to make millions of dollars, he’s doing it as an enormous love letter to both the genre he loves and the medium of film itself. And that’s why I love Pacific Rim. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s subtle, it’s original, it gives you things you’ve never seen before and, beyond all that, it is passionate in what it does. It’s not a perfect film, no film is, and there are notable problems with it. But the film is what it is and doesn’t pretend for one second otherwise. And that’s why it’s my No 1 of the year. 

 

 

Ahhhh that's why you get so offended every time I shit on this film, its your favourite film of the year lol.

 

Pacific Rim has an awesome mid way action scene but its beginning fight looked cheaply done and the final climax taking place underwater was a massive let down. what is the point in skyscraper sized robots fighting underwater with nothing to compare it to. I may as well have been watching two miniature figured fighting in a bath tub. If you are going to praise the hell out of this movies action then fair enough, but you cant do that then shit on Bay's transformers when the action looks more real and is a lot more fluently put together, that's just hater talk right there.

[Plain Old Tele]

The words "Michael Bay" and "fluid" don't belong together.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Telemachos

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

PR's action > Transformers' Action (although I hope this doesn't become a Transformers related discussion).Why: For a lot of reasons, but the #1 reason is scale. I've always known that the Transformers robots were big, but Bay rarely tried to show their scale in comparison to real world objects. As a result, I never could appreciate how large they were. PR is the exact opposite. Del Toro has shots of these things picking up massive cargo containers and smashing them on lizards as if they were a block of legos or them just picking up that ship like it was nothing. Those moments made you feel that you were watching huge beings that were truly God-like and they made the action so much better, imo.Still don't like the film. 

[rukaio101]

It's also boring characterization to be honest with you. I will admit that I liked your analysis of Hunnam; however, it still leaves me unconvinced. There is never a moment where we understand that the reason he is bland is because he has no brother. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking that the film have him tell me that he feels loss through obvious dialogue, but maybe a few more flashbacks (I think they had one) or some other visual cues could have built in that would have made it clearer that the reason he is bland is because of the loss of his brother and not poor writing. But moreover, the point of film, imo, is to get me to empathize with people. Even if your analysis checks out, all I know is that I still didn't find myself empathizing with Hunnam. His brother barely left an impression for me and we never got to truly understand how much Hunnam's brother meant to him. I felt some slight pity, but never any real emotion. As a result, this emotional thread, if it does exist, feels weak as opposed to strong.Ultimately, I didn't enjoy the film. I found most of the characters to be bland and expected. There were a few emotional moments (the scene where Elba meets Mako was pretty good and then at the end, when he says goodbye was also good. But  most of the moments felt flat, contrived, or underdeveloped. I thought the action was good though, and I will agree that any comparison to the latter two Transformer films is off-base as this film at least tries to give us a good time. But it doesn't work for me.

I admit, I do think the film could've improved on developing some of the characters a bit better and if you're still not impressed I can kinda understand. I just get tired of people saying there's nothing there character-wise. There is interesting characterisation below the surface if you take the time to look.

 

Interesting factoid, I read some of the Pacific Rim promotional materials about the Australian rival, Chuck Hansen, which explained that he's basically a child soldier, enrolling in the military at 12 and piloting his first Jaeger at 16 which, upon rewatch, really made sense in context with his performance and added a lot of depth and tragicness to his character. Admittedly, I really can't give the film too much credit for that, since a film needs to stand alone and you shouldn't need promotional material to understand something, but it's proof that there are interesting characters if you take the time to think about them.

 

 

If you are going to praise the hell out of this movies action then fair enough, but you cant do that then shit on Bay's transformers when the action looks more real and is a lot more fluently put together, that's just hater talk right there.

Ahahahaha, no. Firstly, Bay's action is mostly a mess of explosions and debris. I admit it's an entertaining mess of explosions and debris, but it's not nearly as good as PR's action. Or even anything like it, stylistically. Bay's action is your typical quick, bullets-everywhere, explosion laden fight scene that you see all the time in action movies. PR is slower moving but is much more personal and physical and it really lets you appreciate the size and scale of the fights. The only similarity between the two is that they both have giant robots. And PR's are much much bigger.

 

Secondly, you appear to have missed the major point that I don't hate Transformers because of the action. I like the Transformers action, maybe not as much as PR, but I still like it. I hate Transformers because most of the human characters are un-fucking-bearable and make the movie a chore to watch. And Bay insists in shoving them into your face at every turn. I enjoy mindless action as much as the next guy, but the bad far outweighs the good in the Transformers movies.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Za Rukaio!

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

Rukaio, your interesting factoid was another problem with this film: there were so many other things that could have been explored. David Edelstein brought this up in his review. He explained that if you took the prologue and made it into a film, you would have a pretty awesome movie. The aliens attack from nowhere. Humans try everything to stop them, but it doesn't work. So these robots are built. But it still doesn't work because the robots need two humans and not one. Finally, you end it with two humans piloting a robot and finally defeating the aliens. Then this film could be put into PR2 (obviously this review was written before the BO results rolled in). And I agree with David, there are so many interesting ideas, and yet, they are never explored. Like the idea of these pilots becoming celebrities only is explored for like a minute, but it's a really cool idea. Or even the idea of "drifting." They explore that to an extent when Mako gets lost in her memory, but I wanted more. I wanted to feel the emotional impact that would happen when one person's memories all took a hold of you at once. IDK if it could have been done on film, but I would have loved for them to try to capture it. But they never did. And ultimately, too much was left on the table for me to enjoy the film.

[rukaio101]

Rukaio, your interesting factoid was another problem with this film: there were so many other things that could have been explored. David Edelstein brought this up in his review. He explained that if you took the prologue and made it into a film, you would have a pretty awesome movie. The aliens attack from nowhere. Humans try everything to stop them, but it doesn't work. So these robots are built. But it still doesn't work because the robots need two humans and not one. Finally, you end it with two humans piloting a robot and finally defeating the aliens. Then this film could be put into PR2 (obviously this review was written before the BO results rolled in). And I agree with David, there are so many interesting ideas, and yet, they are never explored. Like the idea of these pilots becoming celebrities only is explored for like a minute, but it's a really cool idea. Or even the idea of "drifting." They explore that to an extent when Mako gets lost in her memory, but I wanted more. I wanted to feel the emotional impact that would happen when one person's memories all took a hold of you at once. IDK if it could have been done on film, but I would have loved for them to try to capture it. But they never did. And ultimately, too much was left on the table for me to enjoy the film.

The problem with that is that you have to take into account the two hour running time. Yes, I would have liked to have seen some of the stuff in the prologue but it's not necessary to the film and, were they to do that, it'd mean pretty much rewriting the entire thing. Also, due to the uncertainness of a sequel, it would also require severely reducing the time frame of the entire series of events. And honestly, I think that would really work against the film. One of the reasons the film works for me is because of the genuine feeling that humanity has pushed to the brink of extinction. That this is a tired, weakened humanity who are moving in one last desperate push. Were we to follow the events from the beginning, no matter how many timeskips you used, it just wouldn't feel the same and it'd be much more difficult to capture that sense of hopelessness the film already does.

 

And honestly, I like film worlds that leave things unexplored for you. You don't need to see everything and having this wide array of events or possibilities that we don't know of that side characters mention in passing really adds a lot of depth to the world and makes it seem more than just something created for a 2 hour movie. You can theorise and imagine and fill in the gaps yourself, usually in a way that an actual answer wouldn't be able to live up to. (Although, I don't at all object to having said questions answered in a sequel.)

Edited May 14, 2014 by Za Rukaio!

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

I will admit that it is normally a good thing if a film offers me a world that I want to see more of. The issue here is that the world that I want to see is far more interesting than the world that I am seeing.Your points on the plot were fair though. 

[rukaio101]

I will admit that it is normally a good thing if a film offers me a world that I want to see more of. The issue here is that the world that I want to see is far more interesting than the world that I am seeing.

Each to their own, I suppose.

 

Although, I think it says something about Pacific Rim's effectiveness as an homage to mecha anime that, honestly, I'd prefer to see the prequel as an animated series rather than a live-action film. I think, unless you have a series of films, that'd be the only way to explore all these unseen events and possibilities in a satisfying way. Don't get me wrong, I still want to see another live-action Pacific Rim film, because those effects combined with Del Toro's direction are awe inspiring. But I'd like it to be a sequel, where we can set up and clean up an incident satisfyingly in a 2 hour window. 

[Jessie]

Ahahahaha, no. Firstly, Bay's action is mostly a mess of explosions and debris. I admit it's an entertaining mess of explosions and debris, but it's not nearly as good as PR's action. Or even anything like it, stylistically. Bay's action is your typical quick, bullets-everywhere, explosion laden fight scene that you see all the time in action movies. PR is slower moving but is much more personal and physical and it really lets you appreciate the size and scale of the fights. The only similarity between the two is that they both have giant robots. And PR's are much much bigger.Secondly, you appear to have missed the major point that I don't hate Transformers because of the action. I like the Transformers action, maybe not as much as PR, but I still like it. I hate Transformers because most of the human characters are un-fucking-bearable and make the movie a chore to watch. And Bay insists in shoving them into your face at every turn. I enjoy mindless action as much as the next guy, but the bad far outweighs the good in the Transformers movies.

I think this depends on the film. For example the attack on Pearl Harbour was very well done, it was a work of art. I admit the transformers actually fighting is nothing special (which the exception of the first movie and a 30 second action scene taking place in a forest in TF2) but the transformers fighting never really impressed me. Where I think Bay's eye for action really shines is in his set pieces which don't just involve clanging metal attacking each other which I'll agree gets tiresome and you can barely make out the good guys. The collapsing building in TF3 and the sky jump however were very well shot and it was these scenes that impressed me. I honestly don't care for Transformers, I don't think of them as awesome films but I can admire at least 15 minutes or so from each movie. With Pacific Rim I thought the action looked fake a lot of the time and the end battle, supposedly the climax fell way short of expectation for me after an admittedly great middle act. Like you said, Pacific Rims robots are huge but it doesn't make a difference when they are battling under water, it didn't have the same impact. The first 10 minutes of PR gave me high hopes but I could never get into the unlikeable lead and just kept finding myself looking forward to the next Charlie Day scene lol. The battle in the sea though was epic and to me was the most impressive part of the film. I'll also give credit to the 3D which had a much better effect on PR than it did with TF3, I barely saw a difference with the latter. Edited May 15, 2014 by Jessie