Pacific Rim-Where can it go from here?

[Anachronism]

Well, okay, I could amend to say it's a financial disaster from the point of view of the studios and executives that actually pay the money to have the movie made. The bottom line is doing better than expected in the foreign markets isn't going to cut it when the movie needs to make twice it's budget to be considered a success. For the people paying for the movie a loss is a loss and they just aren't going to throw the money behind a sequel, unless it's significantly scaled down to lessen the risk, and if you get rid of the pure spectacle then what's really left? I don't think anyone that enjoyed the movie is going to say the plot and characters could carry a movie.

It's a lot like the situation of AAA video games now. Call of Duty sells six million units so stockholders throw money at projects and games that move millions of units are considered to be disappointments. It's the same with blockbuster movies. Studios are throwing hundreds of millions at these movies and then expecting them to make Avengers money when that's just never going to happen, so even when a movie does better than expected it's not good enough. Can anyone really believe that RIPD cost 180 million to make? And they actually expected to profit from that? Same thing with the Lone Ranger, a stupid amount of money to make and no way it was ever going to make it back. Now, Rim is better than both of those turds, but I think it would have benefited from being given a more modest budget and then when that does well and it's got name recognition they would be more willing to throw money at a flashy sequel with all the bells and whistles. But that would have required a stronger script and more world building and then blowing their wad on just the most impressive set pieces they could afford.

But it is what is is and unfortunately I think Pacific Rim is going to be a one of a kind movie that we won't seeing something like it again any time soon because of inflated expectation for what was always going to be a niche movie. And you're right I was kind of harsh on the movie, but I do tend to be very critical of even the things I like. And I actually did enjoy the movie, I just don't think it was quite as ground breaking as some people find it.

Fair enough, I see your point. I know it's not really making enough money for a sequel to be terribly likely, but at this point I'd just like one of del Toro's movies to actually do well so he can get his other projects off the ground - I'm stupidly excited about the possibility of his Dark Universe movie about DC's magic-themed characters.

And there's certainly no denying that Pacific Rim's characters couldn't carry the film on their own. For me, it was all about the spectacle: it wasn't even a little bit ground-breaking, I just enjoyed watching giant robots beat up giant monsters as directed by a guy who was clearly in love with the idea. Sometimes, that's enough. Although, clearly not for most audiences.

 

[Cecilo]

To be honest, if the Kaiju were really intelligent, they would just wait until humanity has forgotten about them in their entirety, send more shock troops, boom, victory. In all honesty, the entire plan the Kaiju implemented was rather stupid, why would you send in the cannon fodder, why not just send unarmed probes.

 

[Bat Vader]

If they are to make another movie I want it to be a prequel where it shows the Jaeger and Kaiju war and have it end just before the beginning of the first film. I want to see more of Cherno Alpha, Coyote Tango, and Crimson Typhoon in action.

The movie ended so perfectly that a sequel just seems out of place and unnecessary.

 

[uchytjes]

First of all: Make a nice animated internet series that expands upon the early years.

Second: Build to a prequel where the marshall (forgetting his name) fights in his "solo combat" that was mentioned along with expanding upon the "rock star" status of the pilots and the likely contest for becoming a pilot.

Third: GIVE ME A 30 JAEGER BATTLE. IT WOULD BE AWESOME.

Oh, also: If they had the capability of launching 30 jaegers at once from Hong Kong, why the hell didn't they have at least two in Anchorage? Only one Jaeger for an entire city? Why wouldn't they at least call in some backup or something? They said that Knifehead was one of the biggest class 3s ever, shouldn't they have done something more than one jaeger?

 

[Azahul]

I want the film to be heavily advertised as a sequel, but it turns out to be a five-minute alternate universe where the governments of the world act intelligently and just spawn-camp the Kaiju with submarines and nuclear torpedoes (which are totally a thing we have, thanks GW Bush)

I forsee two possible outcomes

Kaiju dodges torpedo, cleaves submarine in half, proceeds to nearest city
Kaiju dodges torpedo, outruns submarine, proceeds to nearest city

You mean a Kaiju can't dodge a slow moving punch from a giant mech, but can dodge a fast moving torpedo fires by a submarine probably sitting miles away?

Seriously, we have satellites capable of deploying nukes, we know where the portal was, we can even tell when a Kaiju is emerging. There should have been zero issues strafing them as they were trying to emerge. Hell, fire enough shots and there's a chance that we might have accidentally sealed the portal.

Say what you will about the impressive nature of the Jaegers, but they are a terrible, terrible waste of resources. Something on that scale always is.

 

[guitarsniper]

I think they should play to the franchise's strengths which seems to be action figures and anthology pieces. There are tons of Jaegers that have names, some of which have designs, people want to see what they can do.

I want the film to be heavily advertised as a sequel, but it turns out to be a five-minute alternate universe where the governments of the world act intelligently and just spawn-camp the Kaiju with submarines and nuclear torpedoes (which are totally a thing we have, thanks GW Bush)

I forsee two possible outcomes

Kaiju dodges torpedo, cleaves submarine in half, proceeds to nearest city
Kaiju dodges torpedo, outruns submarine, proceeds to nearest city

Kaiju are not built, as a rule, to move efficiently through the water. If we can detect whales readily with passive sonar on submarines, we can easily detect kaiju, and as the USAF maxim goes, "if you can see it you can hit it, if you can hit it you can kill it". The soviet VA-111 Shkval torpedo moves at speeds approaching 200 knots, uses thrust vectoring for additional maneuverability, and was originally designed, in 1977, to take a nuclear warhead. And you're telling me that, withtech capable of producing Jaegers, we couldn't build a torpedo that a Kaiju couldn't dodge and that could kill one?

 

[I Max95]

they could do a sequal just fine, they could send the Jaegers to space to go on the offesive against the aliens, or maybe the aliens learn from their mistakes and send their own versions of the Jaegers to fight the human jaegers, or maybe it's an all out war, with more Jaegers and Kaiju than every before duking it out all at once

yeah, i could easily see them making a sequal

 

[talker]

To be honest, if the Kaiju were really intelligent, they would just wait until humanity has forgotten about them in their entirety, send more shock troops, boom, victory. In all honesty, the entire plan the Kaiju implemented was rather stupid, why would you send in the cannon fodder, why not just send unarmed probes.

It's at times like this I wonder if people have seen the movie.

The Kaiju were monsters created by an insectoid race called the Precursors who use the Kaiju to clear a planet of intelligent life after they have discovered one which suits their needs. They weren't actually intelligent, they were sent to wipe out the 'parasites' (e.g. humans) so the precursors could populate it themselves

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I'd like to see a full movie on those first few years of war that the prologue described. Seems like ripe territory.
As for moving forward, I can only see two possibilities.

Spoiler: 1

They closed up the portal and there are no more Jaegers, right? But in the movie, didn't they say that the Precursor's had colonized worlds before? Maybe the rest of them suddenly go "Oh hey, why did the entire branch attacking Earth just go quiet? Oh, THAT'S why!" and come back with a vengeance? But that seems like a really cheap "the portal opened again and more Kaiju came out."

Spoiler: 2

As a few have already mentioned, the united world un-unites itself and we get Jaeger v Jaeger battles.

I don't know, I'm no Hollywood screenwriter, maybe (hopefully) they'll surprise us. Or maybe one of our suggestions will be correct and they'll do something more creative with it.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The humans have have more than a decade to study the Rift, and the actions of the Jaegers in this film shows how viable they still are at battling the Kaiju. What's to say that the bigwigs who wanted to build walls decide to reinstate the Jaeger program and launch an assault on the Precursors's homeworld to prevent them from just opening another rift? The space that Gipsy Danger blew up might have only been a science lab for all we know.