I read the script for PACIFIC RIM recently and came away impressed. Any movie that requires a two-page sci-fi glossary of terms at the beginning scratches me right where I itch. This is basically Voltron for semi-grown-ups (or Evangelion if you’re a nerd). In fact, a much more satisfying take on giant robots than Justin Marks’ VOLTRON script from a few years ago.
To sum up the (pretty basic) story, giant Kaiju (20-story hellbeasts with names like ‘Invidia’) are entering our world from another dimension and attacking any city they please. The only thing that can stop them are giant Jaegers (20-story robots with names like ‘Tacit Ronin’), who chop them up with swords, gattling guns, ion pulses and wave lasers. Take your pick.
One thing I learned from this Travis Beacham really concentrates on the build up. The first attack doesn’t happen until page 30 and the main protagonists don’t get involved in the actual fighting until page 60. I’d have had them scrapping it out by page 2. Time is given to setting up the backstory and the team-building, so that when the shit does hit the fan, it has some weight. Which is a gross image.
Only criticism I have is the overload of dream sequences. These are used for backstory and to visualize overcoming internal obstacles (like Inception, except not as BHHWWWARRRRRRMMMMM), but there’s too many for my taste.
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