Blood, chrome, monsters and metal.

[bloodhound31]

Total nerdgasm.

As a big fan of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series of which I sat glued to all 98 episodes, I just got a bit of a look at the prequel series, "Blood and Chrome." and I'm pretty charged with excitement.

Set 10 years into the first Cylon war and with a young William Adama fresh out of the academy and with a brand spanking new Galactica as the fleet's pride of position.

Take a look at the teaser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxL8g1_H-KQ

Bear McCreary does it again with his music score to go with it. Full soundtrack here, perfect background music for those long nights in the observatory. I bought his soundtrack to BSG season II and can't get enough of it.

Also this week, I got to see Pacific Rim, a movie about big robots and big monsters duking it out over cities with mass-carnage. I was expecting a spectacle and that's all.

To my utter surprise, it was actually a not a bad flick. The CG was good, the acting was OK, considering it was done by mostly nobodys even though I've seen their faces around. Believe it or not there was even a bit of story in it.

It's not award winning stuff by any means, but I think it's worth the cinema fee.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Yeah, I watched the Blood and Chrome 2-parter a couple of weeks ago. Love the new BSG, just going through re-watching the series on my regular flight travels, half-way through S1. Picking up bits missed in the first series.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Pacific Rim was Transformers on steroids.

Idris Elba is a great actor. Loved him since The Wire.

H

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by Octane

Pacific Rim was Transformers on steroids.

Idris Elba is a great actor. Loved him since The Wire.

H

I thought I recognised him from Promethius... totally forgot about him being Heimdall in Thor.

He was alright. When he got up and started his speech about, 'on the edge of our hope"... I must admit I cringed a little....

[multiweb (Marc)]

Pacific Rim got some real good reviews. Everybody who's seen it said it was very entertaining. Went to see Man of Steel last night. Got pretty average reviews but I enjoyed it too. Minblowing effects. Story line... well, it's superman, no surprise here.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Pacific Rim was 'Godzilla meets The Transformers'.
Awesome fun to watch, just pure action, ignore the physics, all good stuff.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Pacific Rim sounds a bit more like a remake of Evangelion Neon Genesis? Giant robots piloted by humans tackling monsters of unknown origin.

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by ZeroID

Pacific Rim was 'Godzilla meets The Transformers'.
Awesome fun to watch, just pure action, ignore the physics, all good stuff.

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

Pacific Rim sounds a bit more like a remake of Evangelion Neon Genesis? Giant robots piloted by humans tackling monsters of unknown origin.

Yes, I've heard it referred to like this by some who have and many who haven't yet seen it.

Similarities aside, (and they are vague similarities) it can stand up by itself.

[Profiler (Profiler)]

I saw Pacific Rim last week and to my surprise liked it a lot.

However, with that said I have noted a number of descriptions of the movie as Godzilla meets Transformers. Such descriptions are quite inaccurate.

Instead, Pacific Rim - I M H O - is incredibly derivative of a major cult classic manga Japanese cartoon series back from the 90's called Evangellion Neon Genesis (Please excuse the poor spelling)

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Profiler

Instead, Pacific Rim - I M H O - is incredibly derivative of a major cult classic manga Japanese cartoon series back from the 90's called Evangellion Neon Genesis (Please excuse the poor spelling)

Does it have the girls fooling about in the hot tub scene from ENG?

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Well, I never saw ENG obviously . I just saw dino monsters and large mechanical roboty things . Godzilla & Transformers, the story line was irrelevant. It was all just goodies vs baddies stuff. And entertaining fun.
My wife ( !!! ) suggested seeing it to my surprise and she enjoyed it as much as I did.

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Lets see - main plot structures to NGE off the top of my head

- There are only three gigantic robots left - called Evas
- The gigantic robots are built to fight the invading monsters (called Angels)
- It is very hard to find pilots/people in the whole world who can drive the robots in that they can form the necessary telepathic link to control the robot
- The monsters (Angels) are organic and come in successive waves getting bigger and nastier as they go
- The monsters abruptly appear through some sort of inter-dimensional portal
- The Robots are all stationed together as one last defence to defend one large Asian city
- In addition to the elite pilots who drive the Robots there is a huge military base full of maintenance and IT people who are also simultaneously assisting with the control and drive of the robots
- There are all sort of dramas amongst the different robot pilots

Now - if you substitute the word 'Eva' from NGE for 'Jaeger' and 'Angel' from NGE for 'Kenju' (I think thats the term) you essentially have Pacific Rim

[Octane (Humayun)]

Haha, wow, Profiler. I never thought of it like that and didn't make the linkage. I own the Neon Genesis Evangelion boxed set, too. In my defense, it's been a while since I watched it.

H

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Oh yes - I am kicking myself for forgetting - another major - major plot structure to NGE

- The humans in the base are constantly running test, simulations and measurements on the Eva pilots to try and ensure or maximise the pilots telepathic link they have with the Eva/robot so to ensure they can drive them

- The various human pilots are all tortured souls suffering a variety of mental hick-ups/emotional problems and these memories/feelings screw up their telepathic link with the Eva robots and thus, on some occasions, cant drive the robots


Now don't these points sound incredbily like Pacific Rim? The memory of the dead brother in the male lead, the childhood memory of being frightened of the monster in the female lead etc etc

[LewisM]

Watched Pacific Rim last night. An above average flick.

What bugged the living crap out of me was the exaggerated Australian accent of the 2 "Aussie" pilots, neither of whom are Aussies (one is a Yank, the other a Pom). VERY grating. "Ohhhhhhh, Gid day moite, I'm the behst poilot 'ere"... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. And gee, "Dad" must have been a VERY busy teenager to have a son so close to him in age. Lucky bugger eh!

Idris was the best thing in it.

[TrevorW]

You failed to mention that the EVA pilots are school kids around 14 years of age and in true Japanese style they depict them in a provocative manner which IMO was one of it's failings.

[Octane (Humayun)]

LOL, yes, Lewis; I also noticed how young the dad was, haha. His son is also in True Blood in this current series 6.

H

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Oh Yeah - another plot thread I forgot!

- The pilots after going through the difficult emotional task of confronting their own inner demons instantly improve their telepathic link with the robot to superhuman or super-robot capabilities and thereafter beat the living daylights out of the monsters!

[Profiler (Profiler)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

You failed to mention that the EVA pilots are school kids around 14 years of age and in true Japanese style they depict them in a provocative manner which IMO was one of it's failings.

Only highlighting the derivative plot threads between the two not the differences

You missed the obvious difference - one is a cartoon TV mini-series - the other a motion picture with live actors etc

[bloodhound31]

Haven't seen NGE so I'll just pull my head in now shall I?