So, I guess it’s time to talk about Pacific Rim again. I love the two movies but I realise the sequel is divisive. I never thought the first one took itself too seriously, but a lot of people criticised the sequel in particular for being too dumb. That and killing the only returning character in the first act probably soured a few people too.
Still, giant robots fighting monsters is a concept that will
never get old, especially in Japan. So we get another clash between Jaegers and
Kaiju in Pacific Rim: The Black. The developers here are Greg Johnson and Craig
Kyle, who also co-developed Wolverine and X-men which I covered way back. The
show has a 2 season order from Netflix, though the seasons themselves are only
7 episodes, so for the next two weeks, let’s take a look at what the show has
to offer.
From the Shadows
A new rift has opened in Australia, meaning new Kaiju are
seeping through the PPDC, the Pan-Pacific Defence Corp is sending in the
Jaegers to stop them. But the situation worsening, a call is made to evacuate
the entire country. Everyone has just a matter of days to make it to few cities
to be evacuated, anyone left behind will be left to their own devices are
probably won’t survive.
A Jaeger has defeated a Kaiju but not without taking heavy
damage of its own. Another 2 Jaegers are about to enter the fight, it’s
personal for one of them as their kids are still on the ground. They trapped on
a military convoy which has stalled as a Kaiju approaches. The Jaegers make
their attack, and the one we’re really interested in is called the Hunter
Vertigo, manned by Ford and Brina Travis. They’re told the PPDC has lost the
continent and evacuate to Sydney immediately, but there are still people on the
ground, including their kids. Their able to freeze the Kaiju and stab it with
its own tusk, but they see a bunch of satellites falling from orbit,
eliminating any contact the continent has with the outside world.
The other Jaeger, the Marauder, is destroyed by another
Kaiju. Taylor and Hayley pick up the convoy and head out as another Kaiju exits
the rift. Hunter Vertigo takes the convoy to a place called Shadowbasin but
it’s all but destroyed. The Kaiju from earlier approaches, defined as a
category III, and the convoy is dropped off and told to hide.
They defeat the Kaiju but the Jaeger loses one of its arms in the fight. The two embrace their kids, Hayley and Traylor. Shadowbasin was destroyed by the PPDC so the Kaiju couldn’t get their hands on it. They’ve got a cute little Oasis to keep them fed and hydrated whilst Ford and Brina head to Sydney to get help. It’s a teary goodbye but it’s only supposed to be for a couple of weeks.
Taylor is voiced by Calum Worthy and honestly, I think I’ve
watched Austin and Ally too often as it’s hard to reconcile his voice with this
character but that’s a me problem, Calum Worthy’s performance is fine. He finds
that Hayley has scavenged a Jaeger helmet from near the border, and he’s pissed
off about it. She claims that life here is boring and not really living,
they’re just waiting to be rescued. Calum counters that they’re waiting for
their parents, but Hayley says outright that they’re dead before storming off,
crying.
Hayley’s about to run off but falls through a hole right
into the remains of Shadowbase, it’s there she finds a Jaeger, the Atlas
Destroyer. The AI of the system, Loa, activates a training demo to teach Hayley
to become a Jaeger pilot. She skips through most of it, but won’t be able to actually
do anything with the Jaeger until she has a co-pilot.
It’s at this point, Taylor comes looking for her, spotting
the Jaeger. Loa tells them that the PPDC felt that trainer Jaeger wasn’t
valuable enough to come with them and for whatever reason, their attempts to
blow it up failed. Taylor has thusfar only passed the written test for Jaeger
piloting but Loa, following instructions from Hayley, opens the hangar doors to
commence the walk cycle, making a noise that a Kaiju named copperhead manages
to hear. Copperhead is a category IV Kaiju, nicknamed the Jaeger Breaker.
It demolishes their little settlement and kills everyone
except our two leads. The two get into pilots and begin the neural handshake,
drifting is difficult as neither of them have done it before but they’re
eventually successful right as the Kaiju attacks, but as the Jaeger is designed
for training, it doesn’t have proper weapons.
They’re backed to the edge of a cliff as the Kaiju makes a
charge, they drop flat on instructions from Loa and Copperhead falls of the
edge of the cliff. It’s not dead but that will slow it down. Enough for them to
search the remains of their town for survivors. Hayley’s not taking it well,
blaming herself for all that’s happened. Unfortunately, they don’t have a lot
of time before copperhead comes back and they head off, their mission: to make
it to Sydney.
As an opening episode this makes a hell of a statement, this
show is not like the films, it won’t have that tongue-in-cheek humour the films
did. It’s gonna be dark, it’s gonna be violent and it’s gonna do all that
whilst having children as our main characters.
Rating 7.5/10
Into the Black
The drift is a neural link between their minds and between
Hayley’s own guilt over what happened and the fact she ignored repeated
warnings from Taylor not to do it’s created a scenario where Taylor blames
Hayley for what happened as much as she blames herself, and she can feel that
whilst in the drift.
The Atlas Destroyer powers down, being at only 3% power. They
need new power cells and there’s a PPDC site in the nearby city that has one. Unfortunately,
that means venturing into the city on foot and it’s crawling with Kaiju. Being
a tad impulsive, Taylor heads out into the city, not thinking the
post-apocalyptic landscape may require him modifying his route.
Taylor tries to shift blame away from Hayley onto the Kaiju
but she continues to blame herself. They’re on the wrong side of the river to
the side Taylor knows, so they’re a bit lost. They head to the river but are
found by Kaiju. There’s thick fog which helps the two make a break for it, they
split up, eventually losing the Kaiju. Their only way across the river the
ruins of an old dam, it’s a narrow path but with one of the Kaiju closing in,
they don’t have a choice, that Kaiju is in turn snatched and eaten by an even
larger Kaiju, which forces them off the dam into the river.
Taylor has a flashback, further exploring the relationship
between him and his sister. Ah, simpler times. Hayley had managed to get him to
shore as he recovers, and they’re soon into the centre, but there are Kaiju
around. They begin to explore the building, cadets weren’t allowed in the room
with the power cells so beyond it being in the building, Callum isn’t sure
where it is.
Taylor uncovers something in a green tube, it’s connected to
a power cell, which she’s about to take when she sees someone moving inside the
tube. They begin smashing at the tube to try and get him out, but the noise
attracts the Kaiju. They eventually break him out, the kid looking upon Hayley
like an angel.
They make a run for it, taking both the kid and the power
cell with them. But the Kaiju are in hot pursuit. Hayley decides to call out,
brining the bigger Kaiju to rescue them, we see now it has robotic components
like a Jaeger. Unfortunately, the power cell was cracked in the battle and is
useless to them.
The kid doesn’t exactly get much of an introduction, but
it’s another intense episode, with quite a good conflict.
Rating 7.5/10
Bogan
The sun is rising and Taylor sees a small convoy passing
nearby. They plan to check them out and make contact if they don’t prove
sketchy. There’s a Kaiju in the water and oh my god, that water animation is
dreadful. I know they’ve got this cell shaded CG thing going for you, but it really
doesn’t work with moving water.
Anyway, we see 4 people attempting to steal its eggs. The
Kid, who Taylor has named Boy, comes along with Taylor and Hayley over Taylor’s
objections. They see what the 4 are up to and decide to follow them but then Boy
runs straight towards them, getting the Kaiju’s attention. It attacks the 4 but
they’re armed with pea-shooters, the superfluous ones are killed whilst the
female one, we find out her name is Mei gets to show her badass credentials by
destroying that Kaiju by firing a rocket into its mouth.
Though her compatriot, Rickter is annoyed their interference
got the superfluous ones killed, Mei offers them a ride to her settlement. They
don’t tell them about their Jaeger, unsure of whether to trust them yet. They
work for a guy named Shane and he seems friendly, offering them food and
clothes. Mei is told to find out what they can, but his business deal may be in
jeopardy since they were promised 4 eggs and only retrieved 2. Still, it’s not
like eggs are easy to come by. They’re exchanging the eggs for Jaeger parts,
including 2 power cells.
The deal goes off with only a minor hitch, Taylor tries to
use the distraction to escape but is stopped by Rickter. Their gunfight
triggers a shoot-off with the buyers, people working for a guy named Inferno.
The head buyer is allowed to live but the eggs are destroyed, he’s now
Inferno’s problem, or indeed the Sisters’ who Inferno are trading the eggs
with.
Mei found out earlier that Taylor wanted a power cell and
now interrogation begins. Taylor resists for a while but it seems he’s using a
modified version of the drift to step through his memories, eventually coming
across the Jaeger.
Another problem this show has is how the protagonists have
spent both this episode and the opening one making things worse. In this
episode a good number of people died because of their actions, and this time
there’s no guilt to it.
And I’m sure people are complaining about having human
antagonists in a show about fighting giant monsters but here’s the thing. This
show cannot be just monster fights, they don’t have the budget and the monsters
don’t have complex character or motivation. Human villains fill the void of
having antagonists with more personality, and without the need for any complex
action.
Rating 7.5/10
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