Sunday, October 17, 2021

Netflix Retrospective - Pacific Rim: The Black Episodes 1-3

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.


Oh… That can’t be good. They’re living a simple life, farming. But not everyone is happy with this arrangement. Hayley gives some food and supplies from a group about to head off, she’s stolen a bit from everyone and whilst she’s playing this gambit, she’s not doing her actual job of picking potatoes to Taylor.

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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