Pacific Rim: Serious Cut by ranger613

Hi all,
I've been thinking of what the next project should be, and decided on Pacific Rim. I really like this movie, but feel that it was sandbagged by the silly 'duelling scientists' bits and the completely unnecessary organ harvesting subplot. My goal is to make a straight monsters vs. robots edit, minus all the distracting filler. I think the film would work fine without the whole scientist mind meld thing and without some of the more over-the-top dramatics scattered throughout. It's a fun monster movie, and doesn't try to be anything more, so I'm not going to try to make it more than it is, but I am going to reduce the parody stuff.

Some cuts I'm planning on making (SPOILERS):

-Replace opening credits with a rearranged, shortened version of end credits--way cooler and the music's nice (posted here below)
-Remove both scientists completely (even though they were both really good performances, I felt they were too over-the-top, convoluted the plot, and ultimately, were not essential to the plot--at least the way I see it)
-Cut Ron Perlman's character out (again, this is for pacing and plot-- these sequences were not essential, and as much as I love Ron Perlman -- who doesn't?-- it has to go)
-Merge both flashbacks of Riko into the first drift (so that we see Colonel Stacker looking at her kid self earlier) to prevent later retreading
-Cut Mako storming out of the post-training briefing, and cut the whole fight with Charlie Hunnam
-Cut the sequences of everyone giving Mako looks in the cafeteria, etc
-Cut autopsy of Kaiju after Hong Kong fight
-Cut shot of Gipsy Danger dragging dead Kaiju to the breach/vortex in order to 'fool' it (as this subplot is dropped)

2 other changes I'm contemplating making:
- cutting the cafeteria scene where Chuck gives Charlie a hard time (in a movie about giant monsters do we really need a secondary antagonist--like they point out in the video below)
- cutting Stacker's cancer (again, it really didn't further the plot, but did add a dimension to his character. The cons are that it felt a little bit cliche'd and I felt that in some way it somehow made it ?easier for him to make that last call in the movie-- if he was going to be dead in any case)

Let me know what you guys think, and as always, Thank you for your support. Would not be doing this if not for you. Cheers! Kris

Redone opening credits:

Watch from 9:20

How do you plan on moving around the scientists figuring out how and why they're using the breach? Because that discovery comes from the organ harvesting supblot.

This movie was desperately in need of a fanedit. Please to be cutting back the jarhead stereotypes as well. The caricatures were cranked to 11 in this movie.

You've beat me to this one, yay looking forward to it . I was talking about having a crack at it a while ago but I had quite different ideas. One I was thinking about was opening on Mako's story, to re-frame her as the main character/equal-main-character (Raleigh would need cutting from the footage of her as a kid). We'd aso then feel more connected to The Colonel from the start.

I think I also mentioned either making it smarter or dumber. Your going the smarter route! Concentrating on the strong family dynamics is probably the way to make this really work. Brothers and sisters (Charlie and Mako), fathers and sons (The Aussies), fathers and daughters (Mako and The Colonel). A lot of the scenes during the middle act seemed disorderd to me too, so you might want to focus on that: Where everybody is, what they are doing and in what order they do it.

I like these ideas. I enjoyed Pacific Rim, but it could do with being trimmed as TYM2C says, to make it either smarter or dumber.

Kal-El said:

How do you plan on moving around the scientists figuring out how and why they're using the breach? Because that discovery comes from the organ harvesting supblot.

Click to expand...

Well, by cutting out the subplot entirely, its now just an interdimensional breach-- no explanation needed. All we need to know is that we need to close the breach because more Kaiju are coming through; and the nuclear bomb plan was in effect from the start, before the whole Kaiju clone thing was explained.

ThrowgnCpr said:

This movie was desperately in need of a fanedit. Please to be cutting back the jarhead stereotypes as well. The caricatures were cranked to 11 in this movie.

Click to expand...

Will do

TM2YC said:

You've beat me to this one, yay looking forward to it . I was talking about having a crack at it a while ago but I had quite different ideas. One I was thinking about was opening on Mako's story, to re-frame her as the main character/equal-main-character (Raleigh would need cutting from the footage of her as a kid). We'd aso then feel more connected to The Colonel from the start.

I think I also mentioned either making it smarter or dumber. Your going the smarter route! Concentrating on the strong family dynamics is probably the way to make this really work. Brothers and sisters (Charlie and Mako), fathers and sons (The Aussies), fathers and daughters (Mako and The Colonel). A lot of the scenes during the middle act seemed disorderd to me too, so you might want to focus on that: Where everybody is, what they are doing and in what order they do it.

Click to expand...

Hey [MENTION=24292]TM2YC[/MENTION], thanks! Firstly, yup, definitely felt the middle was muddled up as well, will streamline this. Opening with Mako's childhood is a good idea (I started thinking of it after seeing the 'Everything Wrong' clip above where it is one of the points they make). The proposed sequence would be: 1) Opening narration, until just before the Knifehead battle-- (2) Mako as a child until Stacker rescues her-- (3) Knifehead battle -- (4) Credits.

Only downside is that it would push the credits way back-- to the 23 or 24 min mark probably (in the original it comes on close to the 20 min mark). Should the credits be scrapped entirely then? Also, should there be a subtitle or title card between (2) and (3), ie 4 years later... ? (the 4 years is confirmed from http://pacificrim.wikia.com/wiki/Mako_Mori)

Will post sample clips. Lemme know your thoughts guys, thank you!

That One Guy said:

I like these ideas. I enjoyed Pacific Rim, but it could do with being trimmed as TYM2C says, to make it either smarter or dumber.

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Smarter for sure, not a fan of dumber

ranger613 said:

Opening with Mako's childhood is a good idea... The proposed sequence would be: 1) Opening narration, until just before the Knifehead battle-- (2) Mako as a child until Stacker rescues her-- (3) Knifehead battle -- (4) Credits.

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I meant...

1. Mako as a child until Stacker rescues her (Prologue)
2. Credit sequence
3. Rest of movie

When I first saw this film I loved it. Subsequent viewings garnered the same reaction. I love it just the same. The one mental fanedit note I thought of was combining Mako's 2 childhood scenes into one.

So while I'm not attempting to replace my coveted blu-ray of the original, I am very curious what you can come up with.

There is a lot of bonus material on the blu, some of which could possibly be used as alternate footage if you need any. Some is superfluous and some is just tidbits of info in commentary and whatnot (for example did you know the british scientist and the american one were pen pals as kids, but when they finally met in person they hated each other instantly? also the british scientist is apparently the son of the inventor of Drift technology... interesting but useless) but there is also footage present on the disk.

Gut luck!

Sounds like a fun project. I love the original, flaws and all. In particular, I found it a refreshing change it was an apologetic movie about HEROES.

A wacky, crazy, silly idea -- do a post credit/sequel tease featuring GODZILLA.

Good luck with the project. Will definitely watch when released.

I am looking forward to this!

It wouldn't be the first to set back its credits until well into the film. Might as well throw in a title card and leave it at that, or no credits at all. Opening credits are overrated imo. It takes you out of the experience.

Redone opening credits:

If you want to make the opening credits shorter it would be very possible to end the credit sequence at 0:21-0:22 just after the title card. The music seems to be perfectly set up for it. That way the credits might actually build tension, as opposed to just drag on like opening credits usually do.

Must admit that I'd prefer shorter opening credit sequence if possible. Less faffing about with Snyderesque slo-mo, more getting on with the story.

Count me in! I was very entertained by ranger's Blade Runner edit so I'm really looking forward to this!

Sounds sweet. This movie is all about giants fighting. I felt the rivalry between the soldiers was dumb. The scientists were not needed, as I was just waiting for the next fight scene every time they had screen time. Looking forward to it.

Kal-El said:

It wouldn't be the first to set back its credits until well into the film. Might as well throw in a title card and leave it at that, or no credits at all. Opening credits are overrated imo. It takes you out of the experience.

Click to expand...

herowoac said:

If you want to make the opening credits shorter it would be very possible to end the credit sequence at 0:21-0:22 just after the title card. The music seems to be perfectly set up for it. That way the credits might actually build tension, as opposed to just drag on like opening credits usually do.

Click to expand...

That One Guy said:

Must admit that I'd prefer shorter opening credit sequence if possible. Less faffing about with Snyderesque slo-mo, more getting on with the story.

Click to expand...

Thanks guys I'll take all into consideration-- I like shorter credits too but Ramin Djawadi's theme is just so kick-ass in this imho lol. As it is its only 2 mins long but will experiment with shorter cuts.

Also, even though I was initially wanted to recut and open with Mako, I'm having second thoughts about this after making a rough cut, mainly because (1) it guts the later scene of Mako overloading the neural bridge-- it deprives the later scene of Mako's regression into her memories and makes it less interesting if we already know what is going on. I personally liked the reveal of Stacker (even though everyone knew who it was at that point, made it no less epic). (2) The structure of the film -- I think the original presentation of telling the story from Raleigh's POV is fine-- opening narration, generic background story, and we're introduced to the far more interesting characters of Mako and Stacker and the Jaegers through him; its a common narrative device (Great Gatsby etc) and works fine here. My overall goal is to create a more streamlined version of the movie-- its ultimately a 'straight' cut of the original. Although I think recutting to make Mako the main character is a great idea, I think I'll be sticking with a straight cut for now.

Unrelated; [MENTION=15949]That One Guy[/MENTION], your Shadow Over Innsmouth looks interesting-- just stood out to me as I was playing Arkham Horror with my cousins today. Hope its coming along well. [MENTION=4659]Magna13[/MENTION], thanks man! Won't disappoint
And congrats to all the Aussies on here-- you guys are killing it in the Commonwealth games. My home country of Malaysia is um, floundering lol.

I'm really excited to see this. I was very disappointed with how silly the movie was. I enjoyed parts and just didn't like others -- and with you going the "smart edit" route, I'm confident this will replace my blu-ray as the go to version to watch.

I didn't like the scientists or Hannibal Chow; and I completely agree the baby kaiju was unnecessary. I wonder if there's a way to show the scientists for a nominal amount of time to understand why sending a nuke down the portal hadn't been tried to date and also get the "dinosaurs were kaiju" plot twist, which I thought was clever.

I'm definitely in the minority view at this point, but I like the opening credits. The music is awesome, and the graphics are pretty sweet too. In fact, it's because of those I would say leave it intact. Even the first bit is pretty elaborate, and ending it right after the title might be a bit anticlimactic.

If you do want to go the route of a simpler opening, I recommend doing simple text on a black background (or even over the opening shots). That way you're not hinting at something more elaborate then jumping ship immediately.