A few rumored plot points behind Guillermo del Toro’s next movie, Pacific Rim, have me feeling a bit uneasy. Well, I’ll start at the cool stuff. Keep in mind, this is a rumor, so this may prove to be complete bullcrap in an hour’s time. Indie Movies Online has a report of the basic gist of the plot. Pacific Rim may be centered around a conflict between giant monsters from the “Anteverse,” a parallel universe connected to ours via a portal at the bottom of the Pacific ocean. The portal produces monsters with some regularity all across the titular region of the globe. Humankind will fight back against these creatures using “Jaeger” armor, which are the size of buildings, calling to mind the giant robot suits from Gundam or Robotech. The protagonist will be a pilot of one of these Jaeger named Raleigh Antrobus. Good God, that’s an awful name.
What makes me uncomfortable is that the film will kick off with one of these giant monsters emerging from the sea and attacking the city of Osaka in Japan. This, frankly, would have sounded awesome a week ago. After all, it gives the whole project a delightfully-gonzo Godzilla vibe that I could get behind. Now, though, we have thousands dead from the disasters in Japan, thousands more missing, including one of my brother’s oldest friends from high school. I seriously doubt Universal is going to be releasing this film without some serious editing. Even though the film doesn’t come out until summer 2013, that’s too soon for such a disaster on a global scale. The wounds will still be fresh in two years time. Let’s hope that Universal will have the good sense to take another look at this project. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky, and they’ll abandon it all together so Del Toro can go work on Pinocchio.
What do you think? Is 2013 enough time for this to be okay, or are you as uneasy about this as I am?
[Via Indie Movies Online]