Wet Hot Japanese Apocalypse

It's super hot in Japan, and it justifies people to have an excuse to go to a cinema to have two hours to kill in a dark, air-conditioned room, or in my case, four hours. This week in strange Japan movie market: Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim and Brad Pitt-starring World War Z are released. So, Hollywood, if you wonder why a Kaiju movie failed in Japan, blame the market because in my experience, people watch Brad Pitt and zombies rather than awesome robots fighting '2500 tonnes of awesome' Kaiju. Anyway, this double feature is my best so far.

Pacific Rim

 Amazing. Unforgettable. Epic. Pacific Rim is definitely the best film of the summer. It has great characters, great action too. It's everything that you want from the last two Transformers film, it's also everything you want Tony Stark to do in Iron Man 3- to be in danger inside the suit. The actors are amazing: Charlie Hunnam picked the perfect film to leap from TV to film. Rinko Kikuchi finally gets that big role after her Oscar-nominated performance in Babel and don't forget the scene-stealing Mana Ashida as young Mako Mori. Idris Elba is uber-cool (nothing beats the 'apocalypse cancellation speech' as the best quote this year). Also special mention must be made to the characters Gottlieb and Geiszler and Hannibal Chau. Films need these unique characters! Also I approve Max Martini as Bruce Wayne in Batman vs Superman.

The story among the characters are the one that makes it for me. The relationship between the Hansens and even with Max the dog is great. Mako's story is also superb. As for the action sequences and story ideas with the 'drifting' and others are as you expected: to be not what you expected. IT'S SUPER AWESOME. Jaegers might be the coolest thing since Optimus Prime in 2007. All those robot controls makes Iron Man look obsolete. The fight scenes are staged greatly, with all the neon lights and the rain. Add that with Ramin Djawadi's epic score. It's just the best thing ever happened to cinema for a very long time. I love Guillermo Del Toro's attention to detail and creativity. In the end, I love the relationship between Raleigh and Mako--it's different than other films. That said, I actually don't want a sequel to this film. This film ended perfectly but if Del Toro and co. can make it great, who am I to refuse? Pacific Rim--two hours plus of awesome: rated 5/4 BEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER SO FAR.

World War Z
It's apocalyptic film starring Brad Pitt. The production's so apocalyptic, we hear that they got their weapons props seized in Hungary and also got the third act rewritten by Damon Lindelof. In the end we got this super intense thriller that makes you hold your breath and doesn't give you space to breathe. Brad Pitt stars as Gerry Lane a former UN officer who gets to investigate the origins of the zombie outbreak. The film moves from USA to South Korea to Israel to Wales and along with it comes a great sequence of zombie horde running and attacking. Brad Pitt was great in this film. He's a great lead even if this kind of film isn't his kind of film. It's a shame that Matthew Fox's role got edited. And what's the deal with James Badge Dale appearing in many movies these days?

The film was great until the end credits rolled. The rewritten third act just didn't do it for me. It was great and intense yeah but for a film titled World War Z, that ending seemed too contained, too small-scale. The supposed ending was way better for me, more brutal and more 'World War'-like. [spoilers] The third act also had a plot hole or a forced heroic moment when Gerry just injected himself with the disease. He could ask the guys in the other building to ring the telephone so that the zombie would look the other way, or just utilize the phone to pick the disease to use. I was thinking that the film didn't end there. Nevertheless, World War Z was a quite satisfying movie experience. It's a different kind of zombie film and smarter one at that too. Marc Forster handled this film better than he did when Quantum of Solace. The film does not leave a room for you to catch a breath and it's so intense and heart-pounding, it also moves you. I can tolerate the third act although it would be far better to have a massive one. World War Z: rated 4/4

Next two weeks: Star Trek Into Darkness! Finalleeeh