Pacific Rim (July 12th, 2013)

[Alarial]

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So this was one thing that was weird to me.. Gypsy was nuclear and was like a gen 2 or 3, right? But the Russian one was a gen 1 and was electric. So they went Electric, Nuclear, and then back to Electric? Did they change Gypsy to nuclear when they rebuilt it? Think I'm gonna go see it again today or tomorrow, so guess I'll pay attention to that part..

That said, I think that was the big reason the other Jaegers lost. I think everyone can admit that part was terrible, but they lost, not because they were outclassed, but because the Kaiju had developed an ability that stopped them from continuing to wail on them. Had they all been nuclear, that electric attack would have gone off, the Jaegers would have stared at them a second, then continued to bash their faces in.

Spoiler: show

That actually made no sense what so ever. Nuclear = electric. What they claimed was the EMP wave knocked out "Digital" systems, and that Gipsy was "Analog" - which also was bullshit, because you can clearly see digital interfaces in Gipsy, and you're not going to run a nuclear reactor off analog systems. It was just a plot device to get Gipsy into the fight.

I was also dissapointed with how little fighting the other Jaegers got.

[Kyreth]

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Gipsy 2.0 , IMHO got better mileage fighting simply because it was, in some ways a ruse. The aliens had sent out kaiju against the others and had a better grip on their capacities, while GD 2.0 was something that looked like what they'd fought before, but had been rebuilt to a much better level in the end. That is, kaiju were adapted, improved, and upgraded to be more and more effective against predicted opponents as the invasion progressed- and the rebuild had "surprise value" at the critical juncture.

[Tomino]

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It should be noted that the Kaiju shockwave only hit Striker Eureka - simply because the other two Jaegers had already been destroyed. Also, I do agree that the whole analog/digital distinction was pretty nonsense.

On the topic of the Jaegers being so easily destroyed, that just makes me a little confused on the robots' design... I mean, why expose the pilots like so, especially if Kaijus are more than able to target the head directly?
Also, why did they design most Jaegers without long range weapons?
The fact that the pilots are in danger while in close combat would make ranged combat a safer option, at least for the initial opening hits.

Ok, Super Robots like good ol' Mazinger Z (its pilot sits right on the head, behind glasses) are designed over the naive premise that their enemies will never target the cockpit directly.
But since Kaijus are more intelligent - or just less naive - I don't get why they kept on putting pilots right on top of the robot.

[Alarial]

It just bugged me from a physics stand point. Modern weaponry can pack a hell of a lot more punch than a simple kinetic "fist punch."

Like, no one said "how about we just make some better bombs." Let's make some uranium tipped white phosphorus mega rounds that will melt a Kaiju in half. No no, let's make GIANT ROBOTS TO PUNCH THEM.

Not that I want to even pretend to logically criticize the movie. I'm just agreeing I wish the Jaegers had some better weaponry.

[Salodin]

You can tell when people don't pay attention to a movie lol...

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The pilots were under huge amounts of armor, and we're more then protected; probably the most protected thing on board. The Kaiju never had an easy time killing the pilots, and only really won when they double teamed them AFTER being specifically "updated" to defeat them (or surprised them with updated stats like in the opening fight).

Also, on the ranged weapons, this is obvious but I'll spell it out like del Toro did in interviews many months ago. Kaiju aren't just stupid animals. They think, react, and move accordingly. How do you plan on shooting missiles (large enough to do more then tickle) at something that can think and dodge accordingly? You don't, that's what. You build giant fucking robots and smash them the fuck up. The only jeager that had missiles only ever used it as a finishing move because kaiju would just duck, weave, and hide from them. This is also evident when Gipsy fights in the city and the Kaiju says fuck this and hides among the buildings for some breathing room.

And on the electric/nuclear thing, personally I wouldn't want to rely on dangerous nuclear power especially if I risk total destruction when fighting a kaiju. Doubly so if I often fight in populated areas. Just seems... Silly if electric always got the job done prior to the actual fights in the film. You gotta remember, we come into this universe almost a decade after the fighting began, electric jeagers have a better track record then nuclear.

[Salodin]

It just bugged me from a physics stand point. Modern weaponry can pack a hell of a lot more punch than a simple kinetic "fist punch."

Like, no one said "how about we just make some better bombs." Let's make some uranium tipped white phosphorus mega rounds that will melt a Kaiju in half. No no, let's make GIANT ROBOTS TO PUNCH THEM.

Not that I want to even pretend to logically criticize the movie. I'm just agreeing I wish the Jaegers had some better weaponry.

Better bombs destroy surrounding reason better too. They did do this, they killed their first few kaiju with conventional weapons, and it was a total cluster fuck. Huge areas of destruction and way too many people dead. Rewatch the opening movie, ya'll need to pay better attention.

[Omnipotent]

Just got back from seeing this last night. One of the best action movies of the summer, was the perfect "I need a good destroy shit and non-stop action movie". I highly recommend to anyone who just wants to see a bunch of bad assness and straight up thuggery.

[Gokku]

also i think cherno was nuclear as well , they say something about the core flooding as its going down then then they drown with it...and you see the core of it get crushed *looked similar to gypsy's*

dunno how cannon this is but a wiki says "corrosive acid at its head, which quickly melted through the Cherno's nuclear reactor and parts of the cockpit. " and that Cherno is a Mark-1 and launched in 2015 / The Conn-Pod is located at the heart of the torso, giving the Jaeger pilot one of the most secure cockpit environment a Jaeger pilot could ask for. However, this means Cherno Lacks an escape pod, meaning the Rangers either win, or die.

[Tomino]

Spoiler: show

Well, it seems to me that most pilots we see in the movie are right behind glasses of some sort, corresponding to the Jaegers' "visor". In the occurrence that Kaijus target the head (vs Gipsy 1.0, or Crimson Typhoon), they only need one blow to rip the head armor open and slash a pilot in half with just one nail. Doesn't help that both pilots are right in the same room.

As for ranged weapons, you're right of course but they could still be useful given the Jaeger could still correct its aim while in battle.

For the movie, I guess they went for the "finishing move" design which is really cool, but kinda silly if the setting stays realistic - meaning that the Kaiju can simply damage the super weapon and disable it.

[Alarial]

I hate arguing real science for scifi movies, but Salodin you don't seem to have a very good grasp of actual physics.

1. Missiles don't travel at 80 mph. They travel at mach3++. You don't dodge Mach3++. Just accept this is a plot device to have giant fighting robots instead of better bombs and move on.

2. You're missing the point. It's not "nuclear or electric." Nuclear IS fucking electric. Nuclear power provides ELECTRIC energy via steam turbines essentially.

Spoiler: show

The only alleged difference was "Digital versus Analog" which also made no sense, because Gipsy CLEARLY had digital interfaces.

.

That being said, again: I'm not arguing real physics in a scifi movie, I'm just agreeing with a bit of gripe in the Jeager weapon design.

[Seraph]

It was just enough plot to justify watching cool giant robots fight big scary monsters. I'm fine with it.

[Hatedregret]

Not hard to know he's talking about non-nuclear powered electric vs nuclear powered electric.

[Alarial]

Electrons don't change based on the power source. Electric is electric. You don't get "magic nuclear powered electrons."

Again, I don't really care, as it doesn't affect how I liked the movie (the movie was awesome and I'm going to see it again this week).

I'm just countering Salodin's comments that people just didn't pay attention to the movie (we did, we just disagree with it).

[Jefe]

Some of you guys are nuts. GDT is paying tribute to this genre:

[Salodin]

Not arguing physics and reality, argues physics and reality lol.

[Alarial]

Ya ya . Anyways, didn't mean to shit up the thread. Movie was awesome, everyone go see it.

[shepardG]

EM Pulses dont affect electric systems that have no current running through them.

I surmised that GD in dry dock, wasnt "on" so when the pulse hit the base it was minimally affected.

As far as why the head, for the pilots, are in the head... I surmised this was also something about the drift. if i had to let someone else in my head to pilot a 200ft tall mech, Together, id not want to think of fighting, with the techniques im used to ( the dojo scene) but thinking my most precious part, (aka my dome piece), has now been transported into my stomach. also' where you gonna put the enginesif you got a giant virtual reality cockpit in the middle of the chest.
Head makes sense to have the brains inside it. Lol

[Alarial]

The Russian head was also SUPER fortified. It's just that:

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The Kaiju had acid spray to break through it.

Though:

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The chinese robot's head was ridiculously exposed.

[Shuichi]

In regards to Jaegers being taken down easily:

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Not only were the Type 4s updated Kaijuu's with improved stats and new tricks (i.e. acid spit), they had information regarding Australia, China, and Russia. Also, as stated in the opening narration. The stronger the bond between the pilots the better the performance you'll get from the Jaeger. However, we didn't really get to see any background story on the China and Russia pilots, I got the impression (at least in the case of China) that they were just "to cold" and didn't have that emotional bond that Gipsy did. But, since we didn't get really into them as characters, I couldn't really say, just the impression I got.

[Alarial]

You don't think the triplet brothers who were undefeated for years had a strong bond :D.

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Though I do buy the fact that the Kaiju's were specifically engineered to defeat the last remaining Jaegers.