Synopsis:

As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse. Pacific Rim is one of the best and most memorable films from Guillermo Del Toro (Cronos, Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy), and is easily the best 'monsters vs. giant robots' movie to date. However, as imaginative as Del Toro's film is, it suffers from a flawed and distracting subplot involving a pair of over-the-top scientists. This cut removes the superfluos material to keep the movie focused on the Jaegers, their pilots and their Kaiju nemesis.

Intentions:

I really loved this movie when I first saw it; it's everything a great time at the movies should be, something that's all too lacking in today's cinema. The core storyline was pretty good involving a washed up Jaeger pilot coming back to combat giant sea-monsters and destroy their portal into the world. However, the movie suffered from a long, complicated second storyline involving organ harvesting and bad humor which was really not crucial to the plot. By excising this subplot, the narrative flows much better and is more straightforward and serious. This is Pacific Rim as I prefer it, and hopefully you'll enjoy it too.

Change List:

1. After the prologue, removed unimpressive title card and replaced with recut and reordered sequence from end credits along with Ramin Djawadi's theme to form opening credits. 2. Removed introduction of Dr Gottlieb and Dr Geizler in the elevator 3. Cut scene of Gottlieb and Geizler arguing in lab 4. Cut Chuck bullying Raleigh in the cafeteria ( In a movie full of giant monsters, we don't need a high school bully) 5. Cut Geizler's kaiju mind meld 6. Cut Stacker interviewing Geizler post-mind meld 7. Cut Geizler's Hannibal Chau briefing by Stacker 8. Brought the second flashback of Mako (which happens later during a conversation between Raleigh and Stacker in the original) forward to happen during the initial drift, so that the entire childhood trauma sequence flows as one scene 9. Cut unnecessary fistfight between Chuck and Raleigh (Jaeger-Kaiju fistfight later is more interesting) 10. Cut everyone avoiding Mako and Raleigh in the highschool cafeteria 11. Cut Hannibal Chau's introduction 12. Cut Hannibal Chau's monologue before the first battle. I left brief shots of a rainy and quiet Hong Kong night in to contrast the noisy battle at sea. 13. Cut Geizler running on the street to avoid the kaiju destroying Hong Kong 14. Shortened the bunker sequence to have Geizler trip and fall during a rumble. In this version, Charlie Day's character is a random pedestrian who is almost eaten by the kaiju. not some mystical mind-melder. The motivation for the kaiju to come out of the rift is not to look for Geizler, but to destroy humanity. This was just a bad subplot that was excised. 15. Cut Hannibal Chau and Geizler being attacked by the baby kaiju (this sequence was probably done for humor-- didn't really work) 16. Cut Geizler's and Gottlieb's second mind meld 17. Removed Gottlieb and Geizler from the final bridge scenes. Gottlieb can be seen in the background in most scenes but has no lines. Geizler is removed from as many frames as possible or blurred out when in the background to avoid recognition from the bunker scene. 18. Removed the 'genetic link' subplot where the scientists tell the crew they need to take a kaiju with them to the breach. Raleigh's line "You guys better be right" replaced with music and sfx tracks. 19. Cut the play-by-play commentary the bridge crew give after Gipsy Danger crosses the breach (ie. "He's giving her oxygen" while Raleigh gives Mako O2; "He's doing this.." etc. We can see what's going on and don't need a running commentary). The only bit I kept was when they say Raleigh ejected Mako out of the Jaeger because the hologram was cool. 20. Cut the "is-he-dead" suspense at the end 21. Cut the Hannibal Chau teaser at the end.

Additional Notes:

Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit Pacific Rim Blu-Ray.

Special Thanks:

Original cover art by Richard Davies from cromeyellow.com/blurrpy. Additional art by Marie Bergeron and Peter Gutierrez from cromeyellow.com. Thanks to everyone on fanedit.org for supporting this project.