Pacific Rim
Release date: July 12 Oscar prospects: Slight That loud chattering sound you hear, like someone nervously chomping away at their fingernails, that's the sound of executives at Warner Brothers praying to the movie gods that they didn't just throw $200 million into a super massive black hole. If you haven't been able to peruse the movie-centric corner of the internet lately, then you've probably missed the stories that, against all good human decency, somehow Adam Sandler's buddy-comedy sequel, Grown Ups 2 (which I will be covering momentarily), has managed to get higher tracking numbers than Pacific Rim. Now, according to Warner Brothers, Pacific Rim has about 70% of its marketing budget still ready in the chamber (which if true, seems bizarre to me this close to the film's release), so hopefully there is still time for the film to get the movie-going public's attention. To someone who is as fed up with the dearth of originality coming out of Hollywood as myself though, this news is rather disconcerting. The film, written by Travis Beacham and directed by Mexican genre auteur Guillermo Del Toro (who has built up quite the cult following among cinephiles), may only be viewed as "original" in so far as a technicality, considering the film basically boils down to giant aliens fighting giant man-made robots, but personally, that's enough for me at this stage of the game. Regardless of the film's final box office destiny though, I do expect Pacific Rim to have a legitimate shot at some of the technical categories of the Academy Awards. A battle between behemoths sounds exactly what the visual effects category was invented for, and Del Toro has proven to be, if nothing else, an interesting visualist, so I expect Pacific Rim to get serious consideration in the Best Visual Effects category. Also, the film promises to be quite the cacophony, so don't be surprised if it pops up in the sound categories as well. Possible nominations: Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing