Guillermo del Toro is tirelessly preparing for PACIFIC RIM 2 which, if what we read recently in THR is true, will have a smaller budget than the first one. That film made a decent but not extraordinary profit, in part because its price tag was so enormous. While I’m personally not a huge fan of the first film, I’m tentatively looking forward to the sequel, if only because I believe in del Toro and assume he can correct the original’s many missteps. I’m not alone in hoping del Toro gets it right this time, either: his star Charlie Hunnam would like to see a few things change as well.
In a recent interview with EW, Hunnam reveals he had a couple of issues with PACIFIC RIM, the chief among them being the fact that the copious amount of visual effects – not characters or story – turned out the be the real stars of the show:
I think world creation and monster creation and all of that stuff is exciting as a secondary element of storytelling. When it becomes more important than storytelling, I get very nervous, and you sort of lose me a little bit… Although we tried very hard on Pacific Rim to marry those two elements, I do feel like ultimately it got weighed heavier on the side of spectacle than storytelling.”
Hunnam went on to say he doesn’t necessarily dislike the original, but he would indeed like to see the storytelling on PACIFIC RIM 2 improve:
I hope that we are able to remedy that a little bit going into the second… Not to say I wasn’t proud of the film. I really liked it, and I felt like it delivered exactly what it was supposed to. But I do feel like we could have maybe plumbed the depths of the character and the storytelling a little bit more.”
Is there not a bit of irony here? Hunnam, universally not seen as one of PACIFIC RIM’s finer elements (can you say cardboard cutout?), is complaining about a project he was fairly lucky to be in. All for voicing your opinion, but this is a slip-up on ‘ol Charlie’s part, especially when you consider he just made another movie with Guillermo and is about to embark on a third. Then again, perhaps he and GDT are close enough where it’s said with due respect.
Hunnam will be seen in del Toro’s CRIMSON PEAK this October, while PACIFIC RIM 2 is scheduled to come out August 14, 2017.
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