I watched Pacific Rim in 3D IMAX today.... wow, what a great movie! I really didn't have any expectation going in.... especially after seeing the trailer, I thought "oh, another robot/monster movie". And I especially didn't want to see it after watching Iron Man III, thinking it was just about the same, and especially because I really didn't like how dark Iron Man III was. I really hated how the superhero movies lately (the last one I saw before Iron Man being Dark Knight) are just sooooo dark that I feel like, if you are allowed to put this on the movie screen, why are you complaining/lamenting about violence in the world?! You're practically giving criminals a script to use! I was adamant after that not to see another super hero movies on screen... I just don't want to support these films anymore.

Nevertheless, my sis came back from watching Pacific Rim saying she'd go see it again. I was thinking, "are you serious? You hate watching American films and you'd see this movie again? And this is pure action film.... that's a genre you despise, isn't it?" Just out of support, I decided to go see the movie with her. And wow, was I surprised. Not only was I very much involved in the plot the whole time, empathizing with the characters, I don't feel the darkness and just pure disgust of the way other directors wrote the script as the other films. (I was very very upset after watching Dark Knight, maybe I'm just not used to the violence depicted in recent superhero films, but I was just so angry at why they even allow such horrible evil and violence to be on the film? In public!).

Reading later about what Guillermo del Toro (the director) said was his concept about his film, I was relieved that he was thinking of the same thing (excerpts from Wikipedia):

Del Toro envisioned Pacific Rim as an earnest, colorful adventure story, with an 'incredibly airy and light feel', in contrast to the 'super-brooding, super-dark, cynical summer movie'.

In the film, a Jaeger's neural load is too much for a single pilot to handle alone, meaning they must first be psychically linked to another pilot—a concept called "Drifting". When pilots Drift, they quickly gain intimate knowledge of each other's memories and feelings, and have no choice but to accept them; del Toro found this concept's dramatic potential compelling. The director expressed his intention that the empathy metaphors extend to real life: "The pilots' smaller stories actually make a bigger point, which is that we're all together in the same robot [in life]... Either we get along or we die. I didn't want this to be a recruitment ad or anything jingoistic. The idea of the movie is just for us to trust each other, to cross over barriers of color, sex, beliefs, whatever, and just stick together." Del Toro acknowledged this message's simplicity, but said he would have liked to have seen adventure films with similar morals when he was a child.^[26] The film's ten primary characters all have "little arcs" conducive to this idea; del Toro stated: "I think that's a great message to give kids... 'That guy you were beating the shit out of ten minutes ago? That's the guy you have to work with five minutes later.' That's life... We can only be complete when we work together." The director noted that Hellboy and The Devil's Backbone told the same message, though the latter conveyed it in a very different way.^[36]

Del Toro wanted to break from the mass death and destruction featured in contemporary blockbuster films, and made a point of showing the streets and buildings being evacuated before Kaiju attacks, ensuring that the destruction depicted is "completely remorseless". The director stated: "I don't want people being crushed. I want the joy that I used to get seeing Godzilla toss a tank without having to think there are guys in the tank... "What I think is you could do nothing but echo the moment you're in. There is a global anxiety about how fragile the status quo is and the safety of citizens, but in my mind—honestly—this film is in another realm. There is no correlation to the real world. There is no fear of a copycat Kaiju attack because a Kaiju saw it on the news and said, I'm going to destroy Seattle.

I was so appreciative of the director taking into account the same things I felt was important in a movie -- to teach/have the right moral values and not just make another blockbuster so the movie sells. Not only that, but to carefully consider the influence the movie may have on the audience so to reduce the violence and evil it insinuates in the movie.

Along with just great plot that draws you in by making you care about the character instead of a person passively "watching" a movie, I had a great time watching it in 3D, although the two people I went with had different opinions. That 3D effect really make me feel part of the movie! Wow! I wouldn't mind paying to watch another 3D action film of this quality again! Bottom line, I highly recommend this movie!!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the music was awesome! I know most people don't pay attention to the soundtrack... but, wow, great music!

Something happened today that made me have a strong realization that.... we're wired to run according to God's program, not our own program. God's word is a manual of how to live, how to truly operate this ingenuously designed human being and to live a life in the world that He designs. I don't know how to explain that kind of awe that "this is my Father's world"... and it truly is. When we read His words and we either take it as suggestion or refuse to do it, it's often because we feel like we can already get by without doing it, why go the extra mile to be sanctified? But God's words aren't to be taken lightly, as "useful information" and do it at your own suggestion. When God says "forgive each other", we refuse to do that because we feel like we can stuff it down or just ignore the feeling... not knowing that what God said was intended to heal us, and not doing it creates so much bitterness and that bitterness turns into so much physical harm that we end up destroying our lives. We cannot operate outside God's manual. I see God's words say "do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will", but we refuse to do so, and we end up storing all sorts of wrong thinking in our mind that eventually lead to all sorts of diseases.

With the recent rejection of DOMA, it seems like we're all again rejecting God's design and plans for human beings... and this will eventually lead to many other issues that's beyond what we can bear. Lord, make us humble so that our hearts aren't hardened against listening and following Your words and to realize that we are only a creation, not the Creator. You love us so much that You gave us a manual... please let us be humble enough be in awe of You.