Magnificent, Dumb, Fun

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a proper, profound film with a clever concept, touching themes, and avant-garde artistic originality…but sometimes it’s been a long week and my brain just doesn’t have the energy to spend two hours (or three, these days) divining and digesting meaning from a creative, but complicated movie. Sometimes I’d rather just disengage and indulge in the kind of mind-numbing, awe-inspiring experience of a movie that I’m sure pretentious film purists would call a desecration of the art form. Whether it's giant robots punching evil monsters, K-Pop idols singing away their demons, or feuding drivers turning the Formula 1 circuit into a battleground, sometimes I just wanna enjoy some magnificent, dumb, fun.

Just so we are clear, you may think I am pointing you to the joys of watching and laughing at terrible films, but I’m afraid that is a discussion for another time. On the contrary, I wholeheartedly believe that these films are genuinely good, not just enjoyable. Pacific Rim is a movie about colossal robot Jaegers (Hunter in German, awesome) fighting enormous alien Kaiju (Monster in Japanese, somehow even cooler), and it never feels a need to be anything more than that. The film knows the absurdity of its premise and is unconcerned with preaching moral lessons or experimental storytelling. However, the film takes its absurdity seriously. The characters aren’t just shoved into the story. On the contrary, their lives are shaped by the burden of piloting a gargantuan machine and carrying the hope of humanity on their shoulders. Moreover, the world feels lived in and pseudo-realistic. The Jaeger designs are inspired by the countries that built them, crime industries are built around the harvesting of Kaiju corpses, and the slow, hulking motion of the Jaegers crafted by the impressive VFX demonstrates their immense weight. Pacific Rim may be a silly monster movie, but it never uses its absurdity as an excuse to cut corners, and if you can accept the premise, the rest comes easy.

Okay then, you may be saying, but there’s only so much of this dumb, fun action you can do. Pacific Rim has a less-than-stellar sequel, and there have been generations of repetitive Kaiju movies. Sure, the first few are cool, and the Jaegers are a fresh twist, but are more action films with generic plots really the right answer? And you’d be right to question this because a second aspect of what makes the dumb so magnificently fun is the complete lack of a formula. Indeed, there is perhaps no better testament to the appeal of these absurd masterpieces than the sensational popularity of KPop Demonhunters. Who, after all, could have predicted that one of the biggest films of the year would be a critically acclaimed and publicly adored animated KPop zombie musical. Like with Pacific Rim, the film has solid worldbuilding and compelling characters, but a huge part of what has made it so exceptionally popular is the absurdity of its premise. In a world of corporate, creative stagnation, KPop Demonhunters is a breath of fresh air reminding us that new ideas can still break through and shine if they are treated with the care and passion they deserve.

And yet still there’s more! Indeed, up until now I have failed to mention KPop Demonhunters’ billboard charting musical numbers and I’ve undersold Pacific Rim’s incredible VFX production. Now, please rest assured that I have found myself dancing through the streets with Golden in my headphones and strolling 3 feet deep in the water like a Jaeger on the Miracle Mile. However, although KPop Demonhunters’ songs could be hits on their own and Pacific Rim’s visuals convinced 8 year old me that Jaegers were real, nothing has quite inspired the amazement and immersion I felt watching F1. Some might say it is overly cheesy, that it somehow packed 100 cliches and 5 darkest hours into a single movie, that the plot was melodramatic and predictable. I say these people should join me on a go-kart track, start blasting Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack, and try to remember their criticisms because they’re missing the point. The movie isn’t trying to explore moral complexity or be a realistic depiction of Formula 1, it just wants to capture the awe of being a driver out on the track and it does. The irony is that F1’s self-awareness and the acknowledgment that it’s a dumb, fun film, is what makes it so easy to forget you’re even watching and stop judging yourself for not acting cool or enjoying higher art.

Because at the end of the day, what is the point of making and watching movies? If our art seeks to express who we are, then of course, there is a place for complicated emotional depth and the exploration of relevant modern themes. But there is also a place for the celebration of absurdity and the recognition that it’s okay for things to be simple and silly. When it comes down to it, I love these films because they make me forget the world and just smile for a while. And even when you feel a little dumb doing it, is there anything so fun, or so magnificent as a smile?