“Go Big or Go Extinct” reads Pacific Rim‘s tagline, and after seeing it, you’ll know exactly which one it intends to do.
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro brings us the story of a future Earth, ravaged by giant monsters called Kaiju. Humanity has so far held them off by using giant, dual-piloted robots called Jaegers, but the monsters keep coming, and we’re running out of ideas, fast. It’s up to a small group of rough-and-tumble pilots to get us out of the mess we’re in!
For a movie that might as well be called Mega-Mech vs. Massive Monsters, it’s surprisingly well done. Of course CG is used heavily throughout this flick, but it’s done neatly and, dare I say, realistically. The cinematography is on par with a higher class of film, but the film never takes itself too seriously. It knows what it is, it knows what you came for, and it delivers.
I’d like to take a moment here to get a little bit personal. I’m not a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro as a director, and I’m not really a huge fan of monsters or mechs. I saw this movie because I was given advanced screening passes, and my friends wanted to go to it. That said, I do not, for one single second, regret going. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I would have gladly paid whatever ridiculous price the movie theaters are charging these days for a ticket.
I’m not going to lie to you, this Pacific Rim review makes clear this is not the most quality piece of film, and that’s fine. Nobody went into this expecting it to win a Best Picture Oscar. What it is, though, is a an action-filled ROFLstomp of glorious robots and giant monsters. If you’re looking for something pleasing to the eye but not terribly challenging, this is the best you’ll find this year. I’d argue, for its genre, this is one of the best there’s ever been.
Pacific Rim never presented itself as anything other than fantastic fighting-filled action awesomesauce. While there is a bit of sexual tension between characters, there’s no real romantic subplot, and the movie doesn’t end with a kiss. Which is really good, because the ultimate reward for solving the giant, world-eating monster problem shouldn’t be that they finally get in each others’ pants.
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The ultimate reward is, holy crap, we saved the world and didn’t die in the process. Arguably it would have had a little more of a punch to the feels if our male protagonist had died, but I’m not dissatisfied with him living, either.
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Relative rookies Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi mesh well on screen, and have no trouble keeping up with more veteran actors appearing in Pacific Rim, like Idris Elba. There’s no awkwardness between characters — all of the relationships seem genuine and surprisingly well formed for a rock ‘em, sock ‘em robot movie.
The story isn’t completely original — while watching it, I remarked that it’s a bit like Real Steel meets Cloverfield — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable. It’s a summer movie, pure as they come, made solely for near-mindless entertainment. Sure, it makes you think a little bit about the future of our planet, but you can’t get too far into that thought stream before it’s interrupted by the thundering boom of mech-fist meeting monster face.
But the movie never promised a complex story, character advancement, or Oscar-quality cinema. It promised giant robots punching giant monsters in the face. And it delivered. In spades. In dump trucks full of spades.
