Pacific Rim – Movie Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starring Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day
Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Remember when you were a kid and you would sit around playing with whatever toys you had, and then at some point you would take two randomly different types of toys and pit them against each other in a 10 year-old’s version of the ultimate death battle?  Then you would run and tell your mom how this would make the greatest movie ever, and she laughed at you? Well, Guillermo del Toro’s mom didn’t laugh.

Pacific Rim is, in no short measure, that little kid’s wet dream. The film opens with the ‘Explain Everything Dramatically’ opening narration that is typical of movies of this ilk. Deep on the Pacific Ocean floor, a wormhole has opened and released monsters, explained as Kaiju, unto our world…the kind Godzilla would worry about.

After countless defeats, the human world bonded together to create the Jaeger Program – Jaeger meaning ‘hunter’ in German. Jaegers are giant mechanical robots designed to face off and drive back the Kaiju. They are guided by 2 pilots, 2 people who have to each share one side of the Jaeger’s ‘steering’ in a mind-melding process known as ‘Drifting’, explained as each pilot controls their side of the giant war machine.

This is where we first meet Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam), a young hotshot who co-pilots with his brother. In true Top Gun-meets-Michael Bay fashion, Raleigh’s brother is killed and Raleigh resigns from the program. From here we zip ahead 5 years to the real story, where military man Pentecoast (Elba) has one last shot to take the Kaiju down before their increasing numbers threaten to end our world as we know it.

He brings Raleigh back into the fold, initially reluctant but easily swayed. We also meet Mako (Kikuchi), a wannabe pilot with a mysterious past, wanting nothing more than to get her chance to pilot a Jaeger. As well as Charlie Day pops in as the one scientist who thinks he can figure out how to REALLY defeat the Kaiju…oh and don’t forget del Toro staple Ron Perlman, who drops in for a few as a Kaiju arms dealer who might hold a piece to the final puzzle.

Look, acting-wise? Hunnam has all the smile and swagger of a young Tom Cruise, but not much of the acting ability. If you have seen him as Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy, he’s pretty much the exact same character, with a few less random shootings. Charlie Day plays Charlie Day, he’s the humor and he does deliver a few humorous scenes. I actually was quite taken with Mako, she did a fairly admirable job with a fairly thankless role.

The only true ‘Hell YES!’ acting in the film was Idris Elba. Even in a film that is made to make geeks across the world squee with joy but requires no real acting caliber, this guy brings his A-game. The military man with a hidden heart is a film cliché for end times, but Elba makes it play. Someone give this man a franchise of his own stat!

Ok, allllll of that to get to the heart of this flick – Does Pacific Rim make for an entertaining monster vs. robots nerdgasm? The answer is hell yes! For all of the clumsy dialogue, cheesy acting and Sci-Fi film rip-of…I mean Homage’s, Pacific Rim knows what it wants to be and that is to be a 10 year-old geek’s GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE!

Let me reiterate, this isn’t the greatest movie ever made, not by a longshot. But it does bring to life a world that is a perfect meld of Anime, Godzilla, Transformers and Alien Invasion Disaster film one could ever dream up. The special effects are phenomenal, the length is perfect and the Jaeger vs. Kaiju fights do what they should – continue to escalate and cause massive worldwide destruction! This movie is made to entertain, and it does.

With this film, del Toro has proven he has what it takes to compete in a world full of Blockbuster directors and he knows how to entertain. Pacific Rim is the kind of movie that BEGS to be seen in a theater, an IMAX in particular, with the best sound system available. This is a summer blockbuster with a few flaws, but more than enough in entertainment.

The 10 year-old inside this reviewer can finally smile and put his toys away, they have finally become reality.

If $10 is the full price of admission, this one is worth $8.

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider
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