Unreal Movie Review: Pacific Rim

Growing up, I was raised on my fair share of Disney movies like any other kid, but my favorites were a little more…destructive. My most beloved features were found on my collection of videocassette tapes, filled with a myriad of recorded-off-TV Godzilla monster movies from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

Sure, the English dubbing over the Japanese was horrendous, the plots were ludicrous and it was very obvious that I was watching people in rubber suits sumo wrestle each other on top of paper-mache model cities, but to me, it was incredible.

Eventually, monster movies faded from popularity, but recently that’s struck me as rather odd, given the fact that CGI technology is now at a point where it seems like those type of films could thrive. A pair of Godzilla reboots were rather horrid, and in the last two decades or so, only Cloverfield really came close to being a worthwhile new-era monster film. Though that movie was hampered by a budget which allowed only glimpses of the monster, and a permanent, often-nauseating, shaky-cam format.

Enter Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro’s homage to both classic monster movies and Gundam-style mech anime, the latter of which could have its own set of intro paragraphs. It’s one of the riskiest moves in Hollywood these days, a blockbuster that’s a wholly original idea and not based on an old film, comic book, toy line or board game. Yes, it shares similarities with the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it’s not at all a “rip-off” as some are suggesting.

“I AM AWESOME-O.”

It’s a gamble I hope pays off in spades, because Pacific Rim is one of the most fun original movies I’ve seen in years.

A few years from now, a rift opens up deep in the Pacific Ocean. It’s a gateway to another dimension, and through it, gigantic monsters deemed “Kaiju” emerge every so often and start leveling nearby cities. After tanks and planes prove inefficient against the Kaiju, humanity creates a weapons program that will make things a more even match. The world rallies together to create  “Jaegers,” giant mech bots controlled by two mind-linked pilots, which rival the size of the Kaiju and mash them into submission whenever they emerge from the rift.

Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) is a top Jaeger pilot along with his brother Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff), both of whom serve under the command of Commander Pentecost (Idris Elba). They’re the best in the business, but finally meet their match as the monsters continue to evolve into bigger and badder versions of themselves in order to deal with humanity’s new mech weapons. The biggest Kaiju on record decimates their Jaeger, and Yancy is torn from the mech and killed in the film’s opening.

The bulk of the film starts five years later where Raleigh now works construction on a wall meant to keep the Kaiju out. In the interim, the monsters have grown larger and larger, their emergence from the rift more frequent, and the Jaeger program has been deemed a waste of resources as the bots are no longer a match for the new era Kaiju. Pentecost is greenlit to assemble what few Jaegers haven’t been destroyed and make one final attempt to close the rift. He re-recruits Raleigh who finds a new co-pilot in the form of the young Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) and the pair must join with the remaining Jaegers to try and kill the latest monsters and plug the interdimensional hole for good.

From Cloud Atlas to this, Rinko Kikuchi is the new go-to sci-fi girl.

Pacific Rim is what Transformers would be like if the series actually produced good movies. Both could be classified as mindless action, yes, but fortunately for Pacific Rim, the parts that don’t involve giant mechs fighting are far more tolerable that anything we’ve seen out of three Transformers movies. It’s not to say that any of the characters are particularly deep. Raleigh has his brother die then doesn’t really do anything interesting the rest of the movie except play hero. Mako and Pentecost share a secret that isn’t particularly mind-blowing when revealed, and everyone else is pretty much a one-note archetype, like comedic relief scientist Newton, played by Always Sunny’s Charlie Day.

But it’s okay. Unlike most explosion-based blockbusters, you don’t cringe during the non-action sequences from bad jokes or horrible lines. The film is relatively well-written considering the genre, and the cast is likable, despite their relative lack of depth. Sure, everything can be a bit hammy, but it’s more affable than eye-rolling.

The film is just flat out cool. I love the core concept of the monsters vs. machines, and believe it’s a great set-up for a story like this. The battles play out in ways that are more fantastic than anything my young little Godzilla-loving self could handle. As the film progresses, so do the Jaeger and Kaiji. We see the humans’ weapons evolve as the mechs wield swords, cannons and missiles. The monsters grow to be more and more terrifying, evolving new Jaeger-killing tools like acid vomit and EMP shockwaves. Both the design of the mechs and monsters are gorgeous. Director Guillermo Del Toro has been allowed to run completely wild with his designs, and the results are glorious. The battles grow increasingly intense, and it’s hard not to have either your jaw drop or a permanent smile plastered on your face when watching them. This is blockbuster cinema at its best.

Can your Optimus Prime do a ROCKET POWERED ROUNDHOUSE PUNCH?

In my estimation, the film spends a bit too much on the mind-melding aspect of the pilots. It seems like a clumsy device to explain flashbacks, and then ultimately exists to solve a major plot point late in the film.  Also, the penultimate fight is a lot more intense and impressive than the ultimate one, which causes some anti-climax issues.

It’s true that this is a big, dumb blockbuster, but it’s a GOOD big, dumb blockbuster, something that’s increasingly rare unless the heroes of the film are wearing capes and tights. It follows in the vein of ridiculous end-of-the-world movie that are cheesy and predictable, but ones we love anyway like Independence Day or Armageddon. This is a film that says things like “Today we’re cancelling the apocalypse” with a straight face, and it works.

Pacific Rim is a film you’ll watch with childlike glee if you ever played with toy robots and monsters as a kid. Guillermo Del Toro has created many incredible monster features over the years, but in terms of sheer scale and fun-factor, Pacific Rim is his crowning achievement by a mile. It’s big without being overwhelming. Simple without being stupid. It’s an original blockbuster that absolutely deserves to succeed in this horrible movie landscape of sequels, remakes and stolen ideas. Go see it and do your part to ensure more movies like it get made.

4 out 5 stars