Pacific Rim Short In-Theater Review

Giant robots bashing giant monsters using the latest in state of the art computer generated special effects. What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing actually. The movie was my most eagerly awaited of the year due to being a fan of kaiju and giant robots since childhood. I didn’t expect anything brilliant but did fear a turkey that would ruin any chance at the genre getting a fair shake in Hollywood again. I won’t say my fears were unfounded, however it is a simple fact that Pacific Rim is a good movie.

The director, Guillermo del Toro, is on record as wanting the movie to be something airy and light, not something brooding or contemplating the human condition. Frankly, if he thinks this story was airy I worry about what he thinks is dark. While clearly an action movie first and foremost, it is pretty grim from the start.

We are introduced to the alternate Earth where a war with giant alien invaders from another dimension has been underway for five years. It’s a gutsy move to drop an audience into the middle of a fictional continuity without an origin story. Hollywood seems to insist on origins these days and I think they underestimate people’s ability to immerse themselves in a good story already underway.

Anyway, the main protagonist of the ensemble cast makes his appearance early. Raleigh Beckett and his brother Yancy are a a team of Jaeger pilots who link together in a neural interface called “drifting” in order to control a giant weapon of war. That weapon is a humanoid robot (or mecha in Japanese parlance) that runs off of a nuclear reactor. Their bond is quickly established and what follows is an amazing first battle in a raging storm off of Alaska.

The first fight shown sets the tone for the movie and it is a brutal slugfest with no quarter asked or given. I should mention the visuals are amazing throughout, which is no surprise given del Toro is directing. But the surprising part is there is actual character development and time spent on getting to know all the players.

Fans of Godzilla movies will love the action and fortunately there is plenty for people who aren’t fan boys of the genre. Also, I think anime fans will love this movie. Much of it feels like a live action quality anime and the ending is so very Japanese. Basically the whole movie is a love letter to anime, kaiju films, and mecha done in a way that audiences in the West will like.

There is some over the top acting by supporting characters, but they are meant to be that way since they are riffs on B-movie stereotypes. The main cast fairs better and Idris Elba is absolutely terrific as the dedicated commander of the Jaeger program. Rinko Kikuchi was pretty good as Mako the female lead. Charlie Hunnam plays Raleigh as a likeable hero in the vein of the reluctant gunfighter.

I really liked the relationship developed between Raleigh and Mako due to it being rather sweet. That’s not something you see out of Hollywood films and once again it had  Japanese style to it.

The special effects are excellent with a complete suspension of disbelief that surprised me. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen after the first 15 minutes and felt somewhat disoriented when the film ended. The giant creatures and robots are totally convincing in scale and mass. Don’t expect the ridiculous physics defying effects of movies like the Transformers series, this actually looks real.

As far as suitability for children, the movie contains mild profanity and not a lot of it. What blood and gore in it is of the alien kaiju monsters rather than humans. Still, it isn’t for little kids since it is very violent and probably be deemed very icky by them. There is also a flashback that is the thing of nightmares for little kids that would be very disturbing to them. I think double digits and up are safe in seeing Pacific Rim with select younger kids able to handle the content with their parents present.

Pacific Rim is a solid science fiction action movie well worth watching. Fans of the Japanese genres paid tribute to in it will enjoy it even more. This movie is large in spectacle and is one of a very few that I would say demands to be seen on the big screen.