Rating of
2.5/4
Review: Pacific Rim
MikePA - wrote on 07/14/13
In the dead center of an arguably successful summer for big-budget action films, Guillermo del Toro breaks through the gates presenting us with his highly anticipated monster flick, Pacific Rim. Audiences are loving this film and critically it is doing pretty well (rotten tomatoes has it at 72%), so I went into Pacific Rim slightly skeptical about certain notes but mostly excited, being that I think the world of del Toro as a director. My thoughts: I've seen better films this summer, and I've seen much worse films this summer. To me, Pacific Rim is purely empty calories - nothing more, nothing less. It's great fun while it lasts, but when it's over, you're likely to forget all about it until the blu-ray comes rolling along.
A few years into the future, a portal opens from deep beneath the sea, releasing enormous monsters called Kaiju to rampage and destroy our cities. On the brink of total destruction, the human race creates massive robots known as Jaegers in order to fight the monsters and (mostly) stop them from demolishing Earth's population. These Jaegers are controlled by something called the "drift," in which the brains of two pilots meld together to share complete control of the robot. It's 2,500 tons of awesome. However, years later we're still at war - which forces Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) to scoop up Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), a former fighter whose brother died in battle, and team him up with his previously demolished Jaeger to fight the monsters. Raleigh and Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) hold the fate of the world in their hands, as they're both part of the battle alongside three other Jaegers to lead the world out of this miserable war. Charlie Day's irritating voice is also in the film.
Let's cut to the chase, all the film really has to offer is spectacular action sequences. It's highly problematic regarding its substantial elements. The characters don't exactly feel as fleshed out as they should be - notably Raleigh whose prologue is very good, but del Toro never really digs deeper. He ends up being a very bland hero, performed rather effortlessly by Charlie Hunnam. Same goes for Stacker Pentecost, who just isn't given any compelling depth. Ron Perlman's character is utterly useless. And don't you dare even get me started on those two science nerds played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman (2013's most annoying pair of characters goes to...). I will say this: I really liked Mako's character and I loved her back story which was presented in an amazing sequence. She's the only character that really livened up the movie for me personally. The lack of character depth is honestly disappointing to me being that Guillermo del Toro has created some really compelling characters in his previous films.
The story put on display is engaging enough while being pretty standard and simplistic. It's a fine excuse to make a huge spectacle in which monsters and robots hammer into one another. I personally feel that the "drift" is unnecessary, doing nothing but adding confusion to an otherwise fairly simple story. It also makes operating the Jaegers much more complicated than it could have been. This idea of the "drift" also brings about another point in the story which is supposed to come off as comic relief. It challenges the fate of Charlie Day's character. It WOULD HAVE been funny if it ended the way I hoped it would, but unfortunately it didn't. That annoying little prick...
Riddle me this: In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, why is the water only barely touching the Jaeger's knees? I know these are massive machines, but hell - they're not a hundred sky-scrapers taller than the Empire State Building.
It's quite obvious that Pacific Rim is all about the action sequences - so Mike, why even bother picking apart what's wrong with it? Sometimes for me, things are hard to overlook. And don't get me wrong, Pacific Rim has some unbelievable action sequences, and the film is totally worth seeing for that alone, but I like me some humanity in my big-budget action films. And this didn't have much of that.
Last but not least, the action. Wow. If you're expecting robots-on-monsters action of the highest caliber, your expectations will be met and exceeded, as Guillermo del Toro crafts them with a thrilling punch that will hold you on the edge and will not let you go until it's done (about 10 minutes later). I thought the best scene was when Mako and Raleigh battle it out with two Kaiju. That was epic. The finale, while failing to live up to the high-octane excitement of its previous action scenes, is still fun, memorable, and satisfying.
Imperfections aside, Pacific Rim is insane fun. It's bolstered by spellbinding action scenes that'll make most audiences overlook everything that's wrong with it. If you like that sort of thing, then you'll love this movie. I didn't dislike the film. I thought it was fine. But I was hoping for a little more in regards to substance.
2.5/4
