Pacific Rim Review

Movie: Pacific Rim
By: Maniac E
Date: July 17, 2013

Go big or go extinct

Guillermo del Toro going sci-fi who would have thought that, right? The guy produced and directed some major movies from Fantasy movie "Pan's Labyrinth" to Hollywood action movie "Hellboy". This diversity just shows how much he is into film making, he just grabs every genre! But "Pacific Rim" really has the label blockbuster movie sticking on it good, but can it really be enjoyed? Read on.

The story of the movie is pretty basic but here goes. Monsters from another dimension break through our dimension and want to tear the earth to pieces. Of course, we need to defend ourselves the way to do it is: Build giant machines called Jaegers. Each Jaeger is controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds have been locked together, because the neural load of these giant machines are way too much for one person to bare. But even these machines fail to the point that there is no more hope for human race to survive. ex-pilot named Raleigh Becket and his enthusiastic but untested copilot, Mako Mori, team up together and crush the monsters with the most powerful Jaeger that we had laying around somewhere. With this new machine and team new hope is being given to humanity and lots of pretty battles are being done.

So story wise it is nothing special and really just proofs to be a Hollywood production. All the stupid flaws are yet in mostly in the script of the movie which is a shame. One dimensional characters and story plots that are being thrown into a black hole. It just doesn't pull you in and can be pared on the same side as Promotheus". Excuse me for my negativity, but this just isn't what makes me a happy theater visitor. Sometimes you just hope a blockbuster could have some more story driven body to it.

But on to the good: CGI! MONSTERS! ROBOTS! FIGHTS!. Really this movie is stunning looking visual wise! This is absolutely one of the best movies to see in a theater and as far as robots fighting goes, this is the best so far. Industrial Light & Magic did everything perfect, even spotted some Transformers rip-off scenes but done right this time! At times you would have just wished the ones controlling the robots where more appealing so that we could really care for what happened on screen. It really shines in the audio and visual department, how the world is portrayed and how everything changed throughout the years. Even some nice sci-fi effects about how we communicate and how we interact with each other. The way the robots are controlled is just a great thought out piece of evolved science. Let us just hope the ones that will be working on the new Godzilla movie are paying close attention.

I maybe harsh on the movie but don't forget Del Toro can make a real deep going movie if he wants, but he keeps going for the cheesy and brainless popcorn pleasure movies. For me this movie only worked thanks to the great CGI and great sound effects. The designs of the creatures and surroundings are top notch and really make this movie feel epic. Take the movie for what it is a over produced piece of popcorn entertainment. You could make a parallel with how we humans fight wars and try to annihilate everything in that is in our way. For me this wasn't a message or a statement even if some people would say it would be. Just take things as they are and don't think too much behind the things you see, as this is not intended otherwise.

Pacific Rim ended up being the most typical example of a blockbuster movie there could have been. Empty script, one dimensional characters but straight non-stop action. In this case the action and the CGI really make the movie. You will either love the fact this movie has something great to offer on that part but will be disappointed with everything else. For me once the focus was on the fights and the action the movie was really enjoyable at some points. It really is popcorn, giant gigantesque popcorn that is.