"Today, we face
the monsters that are at our door. Today, we are cancelling the
apocalypse!"
Robots vs. monsters, is there anything else you need to
know? For those of you who grew up watching Voltron
and Robotech, Pacific Rim is the movie you imagined in a fever dream while
playing with your action figures.
In the near future, a dimensional rift has opened up at the
bottom of the Pacific Ocean allowing enormous creatures known as 'kaiju' to
invade our world. To fight these monsters, humanity banded together and built
massive robotic suits they called 'jaegers.' The jaegers are so enormous that
they must be piloted by two individuals connected to a neural bridge referred
to as 'the drift.' Jaeger pilots are treated like rock stars and two of the
best are Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) and Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam). A
disastrous battle between their Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, and a kaiju near the
Arctic Circle costs Yancy his life and leaves Raleigh a broken man.
Five years later, the United Nations attempts to shut down
the jaeger program in favor of building giant walls around their coastal
cities. When that plan fails miserably, jaeger commander Stacker Pentecost
(Idris Elba) recruits a reluctant Raleigh back into the suit and pairs him up
with Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), who lost her parents as a young girl to a kaiju
rampage.
It's clear from the get-go that director Guillermo Del Toro
has been dying to cut loose after spending years on projects (The Hobbit, At the Mountains of Madness) that never came to fruition. With Pacific Rim, Del Toro merges his unique
vision with his love of anime (Neon
Genesis Evangelion is an obvious influence) and Toho monster flicks to
create one of the best summer blockbusters in recent years. His direction isn't
without flaws. The visuals are muddled by setting most of the action at night
and underwater. The climax is particularly troubling because the final kaijus
look extremely similar and they aren't any more menacing than the ones seen
before. However, when Del Toro turns it on, he goes for broke. The best
sequence in Pacific Rim is the
near-20 minute battle set against the neon glow of a Blade Runner-esque Hong Kong. Another triumph for Del Toro is the
enthralling and heartbreaking flashback in which a terrified Mako is left alone
in a decimated Tokyo as a kaiju roars overhead. Pacific Rim shines in IMAX 3D. No, the 3D doesn't improve anything,
but the screen size and enhanced surround sound are perfect for the metallic
mayhem.
The screenplay by Del Toro and Travis Beacham never drops
itself to the willfully lowbrow levels of Michael Bay's Transformers franchise. Pacific
Rim might paint its characters in the broadest strokes possible, but there's
nary a homophobic or misogynistic bone in its body. What Del Toro and Beacham
have done best is the world building that only hints at the rich history behind
it. Take for example the character of Hannibal Chau (played eccentrically by
Ron Perlman), a black market dealer in kaiju organs. Apparently, bone powder
from an extra-dimensional beast is a cure for erectile dysfunction. Chau's
headquarters in Hong Kong appear to have been built around a fallen kaiju's
skeleton.
Charlie Hunnam doesn't exactly light up the screen in the
lead role, but he does a fair job and gets assistance from a game supporting
cast. He has some good scenes with Rinko Kikuchi while Del Toro and Beacham
never allow the two to fall into the clichéd romance. Idris Elba plays the
hardass drill sergeant we've seen countless times before, but he does it pretty
damn well. His St. Crispin's speech will undoubtedly be heavily quoted. Stealing
the show are Charlie Day and Burn Gorman as a pair of diametrically opposed
kaiju scientists. Day is brash and high-strung while Gorman looks and acts like
a latter-day Jeffrey Combs.
Pacific Rim is
Saturday morning cartoon brought to life. A pure fanboy fantasy that blasts
the rest of the summer slate right in the face with a robot rocket punch.
Rating: *** (*****)
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