Pacific Rim is a modern, big budget film that attempts to resurrect the low budget stylings of classic monster B-movies. Director Guillermo Del Toro and writer Travis Beacham have collaborated to make what is essentially a love letter to the kaiju movies of the past. They have also made one of the funnest movies I have seen this year.
• Exhibition: 2D
• Rating: 12A
• Run Time: 131 mins
In the not-too-distant future, an inter-dimensional rift opens at the bottom of the ocean (I won’t spoil which one). Through it, monsters known as Kaiju arrive and wreak havoc and destruction on coastline cities. As the frequency of the attacks increase, the governments of the world decide to fight fire with fire and create Jaegers, gargantuan robots with two human pilots. Initially, the Jaegers are able to handle the Kaiju threat, but as the odds begin to tip back to the monsters’ favour, and the world starts to lose faith in the Jaeger program, a more drastic plan is put into action.
As you can tell from that synopsis, we are definitely in the realms of B-movies. The fun and frivolity you would expect from such a genre is present and accounted for, however, there is one major difference – the budget. Unlike the more recent direct-to-DVD efforts with accompanying shoddy CGI and more shoddy acting (I’m looking at you Sharknado), Pacific Rim has the studio backing to go all-out when it comes to monster mayhem as well as acting chops, including Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam and a personal favourite of mine, Ron Perlman. One of the pitfalls of kaiju movies is having too great an emphasis on the monsters, at the expense of the human characters. While this is mostly avoided, some of the character moments later on feel unearned.
One of the clever additions Pacific Rim introduces to the monster versus robots formula is ‘drifting’ – the technology used to merge two pilots’ consciousness together so that they can act as a one mind when controlling the Jaegers. Due to the size and intricacies of the robots, one human cannot handle the mental load. During a drift, two compatible pilots become the left and right hemisphere of the Jaeger’s ‘brain’ whilst also sharing their memories and feelings with each other. This allows for back-stories and characters’ fears to become tangible elements in the plot, rather than acting as pacing roadblocks. To be honest, there was not enough time spent on drifting but I hope that if a sequel is made, it becomes more and more ubiquitous in the franchise.
And I do hope it becomes a franchise – Del Toro and Beacham have designed a world I want to revisit. From the insane character names, like Stacker Pentecost (Elba), Raleigh Becket (Hunnam) and Hannibal Chau (Perlman), to the new black market trading Kaiju parts, you will leave the cinema feeling that you have just seen a glimpse of the Pacific Rim universe. Industrial Light & Magic also deserve huge plaudits – their kaiju and robot designs are outstanding. Each one feels unique, and like the kaiju movies of the past, each one displays a personality of its own. Finally, the art design of the movie is utterly beautiful and refreshing. The colour palette used is vibrant, offering a kaleidoscope of visuals. The scenes set in Hong Kong are especially pleasing. I saw this in 2D as the movie was not shot using 3D cameras but has instead gone through a 3D conversion. As many of the scenes take place at night and the action does involve quick cuts, I think I made the right choice.
ThaJM
Just watched the movie on friday, really enjoyed myself in the theater. I did walk away feeling a tad disappointed though.
The movie’s promotional posters featured so many different jaegers, but most of them were glanced over or destroyed nearly instantly. The kaiju designs were all pretty good, but the final level 5 kaiju ended up looking like a bigger version of kaiju we had seen before.
I also agree that the drifting was woefully underused, could have really given us more insight to the characters, particularly the commanding officer.
Despite all this, i still highly recommend watching this movie in the cinema. The huge screen really gives the robots and kaijus the massive scale they deserve, and the sound system in my cinema rumbled my seat as the fights took place. A once in a lifetime experience.
PacManPolarBear
Loved this movie. Worth a trip to see it on the big screen. And if you are a genre fan it’s like a dream come true. I smiled like a crazy person for hours after watching it.