Before the start of the 2013 summer movie season back in May, I circled three movies I wanted to see the most out of the potentially good offerings of this year, and this was one of them. After several disappointments and mixed reactions to other flicks so far, I can honestly say Pacific Rim is THE Summer movie I’ve been waiting for this year.
We’re given the set up in decently paced screen time. One day set in the not too distant future, an inter-dimensional rift opened up in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and huge monsters called Kaiju started to come out one at a time to wreak havoc. This prompted the various nations of the world to invest their resources and create giant robots called Jaegers to fight of the creatures.
The initial scenes take place over a period of 12 years, during which we’re introduced to our lead character Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam). At the end of this set-up, we see him working at one of several walls humanity has started to build in hopes of keeping out the creatures. He’s a former pilot who’s just been looking to survive after a mission gone horribly wrong. However, his former commander, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) arrives to recruit him for a new and desperate plan he hopes can end this war.
Pentecost brings Hunnan back to base where we meet Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), an officer in Pentecost’s corps. Humanity is losing this war because the Kaiju are apparently learning the Jaegers’ fighting tactics and where once armies existed, only 4 active machines are left. To make maters worse, the U.N. is withdrawing funding from Pentecost’s program while the scientists are predicting something even worse is coming through the rift…
In looking over the ads and promos for this movie, there’s a lot of emphasis on the mecha vs. monster combat, and it’s a good selling point. Unlike say the Transformers movies (the Bay ones, not the ’86 animation) the action is fast and hard hitting but it’s easy to discern what’s being presented to us. The combats are visceral masterpieces like nothing we’ve seen on screen before. Director Guillermo Del Toro and the effects team at ILM really shine here. When cities are smashed due to the fighting, you give a damn what happens to the people within. The 3-D is clear and very effective to help the experience, and I promise, the trailers do NOT show you everything that happens in these scenes. Some great surprises pop up.
The thing is though, none of this means anything unless you have a stake in what’s happening in front of you. Unless you care about the characters, everything else will be boring eye candy. As the Transformers films have failed miserably in this area, Pacific Rim succeeds much better. Despite what the promotions have thus far advertised, this movie is very much about the characters fighting this war. While most of them aren’t developed completely in the story by Del Toro and Travis Beacham, we’re mostly given enough insight to these people so that we’re rooting them on when the time comes.
This comes to us partially in how the Jaegers are piloted, as two human brains are needed to sync up with the machines in a process called ‘drifting’. During this, the pilots see and experience every memory the other has ever had. A lot of good story is presented in short segments here, especially Mako’s, (for which it feels Del Toro returns to his Pan’s Labyrinth creep-out techniques). Initially, we come to know Beckett is a veteran who isn’t angsty, but has seen horrors of war and wants to get back into the fight now. Pentecost is stoic, intense and… well, this clip pretty much sums up his character
Elba just emanates bad-a$$ throughout this entire movie, even in his character’s quieter scenes. You just know he’s going to get humanity through this war no matter what tactics he has to use to end it. There are some other interesting people we’re introduced to such as a father-&-son duo who’ve been defending Australia from attacks. We also get a couple of wacky scientists (one of whom is portrayed by Charlie Day of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia fame) who get some great screen time with their own subplot. Finally there’s Ron Perlman, who just plain enjoys working on Del Toro’s films like he has in Hellboy and Blade II. His character here is rather colorful to say the least and plays an interesting part in the greater scheme of things. So this movie is honestly about the characters as much as it is about the combat and everyone performs decently.
I have to take a moment to address the concerns I’ve been seeing in the weeks leading up to this film’s release. I took a rather lovely fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion to the screening with me, with the amusing side goal of us figuring out who might be the character based most on Shinji Ikari. Fortunately, no one here fit that role in any way. To be honest, the most similarity I saw here was the way the mecha are launched or delivered to their targets, with scientists giving support and orders in a safe bunker. That’s it. The characters’ relationships are totally different, and plot-wise I saw more similarities to other big robot anime such as Great Mazinger, Getter Robo, and Giant Robo more than anything else. (If you want specifics, ask me later. I’ve got to finish this and there’s probably others that I missed.)
This movie is about as derivative as Quentin Tarrantino’s selection of Asian cinema when he created Kill Bill. Del Toro and Beacham followed a similar formula to create something not seen before in American cinema. Robot Jox (the other movie comparison I often hear about) counts only to a certain degree because it was a made-for-video movie done on a made-for-video budget. Pacific Rim is the result of taking the best available production values as only American movies can provide and putting together a very entertaining action flick. Heck, I bet someone is saying the movie isn’t original enough because we have Ellen McClain of the Portal games sounding like GLaDos when she’s the voice of the Jaegers’ computers.
As you might guess, I was very happy with this movie and would recommend seeing it again and again. I didn’t feel the need to nitpick at it for good and bad parts like I have with the rest of this summer’s fare. Check it out, let the film present its story and show for what it is. Oh, if you’re really a film fan, stay through until the final credit. It made me tear up a little inside.
Ok. That’s it. Now go see the damn movie. Got more reviews to write. Til next time….
Grade: A-
