What They Say:
“From the Shadows” and “Into the Black”
Five years after their parents left to find help, siblings Taylor and Hayley find a training Jaegar- but it quickly attracts a Kaiju to their village.
When Atlas Destroyer runs out of energy, Taylor and Hayley search a nearby destroyed city for power cells and make some startling discoveries.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The thrilling but devastating world created by Guillermo Toro continues to unravel in a small corner of the world. What was once a gigantic country knows as Australia has been turned to shreds in this Kaiju-dominated planet. It turns out that the apocalypse wasn’t canceled. People are still dealing with the chaos brought on by the Kaijus. Australia is no longer safe and Australians are on the run for any chance of survival. Only a handful of Jaegers remain to evacuate the remaining people. Ford and Briana ignore orders to save a small number of people from impending doom. Some of these people include their son and daughter, Taylor and Hayley. They arrive at the outskirts of town surrounded by mountains. They leave them safely behind so they can get more help from anyone.
Five years later and the remaining people have created a village while they wait for help. One thing that Black is doing better than the films is focusing on ordinary people. The emotional tragedy that should have been present in the films as people were losing their homes was never there. Watching the Kaiju and Jaegers go at it was some good classic fun from a viewer’s point of view. But there was little effort to capture how humanity dealt with the crisis. The Black creates that sense that the films were missing. Humanity has to move forward and that essence is captured perfectly. The villagers have a small farm to grow food, and they entertain themselves with the limited amount of space they have.
No matter how bad things are they can always get worse. Actions have consequences and that going to be a lesson that Hayley will never forget. On the surface, Hayley is carefree and is the typical clutz. But beyond that, she is worried about her parents and wants to find them. One argument with Taylor has her frustrated. She plays with the idea of leaving the village. She stumbles upon an old research base where she comes across a training Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer with a snarky AI, Loa. The Jaeger activates to the worst result possible. As it turns on, it creates a high level of noise alerting Kaiju that there are people in the village. Five years of peace have gone out the window because of Hayley. As a result of her reckless actions, Hayley and Taylor’s best friends and villagers are stomped out of the map.
With their village gone, Taylor and Hayley are moving forward. This won’t come easily as the guilt of killing everyone is eating at Hayley’s soul. To make matters worse, Taylor won’t say it aloud but he thinking about how Hayley is responsible. His thoughts are amplified when they are in the Jaeger mental duo link system. Siblings’ tales need moments that siblings overcome an enormous struggle. It has just the right scenario with Hayley’s situation for this problem.
The CGI animation works wonders with the Jaeger and Kaiju fight scenes. Every movement, punch, and kick is made astonishing. Even the Kaiju designs look horrifying stunning in this model. Kaiju needs to instill fear at every sight and they excel in this regard. Some dogs can be terrifying but the Kaiju dogs send chills down my spine right to my core. Its survival of the fittest as a giant Kaiju ends up eating the dog Kaiju. I just wish that this scene wasn’t covered in fog but I understand some of the reasoning behind it. No one wants to see dogs get eaten even if they’re a Kaiju. But it would have elevated this show to exceptional levels of horror.
In Summary:
Pacific Rim The Black continues with the monumental battles that Pacific Rim is known for but adds a sentimental level right off the bat to set the stakes. There was somewhat of a safety net that prevented most people from meeting an unfortunate fate. But all bets are off as anyone can die in this series. It makes it painstaking noticeable how Australia has become a desolate wasteland. The sense of loss and regret can be used to astonishing results to move the series forward.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Netflix