Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim, one of the biggest and most anticipated blockbusters of this summer. By the time I’m writing this review the 190 million dollars budgeted movie has grossed more than 400 million dollars even before the release of the DVD/Bluray edition. It’s not bad but I think that the studios were hoping to get a lot more profit from it.

The plot is simple. A gateway to another dimension is opened deep in the Pacific and some monsters called Kaiju start to come through that gateway to destroy Earth. Mankind unites and builds giant mechas called Jaegers to fight the Kaijus and the movie shows the final battles of this war. Spoiler alert, as in all the movies, the good guys win.

Guillermo del Toro, almost like Steven Seagal, takes on a lot of roles on the making of this movie. The credits show him as producer, cinematographer, screenplay and director. The man behind Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy had the opportunity to improve his reputation, but has he achieved that?

In my opinion, no. Sure it’s a fun movie to watch but it’s not great. This is the typical western take on some eastern ideas. If you’ve watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, as I did, you will be whispering “I’ve seen something like this before” a lot of times during Pacific Rim but, to be fair, I’ve to say that most persons do not like anime or the Japanese way to tell a story. So, again, in order to be fair, Pacific Rim, like 1998’s Godzilla, it’s something that looks good up until the moment you actually think about the plot or the characters but, unlike Godzilla, it still has its moments that make it acceptable.

The movie has some rising movie stars that come from TV shows likes Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Idris Elba (Luther and The Wire) and Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as well as one of del Toro’s fetish actor, Ron Perlman (Hellboy). From all of them I only found Elba's Pentecost (I might be a little unfair here because I really enjoy Luther) and Perlman's Hannibal Chau to have some kind of interest. The main character is completely standard, a lone hero who has lost someone and has something to avenge. The characters were underdeveloped and the use of comedians in serious movies is a little bit annoying (I don’t even think It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia it's funny, actually) but I think that for the average viewer who might not be too much into sci-fi or action movies it’s welcoming to have some kind of comfortable ground on which to relax before getting back to the main focus of the movie. If we want to speculate a little bit, the main target for this movie might see some of themselves on Charlie Day’s character. He portrays a scientist who is really enthusiastic about Jaeger/Kaiju fights so he is intelligent, with a sense of humor, while not being the main character the ending without him would be different and is willing to risk injuring himself to help others…is there even a man on Earth who doesn’t feel to be a little bit like him?

The combat scenes look great, the Jaegers look great too and the Kaiju look even better. This is where Pacific Rim shines. The designers behind the artwork have done a great job in developing the Kaijus and the Jaegers and the FX department turned that vision into something that we do not see very often. If back in 2009 Avatar baffled me with his heavy CGI, this is likely the first movie since then to impress me as much. The apocalyptic cities and bunkers also look really good.

But there is something that almost ruins the movie. The plot is the most important part of a movie and Pacific Rim, as I said before, it’s not amazing, far from that, and there are some things that do not make much sense. The cockpit and the way to operate the Jaegers is completely ridiculous. Two drivers which connect through the brain and a QVC gym machine to the Jaeger to control it? Why not just use an Xbox 360 controller? I’ve found it a lame excuse to create tension or to give an explanation to some parts of the script. Surely in the future, if we get to build Jaegers, we will not drive them like that. That would be just stupid. The worst part of the movie was when during a fight they use a boat as a sword? Since when would a boat endure to not break or to be significantly damaged when thrown against a solid object? It’s so non-sense that at that point I was looking everywhere to see if the Monty Python would appear. I’m not entering in other details but… pregnant clones and waterproof engines? I don’t even know what to say about it. Not to mention that they only use the best weapon (ironically it’s a real sword) at the end of the movie when they’ve had it since the beginning.

Still, is the average viewer really concerned about that? I think not. They will think it was an entertaining, action packed, great looking movie. And sometimes it’s all that’s needed. It doesn’t require you to think a lot to understand it. Just two hours of fun and something to talk to your friends for some time.

While it may please most people, del Toro has to do a lot more next time if he wants to keep his reputation among his fans.

Plot – 2/5

As stated before, the plot is recycled from other sources. Nothing really original or expanded enough to deserve more.

Visual – 5/5

The special effects are the best thing in the movie. It will catch your eye and make you think it could really be true. Also the design throughout the movie is very interesting.

Sound – 2/5

The soundtrack is really unimpressive. I’ve seen the movie just last week and I couldn’t remember a single music from it. The sound effect are just ok.

Performances – 3/5

Like I said, only Elba and Perlman standout in my opinion. Competent.

Final Score - 12/20