PACIFIC RIM

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Robot

is the biggest, loudest and most entertaining summer blockbuster so far. Don't believe any of the negative reports that were leaking out over the last few weeks, this movie demands to be seen on the largest screen, preferably IMAX although the 3D is nothing to write home about. In a year that has seen a few action movies hit (Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, WWZ) and several huge flops (The Lone Ranger, White House Down, Die Hard 5), Pacific Rim bests them all as the most complete Hollywood spectacle. This is the type of film that only Hollywood usually can pull off due to its immense sources of money and concentration of talent - above and below the line.


Director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labriyth) has created a movie that has all of the ingredients for a big hit franchise that can spawn sequels, toys, TV shows, video games, you name it. Let's hope this becomes a new series of movies because aren't we all getting just a little tired of retelling the same comic book movie origin stories? Like last summer's much maligned John Carter, Del Toro has laid enough interesting stuff in this background of this movie where spinoffs and sequels are almost guaranteed to happen. Of course John Carter was greeted with a universal press hatred that seems to be infecting Pacific Rim too.

The plot of the film is pretty simple - large monsters, called Kaiju, start coming up through a large crevasse at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The Kaiju, think Godzilla meets the Cloverfield monster, are wicked awesome monsters, each one different from the rest. Like snowflakes! They start destroying coastal cities all over the Pacific rim, mayhem ensues. These gigantic beasts make blood curdling screams as the stomp and smash everything in sight. They don't seem to be intent on doing much other than messing up every city they see and scaring the living crap out of all of the humans. They are unstoppable.

Mankind bands together - only in the movies! - to create a solution, immense mecha-robots called Jaegers (German for hunter). The Jaegers, think Transformers in robot form or Iron Giant, start to kick the Kaiju's ass. Mankind makes a stand. Thankfully the film does not bother with attempts to explain how all of the countries decided to band together, it just assumes that when entire cities are being eliminated all over the Pacific Ocean rim, we band together. After realizing that one human being cannot operate these massive robots, they discover that two pilots can do it if they mind-meld together. A cool nod to Star Trek.Then the Kaijus return, bigger and badder than before. Mankind panics, decides to build big walls on the coasts to keep out those pesky, illegal-immigrant monsters. Take that!

Not so fast. The wall puts up about as much resistance as a wet paper sack. Mankind decommissioned the Jaegers because they were convinced the wall would work, the Chinese helped and look at that wall they built. Luckily a few Jaegers remain under the control of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba, The Wire) who has a plan to seal the crevasse by blowing up some nukes. Intense battles ensue as the Jaeger and Kaiju throw down in some of the most amazing and jaw-droppingscenes on film. Stacker turns to one of his most trusted former pilots Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) to lead one last final push against the menacing Kaijus. Raleigh's partner is Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), an inexperienced young pilot-in-training, who escaped a devastating attack in Tokyo by the Kaijus when she was a little girl. She has revenge on her mind. Toss in a few crackpot, comic relief scientists (Charlie Day & Burn Gorman) and add in a black-market, Kaiju organ dealer with the awesome moniker of Hannibal Chau (the great Ron Perlman) and yu're ready to go.Pacific Rim, much like World War Z, showcases an international effort as the guiding light for humanity. Gone are the days when it was American Exceptionalism that saves the day like in Independence Day. Maybe this is an economic strategy over a political one seeing as how many massive blockbuster movies rely heavily on the foreign box-office. Either way, it's impressive that the lead figure in Pacific Rim is a black Englishman and the two pilots who save the day are an Aussie man and Japanese lady.With plenty of audacious visuals, deafening noises, humorous bits here and there and passable characters, Pacific Rim delivers the big spectacle, action movie goods. Enjoy.

Oh, here's a picture of that dashing Englishman.

Badass.

The post appeared first on .
Full Post