Pacific Rim Review
By Casey Douglass
Image ©Warner Bros. Pictures
Guillermo del Toro’s
Pacific Rim has been my most looked forward to film of the year so
far. This is unusual for me as I don’t often get to that stage of
anticipation with many films. The last one that did was probably The
Dark Knight Rises. So I will tell you now, I give Pacific Rim 5/5.
It’s not a perfect film but I personally loved it.
Pacific Rim is the
story of humanities struggle against invading monsters that emerge
from the depths of the Pacific. These creatures are Kaiju, denizens
of another dimension, that travel to our own through a “dimensional
rift” on the ocean floor. Initially they come through at the rate
of one every few months, but the frequency increases as time
progresses, the gap between each emergence narrowing with every new
creature rearing its ugly head. In response to this threat, the
countries of the world band together and create the Jaegers, colossal
human driven robots that can fight the Kaiju on their own terms.
The humans prevail for
awhile, but the escalating numbers of Kaiju soon overwhelm their
capacity to keep patching the Jaegers up and sending them out to do
battle. Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), is a Jaeger pilot who comes
off the unfortunate loser against a large Kaiju. He bows out of the
program feeling that he is washed out and done. The Jaeger program is
deemed ineffective and funding is stopped in favour of other
defences. Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), was in charge of the whole
scheme, and refuses to give in. He corrals the last of the Jaeger
into one base, determined to carry on the fight, and re-enlists his
favourite pilot Becket once more.
It is here that the
film really launches off into the guts of the storyline, giving
glimpses of pilot relationships, research into the Kaiju and other
projects and dealings that both empower and jeopardize the war
effort. It felt to me that more time was spent running around
deciding what to do than driving the robots and punching monsters in
the face. I do feel that the film was better for it though. It made
every action scene that much more exciting by not over-saturating the
viewer with too much robot flesh (I’m looking at you
Transformers!).
The Jaeger themselves
are things of metallic beauty, each one built by its own respective
world power in its own distinct way. The Russian one is strong and
stark compared to the Chinese one which is lithe and agile with
whirling blades. The Kaiju themselves offer great variety too, some
resembling lizards, others sea creatures. They also vary in size and
abilities in as many ways as the Jaeger.
When the two enormous
fighters clash, it is certainly a thrilling sight. Guillermo del Toro
penned a piece in the July issue of Empire magazine, going into his
influences and enthusiasm for Kaiju movies growing up in Mexico. (A
very interesting read). He says that he always felt the Kaiju were
forces of nature, like a tornado or a tsunami. I would say that he
achieves this effect in Pacific Rim with great skill. They are
certainly majestic in their own way, which is another effect of his
own love affair with them. He says that he always finds himself
rooting for the monster. This brings me back to the last film that
made me excited to see it. The last two Batman films in fact. Both
The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises had me rooting as much for
the villain as for Batman. I did feel the same in Pacific Rim. There
is just a part of me that enjoys revelling in mass destruction and is
envious of things that don’t seem to have to follow any outside
rules.
I really enjoyed
Pacific Rim, the story, the fights, the effects and the acting. It
was great to see Idris Elba in something like that, along with
Charlie Hunnam and Robert Kazinsky, all great British actors who
should appear in as much as possible in my humble opinion. I still
find myself reflecting on the film almost a week after seeing it, and
am looking forward to its hopefully soon blu-ray release. I may also
pick up the movie score on CD. It is odd as I think I saw some of the
same monster movies del Toro did when I was growing up, and I can
only remember being unimpressed by them. They didn’t capture my
heart like they did his, but del Toro has well and truly ruined me
for other Kaiju films now.
Rating : 5/5
