Pacific Rim 3 ½ / 4 Guillermo Del Toro has put himself in the league of filmmakers who can inject heart and soul into fantasy, sci-fi and horror. I can only name Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson who can do what Del Toro does as good or better. Pacific Rim is a one of a kind concoction that borrows elements from other films in the sci-fi, action and horror genres and still manages to be an original piece of filmmaking. It is essentially a Godzilla sized monster movie inside the plot devices of an alien invasion movie. Despite it going cliché on certain moments of the formula used for these types of films, it features the most realistic, breathtaking and emotionally charged Kaiju/Jaeger battle scenes in cinematic history. When a crack occurs in the lowest depths of the ocean floor, it leads to giant sized monsters (aka Kaiju) rising to the surface every so often to cause destruction on the cities that lie in every direction across the world. As this occurrence is discovered to be an invasion plan by aliens that reside on the other side at the earth’s center, us humans construct robots of equal size (aka Jaeger) to counter and defeat these creatures before the end of the world occurs. At the center of the story, lies several characters with personal trauma and vengeance towards the monsters and a team of scientists about to hatch onto the secret of ridding the world of these beasts. This movie had me recalling bits of other films like Inception in its life of the inner mind, Avatar in its 3-dimensional reality of conscious transference, along with Real Steel with its human fighting puppeteering robotic armor. However, Pacific Rim is so much more than Real Steel in that it uses the science of how these robots are controlled by people as a springboard to reveal the heart, soul and adversity of who the heroes are and will become. Rim’ synchronizes the human heroes with the robotic ones and you can’t help but give a rousing response as you see the giant battles occur. Del Toro even invokes elements from the Kaiju genre with monsters resembling everything from those in a Godzilla or Gamera movie to that cheesy television series from a few decades back in Jet Jaguar. I suppose he even took some inspirations from that Saiban series Power Rangers where the colored rangers link up inside their mechanized robot fighters and control them from the inside. I could even go as far as saying there are anime elements here. You may recall Neon Genesis Evangelion or some of the other titles with girls or boys inside giant robots. But this film finds what is cool about all of its borrowings and uses them to their full potential. The movie is about 80% or more of CGI and for that alone it is a milestone achievement. Despite the large amount of CGI, the effects are completely real and convincing as if they could take place in reality. The robots and monsters move, sound and fight with accurate pace and velocity. It is also astonishing to see just how massive they are and how that very massive size becomes a porous and tactile incorporation into the destruction of traffic bridges and skyscraper buildings. Del Toro’s direction allows us to stay compelled the whole way through by giving the battles enough adversity to make for an underdog comeback of crowd pleasing affect. As mentioned prior, these robots are like giant sized versions of those in Real Steel, but the way the filmmakers synchronize human dynamic with them makes them feel almost human in partial aspect. If the film has any weaknesses, they are very minor. I felt the shadow of Independence Day in the way some things are played out. We have the Robot projects leader (Idris Elba) giving a speech not unlike Bill Pullman did. Then we have the self sacrifice of key characters similar to Randy Quaid’s heroism; this and the planting of firepower inside enemy territory not unlike Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. However, the planting and escape in this movie is slightly improbable as the ocean pressure and volcanic temperatures would be too much for any armor carrier. I saw similarities with other alien movies such as War of the Worlds and The Abyss in terms of the beings rising in strategic dormancy from the ground up in opposed to coming from the skies. What Pacific Rim does with its story, done brilliantly by Del Toro and Clash of the Titans writer Travis Beacham, is that it connects the movie’s current invasion to an attempt centuries ago with the prehistoric era and the dinosaurs and the revelation of this is fascinating to think about. Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam, leads a stellar cast. I haven’t caught him in that show, but here, he is a charming, charismatic and heroic pilot seeking revenge for personal loss while romancing his female Japanese counterpart (Rinko Kikuchi) along the way. Hunnam resembles a cross between the Hemsworth brothers and I feel he could have almost played Thor with his looks. Idris Elba further validates how much of a bad ass he is and I’m waiting for him to play either the black president of a movie or become the first black James Bond. Rinko Kikuchi feels like an anime heroine of Neon Genesis Evangelion mixed with that heroine from Blood the Last Vampire. Charlie Day who was in Horrible Bosses, gives us a wacky scientist obsessed with Kaiju monsters. Day can either come off annoying in the sound of his voice and the over effort of his comedic attempts or simply a riot of comic energy. I found him to be more of the first mentioned description as I felt that way about him in Horrible Bosses. Ron Perlman, who is also part of Sons of Anarchy, turns in a performance as a pimp-like dealer of Kaiju body parts. He was Del Toro’s title character in the Hellboy franchise and so it made sense to have him in this film. All in all, Pacific Rim is magnificent on an emotional, intellectual and visual level. It sometimes falls in line of typical moments of formula but more than makes up with its landmark monster/robot battle sequences. It does so many original things with its borrowing of elements from several genres that it never truly feels like an imitation but rather a complex hybrid at worst and a spectacle at best. I have seen nearly every Toho Kaiju film and the CGI here is simply better than what is contained in any of them. Let’s hope next year’s Godzilla movie is as good or better.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 17:46:30 +0000