“Pacific Rim” 2D
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For years, war has been raging between humankind and Kaiju, giant monsters that have come through a dimensional rift in the ocean. Massive robots, called Jaegers, were constructed to defend humanity from the Kaiju, but have grown obsolete as humans seem to have been winning the war. But the Kaiju have adapted and become stronger. Now, the Jaegers are called into action one last time to stop the apocalypse.
First thing, good on Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro for coming up with an original story. So very refreshing to see. The heavy influence of and tributes to classic sci fi, monster features, anime and manga is evident throughout the film. And really, this is a tribute film. Beautiful cinematography and CGI, impressive fight/battle scenes (giant robots fighting giant monsters, enough said), engaging, if cliched, characters and good chemistry within the cast all contributed to a good experience. I enjoyed the performances by Rinko Kikuchi, as Mako Mori, the talented rookie pilot; Charlie Day, as Dr. Newton Geiszler, the hyper-enthusiastic biologist; Burn Gorman, as Gottlieb, the voice of logic; Idris Elba, as Stacker Pentecost, the tough-as-nails, been-there-done-that-at-a-cost-you-can’t-imagine, fearless leader; and, of course, Ron Perlman, as Hannibal Chau, the black market “parts” dealer.
The dialogue, however, left a bit to be desired. A few too many quips and one liners, for me, cheapened an otherwise creative film. The story was huge, introducing a whole new dystopian world and the movie starts years into a war between humans and the monsters. Honestly, for a film that was just over 2 hours, taking more time on the story itself would have been of benefit, even though the plot was straight forward, if predictable. This, like many apocalypse flicks, was formulaic but it really didn’t detract from the point of the film, which was giant robots fighting giant monsters. As it was, del Toro did a really good job of showing the story, drawing the viewers in to get them invested in the characters and delivering quality entertainment.
I gave this film 4 1/2 mixers for originality and, really well-freaking-done giant robots fighting giant monsters.
1/2
