Pacific Rim
- Jun 1, 2017
- 3 min read
Normally with my movie reviews I will attach a trailer of the movie, but for this one I believe that an “Honest Trailer” is more fitting. The “Dumbest Awesome Movie” you’ve ever seen, or the “Most Awesome Dumb Movie" you've ever seen. These are the only two phrases that properly describe both the greatness and absurdity that is Pacific Rim. Straight from the beginning of the movie with the serious exposition of what happened to the world and how humans responded to it we are shown that this is just a little more than a B movie with a massive special effects budget. Giant space monsters called Kaiju attack earth and equally colossal Jaegers are created to fight them… This Saturday morning cartoon of a movie is everything that you could hope for from such a bizarre premise. At the close of the opening which gives background as to why any of this is happening we are thrown right into a Jaeger and swept into a fight with the largest Kaiju the heros have ever seen. Raleigh Becket, played by Charlie Hunnam, lets us know that being in a Jaeger feels like you can fight a storm and some other ridiculous nonsense about what it means to pilot the towering machine though the “drift” but none of this matters. This very attempt at trying to be more than an action movie may be what holds Pacific Rim back the most. While action movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and those directed by the likes of Christopher Nolan strive to redefine the genre or branch out in ways that require an expansion of the imagination, Pacific Rim is more like a reboot of Godzilla. Guillermo del Toro at times does try to tread some new water with the ideas of the “drift” that is used to control the Jaegers and in the beginning with the discussion of ending the Jaeger program in favor of building walls around cities to keep them safe. These ideas are quickly forgotten and that is for the better. Pacific Rim shines when the fights begin. If more time were to have been spent giving the audience fights between the massive creatures the film might have been an ever greater hit, but ultimately the attempts at new ideas seem to hold it back. One focus that Guillermo del Toro has mentioned was central to his storytelling that is worth looking deeper into is the purpose of civilians. In many action movies such as Man of Steel, which came out during the same summer of 2013, innocent bystanders are killed off by the tens of thousands. In Pacific Rim there are several scenes in which del Toro takes special care to show that those who are not inside of the Jaegers are being protected by staying in underground bunkers. This small attention to detail is one that more directors should consider. If the least life is unimportant, what are the true motivations of the heros? Less time could have been spent on the details of how the machines work which would have left more time for great action moments and the characters are mostly mediocre. However, these failures are as forgettable as the details that hold back the movie from being great once you see the Jaegers and Kaiju go head to head. This is a fun action movie that is at best when the CGI takes over and suffers a little between the action.
7/10
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