Pacific Rim (2013)

nTitle: Pacific Rim (2013)

nDirector: Guillermo del Toro

nCast: Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi

nPacific Rim is the most fun I’ve had this summer so far, Inmean, this 2013 summer season has been incredibly good, with big, loud,nbombastic pop corn movies and it’s not easy narrowing it down to “most fun hadnthis summer” but dammit, I had such a blast last night watching Pacific Rimnthat I officially declare it the most fun summer movie of 2013! And without andoubt, this is the best giant robot movie I’ve ever seen! Giant robot movies are not easy films to make because they will always involve either miniature effects work or lots of computer effects, in other words, these type of movies always require big budgets, if you don’t have the money to pull off this kind of film and make it anyway, then you might end up with a goofy film like Stuart Gordon’s Robot Jox (1990), which was one of the first attempts to bring a giant robot movie to the silver screen; by americans anyway. The results with Robot Jox or it’s “sequel” Robot Wars (1993) were laughable at best. Then we have the Transformers movies, that while having the budget, didn’t necesarilly have the best talent behind the camera. Which reminds me that as I watched thisnmovie, a mental image of Michael Bay (the director behind the Transformersnmovies) furiously taking notes kept popping into my head. Yes sir ladies andngentlemen, with Pacific Rim Guillermo del Toro has just given Michael Bay annexplosive class on how to make a giant robot movie work. So, what exactly madenPacific Rim such an entertaining ride?

nIn Pacific Rim there’s no time for building up a back storynto nothing, we are thrown right smack into the middle of a world in which giantnmonsters are beginning to emerge from the depths of the ocean, scene one takenone, giant monsters destroying the San Francisco Bridge. At first humans think thatnthese giant monsters popping out of the ocean is something temporary, thatnthese monsters will just go away, but soon they realize that these monstersnjust won’t stop coming, so the governments of the world join and create the “Jaeger”nrobots. These are robots gigantic in size that use different weapons to destroynthe giant monsters, which by the way are referred to as ‘Kaiju’, a Japanese wordnthat translates to ‘monster’. So the humans get all cocky because they arenbeating the monsters with their giant machines. But that cockiness soon fadesnaway when even bigger monsters start to emerge from the depths of the ocean! Soonnthe Jaeger robots are considered a waste of money because too many millions arenbeing lost, and too many fighters have died. The battle against the monsters isnbeing lost! Can the dwindling Jaeger program go up against these giantncreatures? And just what is it that these creatures are hoping to achieve bynlaying waste to our world?

nPacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro biggest movie to date, he’snworked with medium sized budgets before, for example Hellboy II (2008) cost 80nmillion dollars, which is the highest budget he’d worked with up to that point,nbut now Del Toro’s gone over the 100 million dollar mark with Pacific Rim which cost anwhopping 170 million dollars! But trust me, you’ll see all that money up on thenscreen, this is certainly NOT one of those movies that costs 300 millionndollars and you don’t see the money on the screen, nope here you’ re gonna seenthem, and you’re gonna be impressed. Seriously though, the effects work on thisnmovie is simply amazing, the scope of the ideas is way bigger than any othernGuillermo del Toro movie. This is the kind of director who has a lot ofnimagination. Right from the start of his career Guillermo del Toro has demonstrated that he isna director with true admiration and devotion to the sci-fi/horror genres. Youncan tell that all you need to do if you are producer is give this guy a couplenof millions and he’ll bring his imagination to life on the silver screen fornyou, which is exactly what happened here; Pacific Rim was a project broughtnforth by the guys at Legendary Pictures. They searched out Guillermo del Toronto work on this project, and Guillermo del Toro made it his own. He took thenscript, re-worked it to his liking and placed his sci-fi loving stamp on thenproject. I’m so glad that it was Del Toro who ended up directing, this movienmight have turned out to be a lesser film had he not been involved.

nComparisons to other films are inevitable, for example, manynof you will immediately associate it with Transformers, but honestly, thisnmovie blows all Transformers movies out of the water. The effects work alonensurpasses anything that Michael Bay might have conjured up with his 200 millionndollar films like Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). I give creditnto Del Toro for making a far better movie with less money. For example, a greatnthing about Pacific Rim is that the giant robots look way more realistic, theyndon’t look like CGI creations, they look truly gigantic, truly massive inndimensions. And of course, I couldn’t help thinking of Godzilla films whennwatching this, because in all honesty, what is Pacific Rim if not Guillermo delnToro making his own Godzilla film? It’s true, I mean, to me, this is Guillermonsaying okay, I’m not making a Godzilla film, but I am? I mean, the premise is thensame you’d find in a Godzilla movie. Let’s see, giant monsters coming out of thendepths of the oceans? Check! Humans creating robots to fight these giantnmonsters? Check! Human drama in the midst of it all? Check! If I had to comparenthis one to any of the Godzilla films, it would have to be to Godzilla AgainstMechagodzilla (2002) and Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) which by the way are twonof my favorite Godzilla films ever. Onnthese two films the humans create a mechanical version of Godzilla to fightnagainst the real Godzilla. The whole thing with humans driving Mechagodzilla isnsimilar in nature to what we see in Pacific Rim. Plus, that whole element ofnmonsters destroying buildings that is such a trademark in Godzilla films isnvery evident here. So what I’m saying is that any lover of Godzilla films ornKaiju films in general should be extremely happy with this film. For allnintents and purposes, Pacific Rim is the biggest, most expensive and overallnbest ‘Kaiju’ movie ever made, and you can quote me on that one!

nGuillermo del Toro is such a massive genre fan, that when hendoes a film, well, you can see he loves many of the things us geek boys love,nand he gives us exactly what we want. For example, there’s this scene thatnseems to have come straight out of a Voltron cartoon! Anybody here remembernthat 80’s cartoon? Most of the episodes ended with a giant robot fightingnmonsters in space? He always cut the monsters in half with his ‘blazing sword’?nWell, you’ll see something on this movie that will bring all those Voltronnmemories rushing right back into your brain! It also brought memories ofnMazinger Z, but I’m probably talking gibberish to most of you out there now. Also,nIn terms of monster mayhem and destruction, this one delivers. So this moviengets an “A” on the massive destruction of public property department, but whatnof the human drama? This is something that is always taken in considerationnwhen watching a Godzilla movie. We all love the monsters and the destruction,nbut what of the human side of the story? Sometimes in a Godzilla film the humannside of the story will blow chunks and sometimes it’s quite good, the bestnGodzilla movies are those that deliver on both grounds. Well, I’m happy to say that Pacific Rim delivers onnboth grounds as far as I’m concerned. The whole thing with the Jaeger pilotsnconnecting their brains in order to drive these robots was such a great idea!nThey have to share their minds and memories in order to be able to join theirnbrains to drive these gigantic robots! So there’s this whole psychological sidento the film because these pilots don’t just drive these things, they have tonget inside each other’s heads! Now that’s a pretty cool concept because notnonly do they have to drive these robots and fight these monsters, they alsongotta do battle with their own demons.

nIt seems I can’t stop gushing over this movie, but what can Insay, I truly loved it. It’s the kind of summer film that you immediately feelnthe urge to see again. Word of advice though, do not see it 3-D. The 3-D was anpost conversion which means that it wasn’t originally filmed with 3-D cameras;nthe studio converted it into a 3-D film after they made the movie, so thenresulting film won’t truly be 3-D. Since most of the film takes place duringnthe night and in the middle of a storm, I’ve read some reviewers state that then3-D actually hinders your full enjoyment of the film because as some of younmight now, 3D glasses actually makes the images darker. So my advice is watch PacificnRim in 2-D, the film does not look any less spectacular in regular 2-D, innfact, it might actually look better. Guillermo del Toro was against the 3-Dnconversion thing from the get go, but you know how studios are when annopportunity to make extra cash comes along. Can’t blame them, they need to makentheir money back and I hope they do because I wouldn’t mind seeing another onenof these. I was happy to see Guillermo del Toro making such a huge summernblockbuster, really proud to see this director come full circle, he has trulynbloomed into a class A director and I applaud him for that. Now go see PacificnRim, if movies where a drug, then Pacific Rim is crack for the eyes! Purenentertainment, you won’t be disappointed! My only question is: how is directornGareth Edwards, the director currently filming the second American Godzillanfilm, going to top what Guillermo Del Toro has done here?

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nRating: 5 out of 5