Pacific Rim

Please excuse if this feels like a gush fest at points I just can't control my excitement over this film.

Minor spoilers

This was a film I originally wasn't going to see I mean I like monster movies, and giant exo skeletons, and all that, but the trailer didn't pull me in, and it wasn't on my to watch list like Man of Steel, but due to personal reasons I went and saw it (nothing tragic or sad or anything just something I wanted to avoid).

Plot

A portal from another dimension opens on the Pacific Rim, and massive monsters called Kaijus attack cities on the coast such as San Francisco, and after thousands of deaths the people of Earth take them down, and build massive exo skeletons known as Jaegers to take down Kaijus, but the rate of attacks increase. Raleigh Beckett and his brother are pilots of the Jaeger Jypsy dancer, but his brother dies in a fight with a Kaiju.

Review

This is was about the most fun I've ever had watching a film I was enjoying every second of it I mean its just one of those films that makes you smile when giant mechs are put together to fight monsters from the deep. This film is also a monster film done right with big scale action, but quite a lot of heart in it, and a interesting plot going through. This is the summer blockbuster you are going to want to see it delivers everything you could want, but seriously this film makes you laugh quite a lot in interesting ways (Cruise ship being used as a bat by a giant mech anyone?) but seriously this film isn't perfect as certain plots feel taken out of other films, but this is as close to perfect for a film like this as you could want I never expected it to be perfect, but just seeing Gypsy Dancer (the main Jaeger in the film) charge at a kaiju across a harbour is worth just going to see the film for anyway.

Acting

The main character in this book Raleigh Beckett is played by Charlie Hunnman, and he does a good job in this not spectacular, but he does well especially in the more emotionally intense scenes like the first one, as the final bit before the intro is particularly well done, and also the cockiness of him at points works well. One of the interesting points about him is how due to the way the Jaegers work there need to be two pilots that are connected telepathically (more on this later) but Raelighs brother is killed while he is connected so he retains all of his brothers memories and feelings. This was really interesting point and Hunnman did it brilliantly handling those moments really well, but still the final bit of the intro is the most poignant.

Idris Elba plays Marshall Stacker Pentercost, and he probably puts in the best performance of the film for the main characters, he’s an incredibly deep character appearing to be a straight up military man, but he develops to something more later in the film, and his on-going character arc is interesting.

Rinko Kikuchi plays Mako Mori, and she does a great job even though she’s not the best performance in the film she does well although the best scene with Mako is her younger child self, but Kikuchi does a good job at playing this heavily emotionally conflicted character.

Charlie Day plays one of the two science nerds in this film, and although I prefer the other, and I find the character day plays a little annoying at points (Day plays Dr Newton Geiszler) he does a good job of portraying this annoying character, but it’s nothing spectacular, but he’s pretty funny.

The other nerd is just hilarious Burn Gorman plays British super nerd Dr Herman Gotilleb, and he’s about my favourite character in the film just for the sheer amount of humour he brings to the film, and the ridiculous tweed suit, and walking stick, and British sarcasm is pretty funny, and Gorman does a fantastic job.

Ron Perlman plays Chinese Gangster Hanibal chau, and while has a short appearance (he has a pretty funny ending to his story), but Perlman does a great job as the gangster, and well his characters pretty interesting considering what you find out about him.

All of the acting was good I didn’t like all of the characters, but the acting for them was all good, even though characters like the Chuck Hansen seem quite arrogant the acting behind is good, and in the end you begin to like all of the characters no matter what they do.

Story

What makes this film is interesting is how it totally throws you into the film with a sudden attack on San Francisco by a Kaiju, and the story develops from there, into the development of giant exo skeletons, Jaegers. The plot then progresses to the fight with Raeligh and his brother where his brother dies, and that's the end of the intro.

The plot then gets into the return of Raeligh who is helping build the atlantic wall that will stop Kaiju's attacking cities, and he gets back into driving Jaegers.

The idea behind the Jaegers is simple fight monsters with monsters of our own, simple right? The idea is awesome, but the execution of it is better how the Jaeger program begins to shut down due to other plans by the government. The Jaegers is an interesting concept, but what makes them awesome is there weapons and high tech equipment which while in one of the fights felt a little forced to the end in terms of one of the weapon. The idea of a two man piloted Jaeger is interesting, but the fact that the two people connect their thoughts and memories together in a process called "drifting". Del Toro uses Drifting to its full with the death of Raeligh's brother, and how he was linked with him in death which like I said was interesting, but the scene where Raeligh and Mako is the best use with an incredibly sad, and tense scene that was just so well done that you were just really feeling for Mako.

The plot on the whole is really interesting especially the early moments and it moves at a good enough pace throughout it even though it slows up a bit in the middle, but that's to develop backstory, and do a lot of character development.

The plot does have a number of interesting twists in it throughout some of them are good, and some are a bit overused, but the twists add a lot to the story. When I say some are overused what I mean is that one of the plots about the people behind the Kaiju feels a bit like Independence day, about what the people behind it want, but the other plots with them are even better.

Overall the plot in this is good even if parts feel a little overused there is plenty good about this, and the continuing twists in the film increase the tension, and make it more interesting. Now for the best part

ACTION/SPECIAL EFFECTS

This was the best part of the film I will try not to go in to a total gush fest over how much I loved this, but seriously I cannot stress how amazing this film looked the battle sequences where about the most epic thing I've ever seen in a film, and Del Toro went all out with this. I will try to narrow down the action scenes that were the best, but this just was so beautiful.

The start of the film was set out off the coast of Alaska in a fight at sea (although all of the fights were at sea) this looked amazing the scene where the Kaiju came back from the bottom of the ocean was awesome, and the first bit where the Jaeger appeared was spectacular and the sea waves splashing around made it all the more spectacular.

The best fight was the one in Hong Kong that lasted a good part of the film, even though I have a minor issue with this which is Del Toro seems fairly biased towards Gypsy Dancer, and the Australian Jaeger Striker because the the other two are defeated really easy even though the both have a fearsome repuation its a minor point, and maybe the Gypsy Dancer was better used to the fight, and the drift bond in Gypsy Dancer might have been stronger, but one just looked so awesome I doubt it could have been defeated that easily, also the reputation about them made them sound like more.

There is also a pretty funny moment with the crew of Striker in this scene as well.

The fight with Gypsy dancer and the two (yes two Kaiju's in this bit) was truly spectacular the bit where Gypsy Dancer appears with floodlights from behind is just truly awesome, and the fight across the harbour with the two charging at each other is just a smile inducing moment, also Gypsy Dancer flying through the air was just fantastic.

Spoilers

Now what film can you have a Jaeger use a Cruise ship as a weapon against a Kaiju where? Really? The moment is just so great, and the Kaiju fight is intense as well considering it spits acid, and it burns away a building. I could go on forever, but I'll stop there before I start spoiling anything more.

The final fight is at the bottom of the ocean, and its shorter than I expected, but even more spectacular as Spoiler there are three Kaijus and one of them is the biggest yet, and its also a pretty emotional scene, and the final conclusion to the fight feels pretty well done.

The Kaijus's look awesome each one looks different, and varied and the fact that each has its own individual weapons (one has an EMP), and a lot of effort has been put into the detail of the Kaiju's, and each punch they throw (and the Jagegers) feels like it has an impact, the Kaijus just look like proper monsters, but the best looking I've ever seen.

Verdict

This film is the most enjoyable film I've ever seen its not the best, but its the most enjoyable film I've ever seen with some good acting, and story, and out of this world special effects that will blow you away, and this is officially a monster movie done right. I recommend this film to everyone because if you don't smile at some of the moments in this film I don't know what will make you smile its just so amazing, and spectacular. Also thanks for reading my long review about how much I enjoyed this film its not perfect, but I enjoyed it more than every other film I've seen this year.

4 stars