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| Warner Bros. |
In today’s cinema landscape, Pacific Rim is nothing short of an endangered species, an original
big-budget action film based on no existing properties. There is no prequel or sequel, no comic book
or video game or young adult novel to adapt from; just the imaginations of
director Guillermo Del Toro, of Hellboy and
Pan’s Labyrinth fame, and
screenwriter Travis Beacham. Drawing
inspiration from giant monster movies and Japanese anime, the film introduces
us to an Earth under assault by otherworldly beasts from the deep known as kaiju.
However, as the movie’s tagline says, “To fight monsters, we created
monsters”, and so the Jaeger program was born, with nations constructing
colossal human-piloted robots to combat the invading forces. Such is the basic “giant monsters vs. giant
robots” conceit as the marketing as delivered, and yet there is certainly more
to the film than meets the eye. With
gorgeous visuals, thrilling set pieces, and a whole lot of heart, Pacific Rim smashes the year’s other
blockbusters to become the most entertaining film of the summer.
Contrary to the common practice of origin stories, we enter Pacific Rim not at the beginning of the
Kaiju War but at the end, with the Jaeger Project all but defunct and humankind
fleeing from the growing invasion. Here
we find Raleigh Beckett, the former pilot of the U.S. Jaeger Gipsy Danger,
played by Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie
Hunnam. Demoralized by the loss of his co-pilot
and brother at the hands of the Kaiju, Raleigh finds himself rejoining the
program for one final assault lead by commander of the Pan Pacific Defense
Corps, the brusque yet determined Stacker Pentecost, played by The Wire’s Idris Elba. Together with the remaining Jaeger pilots, including
Stacker’s protégé Mako Mori, played by Rinko Kikuchi, the group launches a last
ditch effort in hopes of finally ending the Kaiju threat. On the whole, the principal cast does a solid
job with the material, pushing past the one-note blandness of other action
protagonists and substituting it with the kind of ham suited for a popcorn film
of such epic scale. The chemistry between
the leads is strong, especially the relationship between Stacker Pentecost and
Mako Mori; their powerful student-teacher connection dramatically unfolds throughout
the narrative, giving the film some of its most heartwarming and heartbreaking
moments.
The two other standout performances come from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s
Charlie Day as the hyperactive Kaiju enthusiast Dr. Newton Geiszler and Del
Toro regular Ron Perlman as the notorious black market dealer Hannibal Chau. They inject great amount of levity into the
end of the world, delivering some laugh-out-loud moments, especially when they’re
together. Unfortunately, one of the
film’s major lapses is the lack of characterization in those outside of the
leading players, specifically the other Jaeger pilots. While the Australian team is given a fair
amount of screen time and development, the Chinese and Russian teams are given
little to no time in the film before they’re dispatched; we get to see the
impressive abilities of their Jaegers but we never get to know the people
inside, which is somewhat disappointing.
On the whole, however, the diverse cast of characters works, giving us
people and pilots worth rooting for.
That being said, the primary drawing point for Pacific Rim is undoubtedly the monsters
and robots, and in that aspect the film hits a fantastic home run. The designs of the Jaegers are all unique,
each with their own function and weaponry, from Russia’s hulking Cherno Alpha
to Australia’s quick-footed Striker Eureka to China’s acrobatic Crimson Typhoon
to the movie’s poster-bot, the retro Gipsy Danger. Each Jaeger is given its time to shine, some
longer than others, but they never fail to impress. Despite the fantastical style of the film,
there’s a sense of weight and reality to the mechs, the way that they move and
battle; with their movements slow and mechanical, every earth-shattering punch
counts. One of the biggest highlights,
however, is the concept of the Drift, the method through which pilots connect
minds and control the hemispheres of their Jaegers. The sharing of thoughts and
memories cements the bonds not only between the pilots but the mechs
themselves, making them not just machines extension of their bodies; while the
flashes of the Drift are brief, they help personify the relationships between
pilots, especially veteran Raleigh and rookie Mako. In the other corner, the Kaiju serve as more
than worthy opponents, Godzilla-esque
nightmare creatures with thuggish names like Knifehead, Leatherback, and
Slattern and distinctively disastrous abilities of their own. While the Jaeger designs are diverse, the
kaiju are all somewhat similar looking, especially towards the end of the film,
but even that is explained later on in the film.
When you pit these two forces of nature against one another,
you get some of the most awe-inspiring action set pieces of not only this
summer but past ones as well, delivering on an ambitious scale that other
movies simply can’t compete with. Not
only are these battles massively entertaining but they’re easy to follow as well,
unlike the fights in another notable robot franchise. The camera is a boon to the action instead of
a burden, and each sequence has its own natural sense of progression. Most importantly, with both Jaegers and Kaiju
busting out new tricks and traits throughout the film, the battles never feel
repetitive but instead unique, fresh, and exciting. The standout segment here, and arguably the
best part of the film, is the second act Hong Kong fight, with all four Jaegers
facing off against a duo of deadly Kaiju.
Not only is the battle filled with thrilling twists and turns, but the
visuals of downtown Hong Kong, with shining mirror buildings and streaks of red
and blue and yellow neon, are nothing short of breathtaking.
On that note, unlike Man
of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness,
in which the setting arguably serves only as a backdrop to the punching matches
and spaceship battles, the world of Pacific
Rim is just as much a character as Raleigh Beckett or Gipsy Danger. Instead of skimming over the average
population and focusing solely upon the Jaegers and their pilots, we get to see
what effect the arrival of enormous beasts would have on everything from politics
to culture to even religion. Makeshift
cities spring up in the ruins of kaiju skeletons, their organs selling as black
market medicines; anti-Kaiju measures have been taken up in coastal cities
across the globe, from underground shelters to the disastrous failure that is
The Wall. This is a world that feels
lived in, like it has existed far longer than what we’ve seen on screen, a
remarkable feat for any film but especially for a stand-alone action feature. Add in a pumping rock score by Tom Morello
and Ramin Djawadi, composer for Game of
Thrones, and you have an apocalyptic version of Earth that beats with life,
teeming with both disaster and triumph.
Pacific Rim delivers
on its baseline promise of “giant monsters vs. giant robots” in grand fashion,
giving us some of the best action set pieces of the summer. The visuals are colorful and stunning, the
story is fluid and well-paced, and although some of the minor characters are woefully
two-dimensional, the strong dynamics between the major players makes up for
those missteps. More importantly,
perhaps most importantly, Pacific Rim has
something that the year’s other tent-poles have sorely lacked: a heart and a
soul. Underneath the sheen of gruesome
monsters and futuristic robots is a story about connections, about the relationships
between brothers, between father and son, between student and teacher. It is about how, when our world is falling
apart and the specter of death is at our door, it is these things that will
save us… along with giant robots. It
presents these views without cynicism, without snark, but with a heaping
helping of love, from the cast, the writer, and the boisterous director Del
Toro. It’s a film that succeeds in
feeling not like a heartless studio cash grab but a true passion project in
every sense of the word. In our time of
tortured heroes and darkening morals, Pacific
Rim is a breath of fresh air, a wild, exhilarating, and joyful ride that
perfectly encapsulates the summer blockbuster.
Grade: A-
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