Pacific Rim is a science-fiction epic action film directed by Guillermo del Toro, the director who brought you the well known Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and many more films. Pacific Rim tells a story in the near future where aliens arrive on Earth, but not from space, instead these aliens rise from the sea and have been waiting there for millions of years to strike.
Pacific Rim was well anticipated with trailers showing epic battles, cool robots and even an appearance from a voice sounding a little like GLaDOS from the Portal series. Some may see similarities to Transformers in the trailers with the explosive action and giant mech suits, but the film is not like that at all, it has so much more to it.
Instead, the movie begins with the alien attacks already under way. The movie builds up the suspense to a big showdown between the aliens called the Kaijus, and the giant mech suits called Jaegers. Jaegers were made in an effort to defeat the Kaijus that were destroying cities across the planet. The Jaegers can only be manned by two pilots that are compatible in order to perform what’s called a neural handshake, allowing them to both control the one mech suit.
The story follows two unlikely heroes, a washed-up former pilot and an untested pilot who are teamed together to drive an old Jaeger in a last attempt to destroy the Kaijus once and for all. The chemistry between many characters, the two main characters in particular, are really strong which makes the last fight that much more intense. Even supporting characters play strong parts in the movie bringing both comic relief as well as key points in the story.
One thing I do have to criticise about the Jaegers is that they are designed as humanoid machines, yet almost always, the fight against the Kaijus are on land. Walking around in water is not agile or fast and it can be seen in the film, why would they design the Jaegers around humans when there are many other predators out their that are designed to be killing machines. Its just a little thing but I couldn’t help but notice it.
In the end, this movie had some awesome moments, a great soundtrack, and a strong cast. You will not be disappointed with this Summer blockbuster.
Double Review across the sky! I actually would quite like to see this as well as Monsters University, I guess it’ll depend on my mood at the time. 😛