Review of Pacific Rim (2013) by Dylan L — 10 Aug 2014

I had so much fun watching Pacific Rim. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's the kind of big summer blockbuster entertainment I enjoy - with giant set pieces, big monsters, and fearless heroes.

Pacific Rim introduces us to Raleigh Becket, a pilot who helps destroy the giant Kaiju (the giant monsters who are terrorizing Earth) for a living. After a mission resulting in the loss of his brother, he takes a long break off the job, only to be called back in five years later to eventually work with a new pilot, Mako Mori.

Together, Raleigh and Mako team up with others to defeat the giant Kaiju before they wreck havoc on the cities. Charlie Hunnam does a fine job as the lead, although his character doesn't really offer anything extraordinary to the movie (generic hero who's lost someone and is fighting back); thankfully, however, Rinko Kikuchi is anything but mediocre, and really spices the story up with her complex character development.

The supporting cast is also thankfully very strong, thanks to some great work from Idris Elba and Charlie Day. At the end of the day, though, the characters and the story are pretty much a backdrop to service the giant 'Robots vs Monsters' battles, and they don't disappoint.

The machines and monsters look gorgeous, and the battles are all around awesome spectacles. I refuse to believe that our technology could reach this point in ten years, but regardless - it's spectacular.

The only gripe I have is that the settings they took place in were never very colorful, except for the one battle in the city - I realize that they're trying to avoid populated areas, but I'd like to see some better-lighted and more interesting environments in del Toro's sequel.

And speaking of Guillermo del Toro, it's immediately obvious from this work that he is a beautiful visionary. The work he's done here has got NOTHING on Pan's Labyrinth, but it's still technically brilliant and beautiful to look at.

There are endless possibilities for the 2017 sequel, and you can bet I'll be seeing the next one.