Pacific Rim (2013)

Rating: • • • ½
Age Recommendation: 10+
Going into the theater tonight, I was skeptical of the positive feedback Pacific Rim (2013) has been receiving.  The previews did little to entice me, and if my friend hadn't chosen it, I might never have seen it.  Despite all of my apprehensions, as I watched it, the film slowly grew on me in it's corny, special-effect-driven way.  You can't take this film too seriously.  You just can't.  Pacific Rim forces the audience to come to terms with the absurdity driving the very core of its premise; if you can't do that, you're in for a loooong ride.

The movie starts with a lengthy introduction that serves as an information overload as a not-too-distant world full of giant aliens ("kaiju") and mecha suits ("jaegers") is thrown in our faces (more so if you watch in 3D, I would imagine).  We are introduced to two characters, brother pilots of the giant suits, whom we expect to be our heroes. Then a battle against a kaiju goes wrong, the title appears, and we skip forward five years.  We hardly get a glimpse of the characters' faces or a feel for their personalities before someone is killed off.

Thankfully, after we return to the story, this killing of main characters does not become a trend.  It does, however, haunt our main character, a Heath Ledger look-alike (Charlie Hunnam) named Raleigh Becket, when he is forced out of a construction job and back into a suit by his former commander, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba).  All of the remaining suits--which would be four, if I remember correctly--have been collected in Hong Kong in the most ridiculously diverse team imaginable. The mission is some mumbo-jumbo about throwing a bomb into the sea rift/inter-dimensional alien portal the weird monsters are coming from before the department is shut down or the end of the world, whichever comes first

In addition to our American hero and British commander, we are introduced to the whole ragtag gang: a Japanese woman named Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), an Australian father (Max Martini) and his bully son (Robert Kazinski), and the Chinese trio and Russian duo whose suits get more face time than they do.  The Aussies' bulldog is given more attention than the Chinese and Russian pilots.  The time spent in this bunker/warehouse/base/whatever is tedious and repetitive.  Mako is instantly impressed with Raleigh and his abs, but Stacker won't let her co-pilot due to some mysterious event in the past and something about vengeance.  They go back and forth and back and forth, keeping the mystery until Stacker...well he actually doesn't cave.  He just arbitrarily changes his mind and lets her co-pilot.  The generic banter, in-fighting, and vague allusions to Mako's past really drag, making me long for more special effect battles.

The only entertainment during this time--besides Mako creeping on Raleigh--comes from the introduction of two bumbling and polar opposite scientists, Newt (Charlie Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), charged with the task of studying the kaijin.  You might think a once-giant military organization would have a bigger research department, but no.  Once these two buffoons are introduced, I slowly began to find myself laughing out loud.  It's around this point in the movie that I was finally able to suspend disbelief and enjoy the madness in front of my eyes.

Newt, especially, steals the show as he goes in search of live kaiju brains to link with his own.  This quest leads him to a quirky black market man named Hannibal Chau (Ron Perlman) whose gold shoes are something to be remembered.  (Which reminds me... there's a scene in the credits!)  You don't see too much of this guy, but he's quite memorable.  The two play off each other better than Newt and Dr. Gottlieb.

Anyway, more monsters appear and once Mako overcomes her haunting memory, she teams up with Raleigh.  There are heroic sacrifices.  There are big battles.  There are hidden surprises.  Many of the jaegers' features are still being revealed in the final battle.  When the heroes' suit suddenly had a sword, I had to laugh at the convenience and silliness of it; by the time the kaiju they had been battling for several minutes suddenly remembered it had wings, I had given up any hope of explanations.

I would like to take this time to rant on the hideousness of CG monsters in the past several years.  Starting with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005), and now The Avengers (2012) and Pacific Rim, there's this concept of giant aliens that look like hairless ice age animals mixed with bony fish and manatees, with fleshy mandibles..... or..... something like that.  They all have giant upper jaws and tiny eyes  and are made of nasty grey skin and bony or metallic armor, sometimes making it unclear if they are, in fact, living creatures.  I know they're meant to be visually unpleasant, but when I have difficulty believing in these monsters' existence or difficulty even seeing them (Really? Do they all have to be hairless and dark grey?), it really detracts from a story.

Rant over, this film is relatively tame, if you don't count violence to aliens who appear to be filled with blue glow-stick fluid.  As for sexuality, there's not even as much as a kiss, and a mild fist-fight is the worst physical harm you really get to see.  The dialogue can be dull and repetitive or just plain confusing at first, but once you get into it, the whole thing is quite captivating.  As I said, it is Newt who steals the show, making the whole thing worthwhile... Newt and Hannibal's shoes.

Summary: Pacific Rim takes quite a while to get sucked into, but once engaged, it is quite humorous.  Even the battles become laughable, in a good way.  Small children may not like the violence or understand what's going on, and others may find it too mild or cheesy, but most audiences will find it an enjoyable, spectacle- and adrenaline-filled ride worthy of the big screen.


The Good: nerdy scientists, epic music, unexpected humor
The Bad: unbelievably ugly monsters, repetitive dialogue, plot stalls near the beginning, no romantic payoff
The Even Worse: nothing