I've been a fan of Japanese giant monster movies for a while now, ever since I was a pre-teen watching old 70's Godzilla movies thanks to James Rolfe's Godzillathon. There was just something about these films: their over-the-top demeanor, their almost-worthless plot, and the fun action sequences where the monsters duke it out with their claws and laser beams. In spite of this, as I grew older, I lost touch with the series and moved on to other things. However, my interest was once again piqued when, in 2012, trailers and viral footage promoting Guillermo del Toro's newest film began to appear. This new film, Pacific Rim, promised giant robots and giant monsters fighting with one another.
I was torn. On one hand, giant robots fighting giant monsters is one of the most fucking awesome ideas for a movie ever. The Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla films are among some of the best of the franchise, as they find Godzilla going up a creature equal in strength created by humans (or aliens, in the case of the 70's films) and he nearly gets his ass handed to him, losing a fuckton of blood in the original Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and almost fucking dying in the Heisei film. On the other hand, Hollywood's track record with Kaiju movies hasn't been the best: 1998's Godzilla was considered by many traditional Godzilla fans to be a mockery of the source material, and Cloverfield, while liked by critics, could have been a better film without its shaky camera. Thus, I looked at this film hesitantly.
However, as the months went by and new trailers and behind-the-scenes footage came out, I threw my caution to the wind and remembered that this was Guillermo del Fucking Toro we were talking about here. The man is great with pouring every ounce of passion he has into his movies, and the behind-the-scenes footage certainly showed it, with him going into great detail with how he wanted the Kaiju to appear and how he wanted piloting the mechs to seem as realistic as possible. The trailers were also badass, showing tasty little snippets of action scenes and key one-liners and monologues ("We are CANCELLING THE APOCALYPSE!"). Needless to say, I was hyped and could not wait for opening day. When, at last, it finally came, I went with some of my friends to go see it, hoping we would not be let down.
The film's premise, as the trailers have constantly spouted off, is that in alternate-dimension (or is it?!) 2013, a giant portal opened in the Pacific Ocean. Soon, giant monsters came out of this portal and began to attack several major cities on the Pacific such as San Francisco, Manila, Cabo, and so forth. As the attacks became more frequent, the nations of the world realized they wouldn't be going away any time soon and began to build these Jaegers, giant mechs requiring two people to pilot them via neural link, to defend the world against Kaiju attacks. This initially went well, but by 2020, the monsters had begun to adapt to the Jaegers and began atacking more frequently. The bulk of the action in the film takes place in 2025. Humanity is now at its breaking point, with only 4 Jaegers remaining, the Kaiju attacking weekly, and the governments of the world giving up on the Jaegers in favor of building a giant fucking wall.
Spoiler alert: It doesn't go well.
Stacker Pentecoast (Idris Elba), commander of the Jaeger forces, refuses to give up, though, and, after being relocated to Hong Kong, seeks out former Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), who had quit the program following the death of his brother to the Kaiju whilst the two were connected during a mission, and convinces him to rejoin the program to pilot American Jaeger Gipsy Danger. Pentecoast then unveils his plan to take out the Kaiju: the Jaegers will approach the breach, and with a nuke illegally acquired from the Russians strapped to his chest, Australian Jaeger Striker Eureka will enter the portal and blow itself up. Back in Hong Kong, Becket forms a bond with test pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), who had also lost relatives to the Kaiju, and despite protests from Pentecoast, they are paired together to fight in Gipsy Danger. Meanwhile, there's this whole side plot with a scientist, Dr. Newton Geizler (Charlie Day), attempting to understand the Kaiju further via neural link with salvaged Kaiju brains, resulting in him having to buy Kaiju brains from a notorious black market dealer, Hannibal Chau (Ron Pearlman), which is quite hilarious.
The plot is certainly entertaining, though flawed. There are several times throughout the movie where I noticed both humans and Kaiju alike pulling things out of their ass to gain the upper hand over one another (ANALOG!). If anything, though, this sort of thing moreso pays homage to old Kaiju movies, as Godzilla was given several plot-convenient abilities throughout the series (most notably his flying ability from Godzilla vs. Hedorah) and is charming in its own way. Though character development was minimal, I still enjoyed and felt for all of the characters in this movie and it legitimately seemed like they belonged in this sort of world. In spite of this, though, there are some flaws that cannot be overlooked. Charlie Hunnam, despite being British, plays an American character, and this normally would be perfectly fine - if he could keep a consistent American accent, which he doesn't. In fact, you can hear the warble going on in his voice as he tries to adapt to an American accent. Furthermore, a lot of the dialogue is cheesy, which, for the most part, I'm willing to let slide due to it being a Kaiju film, but other things can't be ignored (ANALOG!!!).
In spite of its flaws, there are a lot of things that this film does right. ILM have hit their masterstroke with this film, and that's not a light compliment, considering this was the company that did the visual effects for the Star Wars franchise, The Avengers, and Jurassic Park, among other films. The robots look amazing, not like the PARTSPARTSPARTS Bayformers designs. You've got the towering Russian Jaeger Cherno Alpha, the three-armed Chinese Jaeger Crimson Typhoon, the godtier Australian Jaeger Striker Eureka, and the remarkably humanoid American Jaeger Gipsy Danger, all of which have a distinctly realistic feel to their design. They walk like giant robots, they fight like giant robots, and they loom like giant robots. The Kaiju, on the other hand, are equally as threatening. They're all ugly summbitches and at points even look like guys in giant rubber suits. Their toxic goop looks equally as harmful as well. My one complaint, though, is that they all have the same color: black skin with blue muscle and blood. Let's not forget the action scenes, oh god, the action scenes... Fucking fantastic. Everything from the robots' special attacks down to the kaiju getting the shit beat out of them looks amazing. If anything, they should have had more fighting in the movie. Oh well, we can always hope for the directors' cut.
Gipsy Danger gets ready to kick some Kaiju ass while the crew of Striker Eureka look on.
The soundtrack is equally as fantastic, accentuating the intense situations in the movie rather well. When the wild west gunslinger music played as Gipsy Danger dragged a cargo boat towards the Kaiju, I damn near lost it at how perfect it was. Still, though, it was nothing too memorable, nothing that made me want to go on Youtube after the fact and blare that shit. While on the topic of sound, the audio is great in this film. Even in a regular theater, I still felt as if I was in the middle of the action as crumbling buildings came down all around me. I can only imagine how this movie might look and sound in IMAX 3D.
Now many people on the internet claim that this film rips off anime like EVA or Gundam. To be perfectly honest, the only real mecha anime I've seen is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, so I'm not the most qualified to really refute or support this statement. However, I won't deny that this certainly feels like an anime. You've got badass action scenes, an amazing soundtrack, and cheesy dialogue (at one point in the film, Mako says something along the lines of "THIS IS FOR MY FAMILY!" In Japanese, no less.). It has that feeling of something foreign, something unfamiliar to typical Western cinema, and for that, I appreciate it.
This film is not perfect. Oh, hell no, far from it. But is it a great summer blockbuster action film? The best. I can not imagine a more perfect film to go see in a theater with friends, and I heavily recommend seeing it before it leaves theaters. Though, if anything, don't do what I did and see it in a regular theater. Get the full experience. See it in IMAX 3D. With how amazing it was in a regular theater, I can only imagine how amazing it would be seen that way. Hopefully this movie will rake in a great sum of money and prove to directors that, yes, ambitious movies like this are certainly worth the massive budget and lead to a new golden age of giant monster movies.