#moviereview - pacific rim

(HTML stars don't post well on my work computer, I'll fix this asap.)

(4 1/2 stars)

While this wasn't the most anticipated movie of the summer, a huge surge of positive word-of-mouth has increased this film's popularity and anticipation.

I'm a huge Guillermo del Toro fan. I'm a fan of his Hellboy movies, as well as Pan's Labrynth. I'm a big fan of much of the cast (Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Ron Pearlman, Mana Ashida). I'm a sucker for loud action movies. (Let's just say I'm a bigger fan of Transformers than I'd like to admit at times.)

I think I first heard about this movie a year ago, around the the time of Comic Con 2012. Back then, of course, I was high off of excitement for Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness, two of the most anticipated 2013 summer blockbusters. I knew that this movie would be good - I trusted the director and the cast - but I excitement, at the time, wasn't at the level as it was for other films. In March, there was a preview shown at WonderCon, and ever since then, my excitement has been in full gear.

For the past couple of weeks, various critics and celebrities have been able to attend special screening/premieres of the film. Kanye West's tweets about the movie increased my excitement, if that was even possible by that point. I follow a few critics/reviewers on Twitter, and while of course there are a few "negative nelly's" floating around, many people have been praising the film.

[spoilers ahead]

Holy moly, I loved this movie.

Let's just get the flaws out of the way first. I'm sure you're thinking, after that first sentence, could there be any flaws? Like most action films, there are storyline flaws. Lots of jumping around and unanswered questions, but that was probably intentionally done. del Toro stated he cut over an hour of the film. I'm sure the studio insisted he cut some of the film, but he stated that he cut it to keep the film going and to keep the attention of the younger audience.

 

Some critics mentioned the acting as another flaw. The only acting that truly bothered me was that of Rinko Kikuchi's, as much as I hate to say so. She has the same issue as Marion Cotillard (who is one of my favorite actresses, ever) - she focuses so hard on speaking English that it impairs some of her acting. Rinko is a great actress, and acts with great intensity, but you could tell she was focusing hard on pronouncing her English correctly.

Like I said, the acting wasn't bad for anyone, it was just a matter of actually liking these characters. This film has a lot of heart and emotion, so while some of the characters weren't exactly likeable, each shined in their moments of fear and determination.

Of course there were a few standout actors. The first I'll mention is Mana Ashida, who played the younger Mako Mori (the older version was played by Rinko Kikuchi). Back when I was really into Japanese dramas a few years ago, I watched one she was in, entitled "Mama". She made my heart break and cause this salty liquid to pour out of my eyes in this drama, and her acting continued to shine in Pacific Rim. While I was wearing a Chesire Cat grin on my face the entire movie, during the scene where we see Mako's first encounter with the kaiju... well, Mana is an expert crier, and her cries were heartbreaking and devastating. I'm already an emotional person, so seeing that caused me to wear a frown and get misty-eyed.

 

Another standout was Charlie Day, who plays Newt. Hey, I'm not the only one stating him to be a standout in this film! He delivered most of the laughs in this film, while also showing us a different side to his acting. del Toro cast him based on the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" episode "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats". (I like that del Toro is a fan of the show, and I love that he appeared in last season's "The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre" as Pappy McPoyle. Yes, a McPoyle!) There was some typical Charlie Kelly-type screaming and frustration, but he wasn't playing someone with a low IQ. This man is a genius, you could say. He studies these monsters, the kaiju. He lives and breathes the kaiji. (As his associate, Hermann, says, he's a "kaiju groupie".) He plays a vital role in this film, and gets himself into some sticky situations. I know a lot of people will agree with me when I say that I'm excited to see the roles Charlie Day gets after appearing in this film.

 

The graphics were amazing in this film. The film itself was beautiful, in terms of a visual feat. True, there was a lot of rain and darkness in this film, but there was still color and other visual spectacles to gaze upon. The robots, the Jaeger, were very well-created. The only comparison to Transformers that I'll make is that, during a few quick shots during the battle scenes, it was hard to tell the different between the kaiju and the Jaeger. (Not because it was dark, though that didn't help. The kaiju and the Jaeger share similar colors.) Thankfully this doesn't occur throughout all the battle scenes.

 

The kaiju are scary. They sound scary, and they look scary. (They seem to only attack coastal cities, so if something like this ever happened, I'd probably be safe in Nashville!) This isn't really a flaw, but there's never a clear explanation why these monsters attack. We only see why they're getting stronger, where's there's more appearing, and how we can stop these attacks. I now wouldn't classify this as a flaw because del Toro mentioned that, if a sequel were to happen, one of the ideas being thrown around is that, now that Newt's established a mental connection with the kaiju... well, in the words of del Toro, "All kaiju brains are connected. They are like a hive mentality. Draw your own conclusions."

I loved the soundtrack. Yes, it's an action film, so music will be blaring the entire time. Like I mentioned before, this film has heart and emotion. The soundtrack perfectly displays that. Ramin Djawadi, as usual, did an amazing job composing the music to this film. I know I've listened to the main titles several times in the past week (yeah, I caved in and listened to part of the soundtrack). Some of the standout tracks include "Pacific Rim", "Just a Memory", and "Mako".

I'm very interested in what extra scenes will be featured in the Japanese cut. Actually, I'm more interested to find out if they'll be featured on the American home release. I like this movie so much that I'm willing to buy the American and Japanese blu-rays if I have to. (I'll do the same with Iron Man 3, where I'll buy both the American and Chinese versions if I have to. Well, maybe not the American version of Iron Man 3, seeing as I've already pre-ordered the UK steelbook.) I'm sure Guillermo will include the hour of cut footage, but hopefully there will be an extended version. (I'm weird with deleted scenes, I'd rather just watch them within the film as opposed to watching them separately from the film.)

Another thing I loved about this movie was how international it is. The attacks are global. We see more than just glimpses of international attacks. Most of this movie takes place in Hong Kong. Years down the line, when only so many Jaegers still exist, people of multiple nationalities come together to fight. It's not just Americans fighting and winning the war, as we see in so many movies. I love that, instead of a greenscreen, del Toro created the Hong Kong set. I've never been there - I've only seen pictures - but he did an amazing job re-creating Hong Kong City.

The little things didn't deter my overall opinion of this movie. I absolutely loved this movie. In the age where summer blockbusters are now dark and solemn, films like The Avengers and this film are set apart from the rest. Yes, there are moments of darkness and despair, but this movie is fun. To me, this is the new Independence Day. I know people like comparing this to Transformers, Godzilla, Neon Genesis Evangelion, etc, which I can totally see, but this film just screams Independence Day to me.

I would recommend everyone to go see this movie. It's got more heart and soul than any robot or monster movie you've ever seen.

Watch the trailer here: