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Posted by on Jul 15, 2013 in Movies, Pat Wong | 0 comments

Pacific Rim Movie Review

pacific-rim_1

 

Score: 5/10 (Once Was Enough)

Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim is the realization of a boyhood fantasy: giant monsters vs giant robots. In the film, they are called Kaiju, Japanese word translating to giant monster, and Jaeger, German word for hunter. During my childhood, I loved Godzilla and King Kong, which were the two most famous Kaiju. The 12 year old version of me would have been exhilarated to see this movie. However, I heard the cheesy, one liners during the trailers and was going to pass on this movie. Nevertheless, I saw the reviews have been good so I decided to watch it in IMAX 3D. Director Guillermo del Toro did a good job reimagining Kaiju to introduce them to a new generation. Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) narrates the history of the war against the Kaiju at the start of the movie. A rift opened at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that created a portal between our world and the world of the Kaiju. The first Kaiju appeared and attacked San Francisco. It took the military 6 days to destroy the creature with jets and tanks. During that time, it rampaged through 35 miles and killed over 10,000 people. After that attack, the world thought it was just a one off event. However, another attack occurred at Manila 6 months later. After a few more attacks, the world knew that it would never end. In response, the world banded together and created the Jaegers. In the development, they realized that the mental strain of piloting a Jaeger was too much for one individual. As such, they invented a way to link two minds to share the burden and pilot the giant robots. The process is called drifting and they share one mind and all their memories when they fight.

For years, the Jaegers were very successful against the Kaiju and defeated them easily. The pilots of the Jaegers, also referred to as Rangers, became rock stars. The threat of Kaiju became a little more than comedic relief for the general public. Raleigh and his brother, Yancy Becket (Diego Klattenhoff), piloted a Mark-3 Jaeger called the Gipsy Danger and protected the Alaskan coast line. They were naturally compatible for drifting as they were brothers. During one of their missions, they were ordered by their superior officer, Stacker Pentecost, to avoid trying to save a boat in the path of a Kaiju as they cannot risk the destruction of a city of ten million people for a boat of ten people. While they initially think they killed the Kaiju and saved the boat, the Kaiju resurfaces and attacks the Jaeger. In the, process, Yancy is killed. As such, Raleigh has to endure the strain of piloting the Jaeger alone. He is able to defeat the Kaiju and pilot the damaged Jaeger to the Alaskan coast. That battle was the start of the turning of the tide. The Kaiju evolved and the one that killed Yancy was classified as a Category 3 as opposed to the Category 1s and 2s that were easily defeated by the Jaegers. As such, the Kaiju start destroying the Jaegers at a faster rate than they can be built. As the number of Jaegers are about to run out, the leaders of the world decide to abandon the Jaeger program as it is no longer working and informs Stacker that they will only fund the Jaeger program for another eight months. Instead, they hope to build a coastal wall to keep the Kaiju out. Stacker will command the remaining four Jaegers at Shatterdome in Hong Kong until the completion of the wall. Due to the emotional distress from losing his brother while they were linked, Raleigh decides he will never pilot a Jaeger again and works as a construction worker on the wall.

However, the wall is ineffective. While Raleigh works on the wall, he sees a news report of a Category 4 Kaiju breaking through the wall in Sydney in less than an hour. The first and only Mark 5 Jaeger, Striker Euerka, eventually saved Sydney. The Jaeger is piloted by Chuck Hansen (Robert Kazinsky) and his father Herc Hansen (Max Martini). Chuck is very arrogant and egotistical. He blames the inferior skills of the older pilots as the reason the Jaegers were defeated and the program abandoned. Regardless, Stacker knows that the wall will never work and is trying to organize a final counterattack at the portal to close it. However, he has a refurbished Gypsy Danger that he wants Raleigh to pilot it. While Raleigh initially resists, Stacker convinces him that it is better to die in a Jaeger than at the wall. When the movie shifts to Shatterdome, Stacker and Raleigh are greeted by Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). She quickly develops a relationship with Raleigh and confesses her dream to become a Jaeger pilot. When he asks about her results in the simulations, she notes that she is a perfect 51/51 in kills. However, Stacker is reluctant to allow her to be a pilot for unknown reasons that are revealed during the movie. Nevertheless, she helps in the process to identify a co-pilot for him. While they have cadets spar with Raleigh to try to find a compatible co-pilot, Mako notices that he is lack luster in fighting and can actually defeat the cadets much easier and quicker than he is showing. In reality, Raleigh is purposely baiting Mako into sparring with him. Afterwards, they both know that they are perfectly drift compatible. Of course, they also have chemistry outside of the drift. However, Stacker is still unwilling to allow Mako to co-pilot. As Raleigh forces the issue, it puts him at odds with Stacker. Eventually, Stacker and Mako do pilot the Gypsy Danger together.

We also learn that the other two remaining Jaegers are a Chinese Jaeger called Crimson Typhoon and a Russian Jaeger called Cherno Alpha. The Typhoon is a Mark 4 Jaeger with three arms piloted by the Wei triplets. The Cherno is the last Mark 1 Jaeger and piloted by Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky, who are husband and wife. Stacker reveals that his plan is to attack the rift in the Pacific Ocean with the remaining four Jaegers to try one last time to destroy the portal. Scientists Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) are keys to helping Stacker come up with plan. Newton is a Kaiju fanatic and obsessed with dissecting the biology of the creatures. Newton has an idea to drift with a live brain of a Kaiju to get intelligence. Hermann has more conventional ideas. He deduces that the Kaiju will be arriving more often and eventually two at a time and three at a time. Both scientists are key in developing a plan to try to destroy the portal. However, Newton’s theory about drifting with a Kaiju actually works. As such, he provides key information about the Kaiju. He notes that the Kaiju are controlled by colonizers that use the creatures as weapons to wipe out the indigenous population. The colonizers tried to attack the Earth before during the time of the dinosaurs. However, there was too much oxygen and the attack failed. As humans have polluted the Earth, there is less oxygen. It makes no sense but I guess Guillermo del Toro just wanted to randomly plug in a political statement. Moreover, Newton notes that the purpose of the Categories 1-3 Kaiju is to destroy population centers. The Category 4s are the exterminators that will finish the job. Newton also extracts information critical to the execution of the final battle.

The concepts Guillermo del Toro introduced in regards to the Kaiju and Jaegers are very interesting. The battles and visual aesthetics of the Kaiju and Jaegers are the best part of the movie. Nevertheless, the lack of plot and the weak characters killed the film for me. I had a feeling there would not be much of a plot. As such, I expected to go into the movie with the same mindset I had for the last two Transformers movies: turn off my brain, be entertained by the action, but realize that the movie is not really that good in terms of actual substance. Stacker is the only character I loved. He is the only one that seems to realize there is a coming apocalypse and acts accordingly. Raleigh is a decent character but is not great as the lead character. In regards to Mako, she is a decent character but definitely not a great one. Her relationship with Stacker is great while her relationship with Raleigh is decent. Those relationships are the only things that add substance to movie. The other characters are underdeveloped. It took me till the end of the movie to realize that Herc and Chuck Hansen were father and son. That relationship was never developed at all and it was only implied that they had a great one. It also appeared that Chuck was only in the movie to antagonize Raleigh a few times as I left the movie wanting to know more about him. They rushed through a number of characters so quickly that I had trouble remembering the name and who they are while I was watching the movie. It is the first time I had trouble following who was who in a movie. That confusion also significantly reduced my enjoyment of the action scenes as I had little to no emotional attachment to the characters as I had trouble remembering who they are. Overall, I felt the character development was lacking and sloppy.

If you wanted to see Pacific Rim for giant monsters fighting giant robots, I recommend watching it as it will deliver on that expectation. However, what you see in the trailers is what you will get. There is not much more substance in the movie than you see in the trailer. For all other moviegoers, you can definitely pass.

Pat Wong

About Pat Wong

Patrick is a contributor for Rookerville. He is an avid sports fan. Before joining Rookerville, he was part of a defunct New York Yankees message board, NYYankeefans, where he was its top poster and was inducted in its Hall of Fame for his contributions. Patrick is also a passionate fan of movies. He has enjoyed reading movie reviews over the years and is excited about the opportunity to review movies.

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