Saturday, July 13, 2013

Review: Pacific Rim

Once in a while, a film comes out with sublime pathos, transcendent acting, and the ability to deliver a philosophical message that echoes through the ages.

This is not one of those films.

Pacific Rim instead gives you what you want: giant robots battling giant monsters in an orgy of crazy, destructive, chaos.

It's the future. Giant monsters, called kaiju, have emerged from an extradimensional rift in the Pacific Ocean to attack humanity. In defense, humans created Jaegers, giant robots piloted by two people using a mind-linking technology called "the Drift". The giant robots kicked kaiju ass.

Politics being as it is, nations decided it was cheaper to build giant walls around the entire Pacific ocean instead of more Jaegers.

The last of the Jaegers hole-up in Hong Kong, and that's when the film really starts going.

I won't go too much into the plot. It really doesn't matter. You have your various characters: avuncular and tough leader-guy, blond and artfully-unshaven hero guy, waifish and plucky heroine gal, obnoxious guy with father issues, father issue guy, dorky scientist cliche one, dork scientist cliche two, and Ron Pearlman as a dealer in kaiju organs.

I saw the film in 3D IMAX. I regret nothing and decided that was the best possible way to behold the unimaginable awesome of the world Guillermo Del Toro created. I wasn't wrong.

The film starts hard core and never really slows down. I'm sure there were intentions for characters, plot, and stuff I should have cared about. Instead, I got what I wanted: an orgy of awesome robot vs. monster battles.

I liked all the characters, though I cannot for the life of me remember the main hero's name nor that of the actor's (he was that generic). I would see this again in a heartbeat. I may try to see it more than once.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good review. Had a lot of fun with this, even though I do wish that there was more attention to characters and emotions. Just a bit. Not too much.