2013
Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket
Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost
Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Synopsis: turns out, there ARE aliens. Intelligent ones. However, they’re not landing in ships from space. They’re coming through a breach in the ocean. These Kaiju are frickin’ huge monsters and they’re destroying everything.
Enter the Jaegers. 25-story-high mechanical warriors that beat the crap out of the Kaiju, they are built to protect mankind. Until the Kaiju get bigger and stronger. Jaegers aren’t working so well. So what do we decide to do? Instead of trying harder to destroy the threat, we build a wall to “deter” the invaders. (Very American of us, eh?) And it doesn’t work AT ALL. Shocker. Jaeger funding is ended. But Mr. Pentecost, who has a very special history with the Jaeger program that ties him to Mr. Becket, doesn’t want to quit just yet. So he proceeds to bring in the last Jaeger crews and teams to develop a plan to defeat the Kaiju once and for all.
This movie is silly. But it’s SO INSANELY COOL at the same time! It’s del Toro. He did the Hellboy movies. The point is not a classic, quotable script (“Today we are cancelling the apocalypse”?! Really???), but something that’s fun to watch. Pacific Rim delivers. What’s cooler than huge robots fighting extraterrestrial dinosaur descendants?!
Specifics that grabbed me:
- Idris Elba. Duh. He gets to use his real voice (he’s British, y’all). Haven’t heard that since RockN’Rolla. (He was the ship’s captain in Prometheus, remember.)
- The Jaegers. These humonstrous robots are so awesome. I can’t think of a robot I’ve liked better. They’re massive. They’re digital (most of them). And they move like people. Kind of like Transformers, but without the transforming.
- The sci-fi premise. Obviously, I’m a fan of sci-fi. But, as we all know, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN. Watch Angels in the Outfield. Legit. And I digress…monster dinosaur things coming through an extraterrestrial breach in the bottom of the ocean to destroy man. They squirt acid. They’re hard to kill. We’re in trouble. I guess I really like that whole mankind-in-danger-of-extinction thing, because we get some great heroes and heroic music. Tears me up. <sniff>
Weepy meter: 2/10 Like I just said: heroes and heroic music. They get me. I laugh at the stupid script, then cry when we get the tunes.
Man meter: 8/10 Silly script to laugh at. Big-ass monsters. Big-ass robots. Fighting. Bombs. Good stuff.
Overall rating: 7/10 Highly entertaining. Will be seeing this again.
Photo by Kerry Hayes – © 2011 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Legendary Pictures Funding, LLC
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