Review - Pacific Rim

At the Theater- "Pacific Rim" - Although it's a bit clunky here and there, with a few too many topical characters and certain situations approaching camp levels, I enjoyed it more than any other live-action, mega-budgeted Giant Mecha vs Giant Monster movie I've ever seen...(yes, that's pretty much by default). The effects and creature designs are top notch, with a cool blend of practical and cgi work, though staging the showdowns in darkness and in the pouring rain (or at the bottom of the ocean) showed some kind of strange lack of faith in the final product. Fleeting scenes in broad daylight which feature the rampaging "Kaiju" (a Japanese word that translates into "strange beast") are sharp, so what's the deal with hiding the showcase matchups in this manner? Most of the little details I went in planning to pick at or question concerning the logic of the concept were covered by Director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Hellboy II, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth) and Screen Writer Travis Beacham, and that's refreshing considering the extremely lazy, loose and plot-hole heavy scripts of 2013's other Summer Blockbusters like Man Of Steel and Iron Man 3.  Pacific Rim isn't a perfect film, but it's fun, grand-style entertainment that's fine for what it sets out to accomplish.

Aussie Actor Charlie Hunnam (FX's Sons of Anarchy) stars as "Raleigh Becket" who, along with his brother, "Yancy" (Diego Klattenhoff), co-pilot the Jaeger (a German word for "hunter") "Gipsy Danger", which represents the good 'ol U.S. of A in the battle against the attacking Kaiju. After a fateful encounter with one of the gigantic beasts, and with the constantly adapting Kaiju thinning the ranks of the Jaegers, a traumatized Raleigh retires from the program.  That retirement is relatively short-lived (at least as far as movie running time is concerned), as Raleigh is coerced back into duty by his once and future commanding officer, "Stacker Pentecost" (played by Idris Elba), to assist in a hail mary assault to destroy the inter-dimensional portal (on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean) which the Kaiju emerge from.

Hunnam is serviceable here- he's considerably better than the last time I saw him as a leading man, with a decidedly clumsy performance in the 2012 film, Deadfall (FWIW- I've never seen an episode of Sons Of Anarchy).  He's still very raw but shows signs of definite progression- I'm sure we'll see Hollywood throw a handful of starring roles his way in the next several years.

British Actor Idris Elba (RocknRolla) might just be the best kept secret as a leading man- once again, he does very well with the material he's given, though I wish there had been more screen-time featuring him.  He has a commanding presence and an inherent charisma which should have found him several more leading roles by now.  Audiences will see him portray Nelson Mandela in 2014's Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, so it's possible that his "ship" will finally arrive... 

Japanese Actress Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom) is as cute as ever- her character, "Mako Mori" enters the story as Pentecost's adoptive daughter and protege who's desperate to get a shot as a Jaeger pilot.  As Jaegers require a two-pilot system whose minds are subsequently connected via a neural bridge to share the overwhelming load of operating the complicated war machines, Mako and Raleigh eventually end up as a tandem in battle. There's a hint at a potential love connection between the two that never materializes.  Kikuchi does a solid job with the material and is much more here than just the obligatory female thrown into an Action/Sci-Fi pic for demographic reasons.  She'll next be featured in 2014's 47 Ronin, and I look forward to seeing her again...

Fans will be delighted to see Del Toro regular Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Hellboy 2) as a flashy, gold-toothed, black market dealer in Kaiju organs named "Hannibal Choi".  His limited role is spent chewing scenery with flair- I understand it was all in the name of good fun, but I would have liked to have seen his character's "exit" from this film been of a different nature.*  I'm a fan of Perlman and it unfortunately appears that my wishes of a third Hellboy installment are all but dead.

Charlie Day's (FX's It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia) Kaiju-obsessed Scientist is effective as the film's embodiment of comic-relief- I haven't cared for his film appearances outside of FX's TV show, yet he's given good material here and isn't annoying.  Burn Gorman (Layer Cake) plays the pasty-faced, tight-wad Scientist thrown into the mix to argue with Day's character.

Max Martini (CBS's The Unit) and Robert Kazinsky (HBO's True Blood) portray the Australian Father/Son co-pilots of the Jaeger, "Striker Eureka" (the sharpest Mecha design, IMO), respectively.   Just about the time a believable, dynamic relationship between the duo is established, the film comes to a close.  Again, I wished there had been more depth in this regard- It's a near-miss, though I understood what the filmmakers were going for.

Clifton Collins Jr. (Extract), sporting a strange Elvis-like 'do, complete with sideburns, plays a Jaeger technician frequenting mission control while Comedian Larry Joe Campbell has a blink and you'll miss it cameo as a construction worker- perhaps his role was trimmed for run-time concerns.

I felt the sharpest sequence of this film involved a daylight attack on Tokyo by a colossal, crab-clawed, crustacean-like Kaiju and a little girl attempting to escape the stories-high creature's wrath- the segment is deftly handled and poignant for reasons I won't get into, though it exists as a dream-like flashback which is broken up to explain the relationship between two major characters.  This particular segment also contains the lion's share of the film's tension- the remainder of the film is often exhilarating to look at, but works only as a fun, visual experience, with very little panic or suspense to speak of. If only there had been more attention given to character-building across the board and one other major, complete showdown in daylight amongst an evacuated city to properly convey the scope of the situation as the aforementioned scene did- all of the other daylight footage of the monster attacks are shown as news footage on video display terminals.

A climactic third-act royal rumble of Jaegers Vs. Kaiju, set on the bottom of the ocean floor, may have some viewers scratching their heads as to the specifics of the hand-to-hand (robotic hand-to-claw/tentacle) combat. I kept wishing that Del Toro would have "pulled the camera back" a bit, as the close proximity shots and quick editing of the brawls sometimes added up to confusion as to what the hell just happened.  It could have been handled better, but ultimately works.

As with Del Toro's Hellboy films, Pacific Rim has an old-fashioned, light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek feel to it- there's a little bit of corn and cheese mixed in with the kick-ass cool and perhaps audiences have grown a bit too cynical for this particular approach to the subject matter. Tonally, the experience reminded me of Independence Day.  Despite it's flaws, Pacific Rim is a film that truly deserves to be seen in the Theater to appreciate the full experience- I'm quite comfortable in saying that it beats the living hell out of 1998's Americanized Godzilla and all three of those Transformer films... 

8.0 out of 10

FWIW- The films from Director Guillermo del Toro (that I've seen) -

Cronos - 7.5
Mimic - 6.5
The Devil's Backbone - 8.5
Blade II - 8
Hellboy - 8
Pan's Labyrinth - 8.5
Hellboy II: The Golden Army - 8

*- UPDATE- A friend notified me that there is a post-credits scene involving Ron Perlman's character that fans may want to wait for... I wish I had...