Plot
As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.
Release Year: 2013
Rating: 8.0/10 (15,259 voted)
Director:Guillermo del Toro
Storyline
As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.
Trivia: Guillermo del Toro drew inspiration from paintings, including Francisco Goya's "The Colossus" and Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 8/10
Within the opening 15 or so minutes Charlie Hunnam's voice-over
establishes the reality of a future where monsters (the Kaiju)
repeatedly invade earth, to stem this humans have created giant robots
(Jaegers) to combat them in increasingly badass iterations. This
opening does a great job in conveying the scope of a film which is big,
not just regular big, but like, Jason Biggs in 1999 bigg. entering the
cinema from a world where these events rarely occur is initially a lot
to throw at the audience, but it's handled so effectively and without
tongue in cheek that it quickly becomes a world I had a blast
experiencing. Maybe it was the incredible effects shots of robot
related destruction used as a throwaway shots, but what I think really
sold the opening sequence and the film as a whole is the enthusiasm Del
Toro clearly has for the story he's telling.
The cast is essentially a rogues gallery of TV's better dramas playing
variations on roles they've nailed in the past (see: Elba, Hunnam and
Klattenhoff) and some inspired casting of It's Always Sunny's Charlie
Day who, as should be expected provides some effective comedic relief.
Added onto this the score comes courtesy of Ramin Djawadi who's
masterful use of themes on Game of Thrones is carried over to this film
for some great emotional cues and many a rad motif courtesy of Tom
Morello on guitar.
It's appropriate Del Toro has a Frankenstein adaptation lined up as a
follow up project as Pacific Rim can at times can feel stitched
together from all the sources of inspiration the film has. This comes
from many areas such as Japanese manga, the personalities of the actors
from previous films and the imagery of robots destroying buildings
which transformers ran into the ground. But Del Toro succeeds time and
time again at allowing these disparate elements to fit together
believably by way of some very confident filmmaking. I could easily
take issue with the oft hammy dialogue and macho relationships but
where the film succeeds in other areas and revels in creativity trumps
the dissatisfaction one could take from these scenes. I also found
Hunnams character a tad lacking in charisma and internal conflict but
whatever, it's not the end of the world. Oh wait, yes it is hahahaha
The films successes go beyond its imagery and continued invention
within battle scenes as the script is very economical when it comes to
pacing. The films battle scenes are so engaging and exciting due to
clearly established stakes present which left me devoid of the "action
fatigue" transformers loves to throw my way. And although the Kaiju
battles seem to never be in short supply, the film essentially follows
the rule of three when it comes to battle sequences and left me oh so
satisfied.
In conclusion, I give it points for being one of the funner summer
blockbusters in recent memory, for being an original property and for
its sheer tenacity to exist which all amount to what is just a darn
good time at the movies.
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