This summer has been a bit unsatisfying for me because just about every movie (Man of Steel, World War Z, and even some of the great ones like Star Trek Into Darkness) has fallen short of expectations. Pacific Rim does not join that crowd because it makes good on what the ad campaign promised: Brilliant action scenes of robots smashing the living hell out of sea monsters, impressive visuals, solid cast and just a whole lot of fun to be had throughout. The film's concept of man-controlled robots known as Jaegers taking out giant sea monsters that rose from the Pacific Ocean Kaijus is hardly high art, but writer/director Guillermo Del Toro and co-writer Travis Beachem approach the film's subject matter with a lot of smarts and passion. The film embraces its corniness and sets a tone of triumph with a group of characters that you actually care about. Charlie Hunnam does a good job in his first major lead role in an American movie as the film's protagonist Raleigh Becket: a renowned Jaeger pilot who is called out of retirement as humanity's last hope of surviving the Kaiju invasion. Hopefully this exposure will get him more work outside of Sons of Anarchy, he is one of the most criminally underrated actors in the business today who deserves to become a breakout star. The supporting cast is loaded with talent as well with Idris Elba as the fiery leader of the Jaeger program, Charlie Day as a whacky scientist obsessed with Kaijus and Ron Perlman, giving one of the strongest performances of his career as an eccentric yet intimidating black market Kaiju parts dealer know as Hannibal Chau (He got the name from his "favorite historical figure and second favorite Szechaun restraraunt in Brooklyn.")
Pacific Rim clearly isn't all about the likeable characters and skilled cast, the real stars of the film are the robots and monsters. Every single action sequence is unbelievably intense and badass(sometimes the camera is so up-close to the action that it becomes overwhelming, but other than the action is simply glorious.) The action is pretty constant, but never becomes excessive or dull (which is quite the accomplishment considering that this film's primary purpose is large-scale destruction and fights between two incredibly large creatures.) Del Toro and the visual effects team also deserves a lot of props for the creature design. Instead of making all the Kaiju the same, every single Kaiju has a different special ability (such as acid spit, flying, countless others) which breaks up the monotony of having the heroes and their robots face a legion of the exact same enemy. Del Toro's attention to detail in this film is a big reason why it's so successful. Every battle sequence is distinctive from one another, the story has some unexpected turns and the script balances action, humor and a surprising emotional backbone for a blockbuster. In other words, Del Toro crafted a film that essentially has something for everyone. You can tell this was a passion project for him that he put a lot of time and effort into it and the final product shows just how successful and exciting his vision is. Though it will (unfortunately) most likely get lost in the shuffle with so many established tentpoles having already been released this summer, Pacific Rim is one of the most purely enjoyable, creative and insane blockbusters in recent memory that serves as a loving throwback to the monster movies of old as well as one of those rare films that actually lives up to the hype. Bravo Guilermo Del Toro and let's hope that he has another great, original, grand-scale film in him.
4/5 Stars
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