If your inner 10-year-old rejoices at the thought of monsters fighting robots, then “Pacific Rim” is the film for you.
“Pacific Rim” is Guillermo del Toro’s childhood fantasy brought to life, and the director has said he hopes it will reintroduce the Kaiju genre popular in the ’50s (“Kaiju” literally translates to “strange beasts”) to a new generation. The breathtaking grandeur of the film’s scale and the sheer joy of rooting for humanity as it fights unambiguously evil creatures makes it the ultimate summer blockbuster.
The Kaiju are alien monsters of mythical proportions who rise from a portal formed within Earth’s Pacific Rim and wreak havoc on humanity. To fight these creatures, humans create Jaegers – enormous robots controlled by two neurally linked pilots. The Jaeger initiative is shut down when it fails to win battles, but the world’s remaining Jaegers are gathered at a resistance base in Hong Kong.
Enter our two leads, Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam), a former Jaeger pilot who lost his brother in battle, and Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), a rookie with a troubled past. As Jaeger co-pilots, they must learn to share each others’ minds and fight for the human race.
“Pacific Rim” lacks the poignancy or depth of del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” or “The Orphanage,” but emotional resonance doesn’t seem to be del Toro’s intent with his latest film. He goes for style over substance, and the style is worth its IMAX 3-D ticket price.
The Jaeger versus Kaiju battles are spectacular. They’re sophisticatedly choreographed and dazzling – “operatic” is how del Toro pitched these scenes to his production team. Del Toro builds a visually stunning world of near-future cities and destroys them with the joy of a 5-year-old smashing his Lego creations.
Each Kaiju is distinct in design, though they’re all grotesque reptilian versions of familiar silver screen beasts, such as sharks or gorillas. And the Jaegers, with their elegant and seamlessly interlocking machinery, are just as detailed and well-imagined as the monsters.
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The Jaegers take shape as humanoid exoskeletons of metal and weaponry, ranging from nuclear reactors to swords, that match the gigantic proportions of the Kaiju.
In a refreshing turn, del Toro depicts a friendship between the Jaeger pilots that grows out of a shared and broken past and unified motives, rather than a romance. The “drift” mechanism through which Raleigh and Mako are mentally linked enables them to move as one and experience each others’ memories, expanding on the theme of human connection and its role in healing trauma.
It’s a good premise, but it falls a bit short in execution. The setup for co-pilots Mako and Raleigh is all there – a traumatic past, a motive for vengeance and the need to overcome the former to fulfill the latter. However, neither manage to become three-dimensional characters (well, at least not figuratively).
Perhaps due to the script’s limitations, the actors’ performances are lackluster and their characters’ backstories are more interesting than their real-time development. They’re easily outshined by secondary characters, including Stacker Pentecost, played by the charismatic Idris Elba, who gives a solid performance as the leader of the Jaeger operation.
The gems of the film are the two scientists who make up the research team, played brilliantly by Charlie Day, of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” fame, and his British counterpart Burn Gorman. The pair serve as both brains and comedic relief.
Ron Perlman is also fantastic as the one-eyed, maroon-suited black market dealer, selling ground Kaiju bone and neon tubs of Kaiju insides soaked in ammonia to the superstitious and the curious. His scenes give the viewer a rare glimpse of del Toro’s vision of a near-future Hong Kong.
The film has its fair share of illogical developments that exist to justify the epic fight scenes. The pesky question of how an unauthorized Jaeger operation managed to get so much equipment is explained away with “Russians. They can get us anything.” But if plot holes are the price to pay for easy explication and more onscreen Kaiju versus Jaeger time, then that’s a toll worth paying.
“Pacific Rim” should be taken at face value. It’s a fun adrenaline-inducing experience and its plot holes are overshadowed by the Kaiju, Jaegers and the gratification of witnessing humanity fight a morally untroubled battle for its survival. Just don’t think about it too hard.