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Humanity
is losing
the fight against the Kaiju, monstrous creatures rising from the depths
of the
sea, bringing death and destruction with them. The people of earth have
banded
together to create the Jaegers, giant mechanical war robots to combat
the
Kaiju. Proving too powerful over time for the humans to combat, the
Kaiju grow
in numbers and in strength. Humanity’s last hope rests on an obsolete
Jaeger
pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and Rinko Kikuchi (Mako Mori), a
talented trainee who’s yet to battle against the colossal sea monsters.
Let
get this out of
the way really early on. Pacific Rim
is Godzilla with robots. Well, a more Americanised version of the
classic
Japanese monster masher. The word Kaiju
is actually Japanese for “strange creature”. The ghost of the giant
Japanese
creature is all over the film and thankfully director, Guillermo Del
Toro, does
not hide from this but he embraces it. The opening sequence has a
distinctly
Japanese style in what is a lovely homage to the history of this kind
of film. Unfortunately,
this style does not carry throughout the film. It is quickly watered
down to
over the top speeches, acting and the usual formulaic approach to all
aspects
of blockbuster American filmmaking. Like all Del Toro’s films, the set
design
and overall production design are fantastic. The film has a vibrant,
over the
top and colourful style throughout and it really help the sub-average
script
along.
No
one in their
right mind sees a movie like this and expects Oscar nominated
performances, but
the casting could have been much better.
Charlie Hunnam (Sons of anarchy)
is weak and simply a bore from the start. He has zero charisma and even
less
charm. Quite simply, if Del Toro chose to replace the “actor” with a
sock
puppet, he’d probably get a more grounded and likable performance. Even
during
the physical scenes he looks over rehearsed and uncomfortable in his
own skin. The
audience shouldn’t be waiting in desperate hope for the lead character
to get
knocked out during key fight sequences, should they? While clean-cut
hero roles
have little room to move as far as acting is concerned, there is such a
thing
as “screen presence”, of which Charlie Hunnam has none.
Mako
Mori plays the
damaged trainee Rinko and she is as bland as stale bread to match.
Spending
most of the film peeking up from under a fringe, she plays such a
forgettable
role that it’s more entertaining to count the flashing buttons around
her, than
to care about what her character is trying to achieve. Overly long
scenes
explaining her past have some convincing acting in it, and this helps
her
character. However, it is another young actor Mana Ashida, performing
these
scenes. The most ridiculous thing being Ashida
easily
upstages Mori, and she is a child. Charlie Day plays his same role as
Charlie
from It’s always sunny in Philadelphia,
but this time he has glasses. Ron Pearlman (Hellboy,
another Del Toro film) has a small role, which helps to add a
bit of
character and viewer interest. This is an actor that does have the
previously
mentioned “screen presence”. Idris Elba (Prometheus),
plays Stacker Pentecost, who is a basically like every other blunt
instrument
military commander, you’ve seen in every other blockbuster.
This
film isn’t so
much about the script and acting though, it’s about the destruction,
and
thankfully there’s a fair amount of it. Pacific
Rim opens with some big fights and some dazzling FX. The elemental
FX such
as water, dust and fire are always the hardest to achieve realism with,
and the
animators have done a fantastic job. The weight of the Jaegers in the
water
looks tangible and considering the amount of camera work that would
have to be
CGI, the battle scenes are very impressive. Buildings are not only
demolished,
they are smashed into oblivion. The film is half an hour too long and
it sags
in the middle, especially while the “character development” is forced
upon us.
Thankfully, the pace is well and truly picked up at the end, including
the
final battle with a typical dry retch cliché ending. Be on the look out
for
Sydney harbor getting smashed to pieces by a Kaiju emerging from the
deep. It
will have people cheering in the cinema, which is strangely funny if
you think
about it.
Pacific
Rim is an
enjoyable film, which could have been
much better. Its fun lies in the special effects, design and
destruction. It is
severely lacking in all other departments of filmmaking. With an
accomplished
character and FX director at the helm, this film should have been
elevated in
quality beyond its roots or American influences. Whether this was
studio
pressure or the director’s decision, it is hard to know. The mass
appeal of Pacific Rim will be to the people who
watched Voltron, played Rampage, fans
of Godzilla and anyone
who likes watching stuff get smashed in a big, big way.
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