Review:
Pacific Rim is
big, entertaining fun, which also has enough character moments to elevate it above
the typical noisy mess that clutters summer movie season. The film is about the
battle for Earth. When monstrous aliens known as Kaijus arise from a portal between
dimensions deep within the Pacific Ocean, mankind must create Jaegers (massive
fighting robots) to protect its coastal cities from attack (and utter ruin).
With Pacific Rim, writer-director
Guillermo del Toro has
basically created a film that directly derives from his own obsessions within
fandom. He loves to design and collect monsters and creatures, and is heavily influenced
by manga. This film brings all that together. It is a
Godzilla movie. It is
a
Voltron movie. It
is everything fans could want, as it is very concerned with the specific
details of each creature and robotic fighting machine. They all have names,
personalities, and attributes. In many ways, this film is a visual extension of
a fantasy RPG-like action video game (fantasy being used to express an ideal
for fans) – a game that del Toro (as well as many others) would surely be thrilled
to play. For fans, the film is just two hours and twelve minutes of awesome.
But what about everyone else?
Well, del Toro does not mess about with his narrative. Utilizing voiceover
narration to fill the audience in on all that has happened leading up to the
events of the film, he jumps right into the action with a great prologue, consisting
of a battle between a Kaiju and a Jaeger to wet the audience’s appetite for
more (and not waste time in giving them what they came for). The prologue both
sets the stage and introduces the audience to our protagonist (Raleigh Becket),
while also relaying character information. Thus, right from the beginning, del
Toro entertains his audience and more or less engages them on an emotional level
(through Raleigh’s pain and narration the audience is pulled in by the
narrative and character).
Del Toro keeps the pacing swift,
as he jumps ahead from the good times (which are far less interesting dramatically)
straight into the last ditch effort to save mankind. He keeps tensions high by
continually raising the stakes, but still allows the audience moments to breath
with some well-placed brevity (thanks to the very fun characters Dr. Newton
Geiszler and Gottlieb, two scientists with competing theories). However, he
also remembers why the audience is in the theater for Pacific Rim – they want
to see robots fighting monsters, and there is plenty of that. However, unlike
with
Transformers,
which is a loud, visually noisy, mess that ultimately just plays as a blur of inconsequential
and incoherent babbling clamor, del Toro infuses the fights with human moments
and real pain so that the audience actually has a stake and emotional touchstone
in the fights and is not participating purely on a spectacle level.
Yet, Pacific Rim is chiefly
interested in being a fun experience for the audience. Del Toro does do dramatic
and emotional character work, but it is somewhat restrained and toned down in
favor of keeping things fairly light overall tonally. He does not want the
audience to be bogged down with weighty moments; rather, he just wants them to
be entertained. But, it is a double-edged sword in some ways. Yes, the film is
very entertaining, stemming from its quick pacing, bombastic action, and good
character moments, and yet the audience never really completely feels connected
to these characters because the emotions are held a bit at arm’s length in
favor of a lighter tone. Del Toro wants his audience to be in the story with
the characters, but he also wants them to enjoy the film as a spectacle of
impressive action. For the most part he does find a nice balance, but overall
the film tends to error on the side of spectacle, keeping it from really being
great.
The writing is also somewhat
questionable, and seems to serve more as an outline moving the characters from
point to point and the audience from action scene to action scene than a more
in depth dramatic piece (which is fine, and honestly suits this type of film
better for the most part). The dialogue does not really pop, rather it exists
to move the story forward (like everything else). And again, the emotional
moments are somewhat restrained, relying more on genre troupes and stereotypes.
However, thankfully the film is filled with actors rising to the challenge and
bringing life to the characters (that are all pretty much underwritten).
Another aspect of the film that
seems on the outside to make little sense is the Jaeger needing two mind-linked
pilots to operate it, and not only that but the pilots must physically move and
punch within the Jaeger, it mirroring their actions. This seems nonsensical.
But del Toro understands that cinema is a visual medium, and that having pilots
stationary, sitting in the robots or (even worse) off site, fastened to scene
after scene of over the radio dialogue while the robots battle would have been boring.
Having the pilots physically engage in combat allows del Toro to keep his
visuals kinetic and the characters involved dramatically (instead of static
shots of them controlling a joystick). While logically it makes no sense (much
like the overall notion that the resources needed to build and operate these
Jaegers could not be better utilized on some other weapon – but robots fighting
monsters is the whole point), cinematically it is genius. The idea behind two
mind-melded pilots also gives del Toro the ability to explore the emotions and
backgrounds of the characters to a deeper extent, which only pulls the audience
in more and raises the stakes (both things you very much want as a director). The
connection also creates a strong relationship between the pilots in a very
economical storytelling manner, again allowing del Toro to keep the pacing
quick and the action coming. Thus, these choices both make a lot of sense from
a visual storytelling standpoint and really the film ultimately benefits
greatly from them.
Altogether, Pacific Rim
accomplishes exactly what it sets out to be and do. It is a fantastic summer
movie, with massive action that is actually engaging, when audiences have come
to expect boring blusterous nonsense from these sort of films (thanks to films
like Transformers and
Battleship
– and really all big action films now, while good overall
Star
Trek Into Darkness and
Man
of Steel also both have such moments of sheer wanton destruction seeming
only for the sake of having it there as visual spectacle). What sets this film
apart is that it embraces its genre clichés and presents them in a fun
refreshing manner. The spectacle serves the characters and vice versa.
Technical,
aesthetic, and acting achievements: Guillermo del Toro lives to create
monsters and design great worlds for them to inhabit. It is this love and joy
that brings Pacific Rim to life and the audience can feel del Toro’s affection
in every aspect of the film. It is his best Hollywood film to date.
The tone of the film is one of entertainment
first, and composer
Ramin Djawadi’s
score brings that mandate to the forefront. His music reinforces the feeling that
Pacific Rim is a big action film in which massive robots fight gargantuan
monsters with its booming drums and thundering heavy-metal pieces (
here
is an example).
Guillermo Navarro’s
cinematography and
Andrew Neskoromny
and
Carol Spier’s production
design also sets the tone well visually. The film has a very gloomy look with
lots of rainy night scenes, amidst a crumbling world, playing into the main
drama of the film – that these few remaining Jaegers are humanity’s last best
hope. The Hong Kong sets also play into the strong Asian stylistic influence on
del Toro. I love the incorporation of Kaiju skulls (and other bones) into the
city designs. The robots, monsters, and special effects all look great and
seamless.
As stated in the review, the
characters are more or less underwritten place-holders in the narrative. However,
the cast does do a great job bringing life to them and making them more than
what was on the page.
Ron Perlman,
who appears in almost all of del Toro’s films, shows up with some good stuff,
but is there mostly as a novelty.
Max
Martini does a good job as the salty veteran, while
Robert Kazinsky basically does
his impression of The Iceman from
Top Gun giving
Raleigh Becket a human rival (but he mostly just plays as a genre cliché).
Burn Gorman and
Charlie Day are both great as
Gottlieb and Geiszler, the kooky scientists. They provide much needed moments
of humor.
Rinko Kikuchi and
Idris Elba emerge as really the
stars of the film in their principal supporting roles. Kikuchi almost steels
the film, as she is a far more interesting character than Raleigh (but sadly is
under developed) and gives a much more compelling performance. Elba is great as
the Jaeger commander Stacker Pentecost. When he speaks, everyone (audience
included) pays attention.
Charlie
Hunnam is adequate as Raleigh, but does not seem to quite understand how to
play his character. He is basically a cocky reckless rebel (a Maverick) who is
burnt out after the loss of his brother but agrees to return to the Jaeger
program reluctantly, only to become a love-sick, easygoing, and more heroic once
he sees Kikuchi’s Mako Mori.
Summary
& score: Yes, in many ways Pacific Rim is just another big, loud
action film in a continuous stream of big, loud action films to come this
summer, but it is also maybe the most fun. 7/10
