With the rise of the vastly overrated Transformers franchise in recent years, it has only been inevitable that there has also come a slew of hopeful and futuristic tech-themed action romps that are clearly trying to overshadow the mega-giant that is Michael Bay's Transformers films. In some cases these films have turned out pretty badly (e.g. Transformers Dark of the Moon (2011), Atlantic Rim (2013) and After Earth (2013)), yet as with every genre of films, there are some golden nuggets for every few shit pellets. For this year it seems that the special sci-fi flick in question is Pacific Rim directed by Guillermo Del Torro (who you may also remember from his directing of the first two Hellboy films (2004 and 2008) and Pan's Labyrinth (2006)) which stars the talents of Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Beckett (our hot-headed yet noble underdog), Idris Elba as Marshall Pentecost (the gruff and battle-hardened, pseudo-arrogant mentor of a commander) and Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori (the naturally unstable and attractive yet surprisingly fierce and deadly stereotyped love interest).
Now there is a chance that Pacific Rim may in turn be overshadowed by this year's other hopefully good sci-fi blockbuster Ender's Game but until that is proven otherwise, I at least, will personally hold Pacific Rim in high regards as the year's best sci-fi film so far. Now is t flawed? Totally with a capital 'T' while drinking a cup of Starbucks cappuccino and eating a Subway's foot-long turkey, ham and cheese melt in all its generic glory. Yes, Pacific Rim is generic to the extent that I should be calling it a bad flick but in all honesty? I actually liked it. Admittedly its not going to be remembered in as iconic a light in sci-fi/giant robot/action flicks as the first 20 mins of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) but regardless of its lack of a truly strong and well-told moral and plenitude of action blockbuster stereotypes (annoying scientist support characters notwithstanding) its at the very least, a fun film to watch. Think of it a film version of the experience of watching episodes of Ultimate Force (2002-) and Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares USA (2007-) while eating a Domino's large sized football meat special pizza with a 2 litre bottle of cherry coke. Its not intellectually engaging like the likes of Splice (2009) or Surrogates (2009) but like Real Steel (2011), its a sci-fi action romp with a hearty underdog hero and a proud charge to victory in the third act so predictable it makes you want to play Hulk Hogan's wrestling theme and wrap yourself in the American flag.
Naturally, the story is pretty generic as you may have gathered and doesn't try to do much outside of the usual comfort zone of these types of summertime blockbusters. When earth is invaded by inter-dimensional aliens named 'Kaiju' (Japanese for 'Monster' or 'Giant monster') that spew forth from a rift in reality in the pacific ocean near Hong Kong waters the earth's armies successfully take down the first few hulking monstrosities but only at a huge cost of a few hundred thousand lives. After a few years, the world's governments come up with enough resources to fund the 'Jager' (German for 'Sharpshooter' which is pretty much the opposite of what the heroes do in this film) programme which involves putting two-man teams into the heads of giant robots with varying weapon sets and capabilities in order to take down the monsters with maximum efficiency and minimum loss of life. 7 years after this war starts we get our predictable scene that proves the motivation for our heroic underdog Raleigh Beckett throughout the film as he and his brother Yancy (did their parents name them after bikes or what?) fight a Kaiju that rips their mech's arm off and kills Yancy in the process. Years later, the world leaders attempt to reverse the effects of heavy casualties amongst the Jagers by building giant walls across the shores of pacific nations that ultimately fail to keep the Kaiju out of human territory, the last few 'Jager-bots' (one each from Russia, China, America and Australia) are gathered in Hong Kong in order to tackle the Kaiju threat as closely to the aforementioned portal in the ocean as possible. While participating in this desperate endeavour, Raleigh and trainee pilot Mako Mori must prove that they are compatible enough to pilot their bot effectively, combat bad memories that literally threaten their combat effectiveness and prepare to face down a threat that could very well mean the apocalypse on earth as we know it.
And therein lies the main selling point of Del Torro's post-Transformers shit-storm sci-fi flick. It. Is. EPIC. The very theme of giant robots of varying nations and fighting styles fighting inter-dimensional aliens from the ocean deep for personal and national pride as well as the survival of the human race is in itself an alluring prospect for a film even taking into account the generic and predictable plot and character development that features throughout Pacific Rim. Now this definitely does contribute to the enjoyment of watching this flick. Such an idea of selling a film on epicness alone hasn't worked sometimes in the past but in cases such as this one, it can work quite admirably well. Aside from the epicness of the film's concept, the other main selling point is the action scenes which works actually quite well through some relatively-good CGI, Del Torro's direction and the work of audio specialist Scott Martin Gershin to convey said epicness of humanity's last struggle for survival against the apocalypse. In these scenes, the different fighting styles of the crews of the Jagers are clearly put to the test as the film tries its best to show that while the Jagers are strong, they individually and collectively have to pull out all the stops in order to defeat even just single Gaiju's that are in turn shown to be capable of adapting to the tactics of humanity's champions. Subsequently, even though it is short-lived, the bright-red Chinese Jager with a three-man crew with three arms that have circular saws on the ends and can use Chinese martial arts is FUCKING BADASS.
In turn the actors also fit their roles quite nicely which allows the personal drama between the pilots between the battles to blossom quite nicely and smoothly. Idris Elba who is clearly the best actor in the entire film (not least thanks to his recognisability due to playing Heimdall in Thor (2011)) kicks ass as the hard-as-nails Marshall Stacker Pentecost who is rigid in his unwaveringly tough approach to war but is ultimately a great strategist and respectably noble character who despite his hard nature and 'mentor' rather than 'main character' status is probably the most interesting character in the film as well. This isn't to say that the other actors are bad though as Hunnam plays the dashing underdog of a hero pretty well while Kikuchi plays the style of a character that is unstable but ultimately very powerful nicely while also looking damn fine in the form-fitting suits that the Jager pilots all must wear to connect with their bots. Some of the characters in this film however can perhaps be seen as either really annoying (i.e. Gottlieb played by Burn Gorman) or just a bit pointless and therefore a hindrance to the plot's advancement such as Hannibal Chau played by Ron Perlman who is undoubtedly unsuited to the role and film in general despite starring in epic flicks like the first two Hellboy films.
So in conclusion, some of the actors are a tad mis-cast (no offence intended to the good Mr Perlman and his many admirable performances) and the film in general is undoubtedly generic in the sense that most summer action blockbusters are. Yet despite its lack of an intellectual side (which to be fair, is not always necessary in sci-fi flicks like this) and some characters that I out-rightly hated, Pacific Rim was an enjoyable film to watch despite not necessarily being precisely on par with the hype it received from producers and film magazines and programmes before its release. Still, I would highly recommend you get yourself a nice big tub of warm and buttery popcorn with a bulging paper bag of pic 'n' mix and a large lemonade and sit back because this film is something to be enjoyed amongst the mostly (not entirely, see my review of Man of Steel) lacklustre film releases of the film so far.
Verdict: see to enjoy but don't expect to be blown away, this is strictly a popcorn flick albeit a truly enjoyable one at that.
Overall rating: 6.65/10
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