Pacific Rim [M]

Humanity learned that intelligent life existed beyond the reaches of our world, but they were wrong to look for in the skies. When a fissure opens between tectonic plates under the ocean floor, legions of monsters known as Kaiju start rising from the sea and attacking the heavily populated cities of the world. Humans created a weapon to battle them: gigantic technological terrors known as Jaegers. The war has been going on for years and the Kaiju have adapted to the Jaeger strategy. In a last attempt to destroy the Kaiju at their source, the task of saving mankind from the mounting apocalypse falls on the unlikely pairing of a washed up Jaeger pilot and an inexperienced rookie. 

From director Guillermo del Torro comes this hit-and-miss, visually stunning science fiction action flick that pretty much never lets up. On the one hand, it’s pretty fucking brilliant in the special effects, cinematic, and soundtrack department but then on the other hand, the script suffered a fair few stumbles along the way. I think it’s a film that I would probably watch again if the opportunity were in front of me, but I don’t think I would willingly seek it out. 

Humanity learned that intelligent life existed beyond the reaches of our world, but they were wrong to look for in the skies. When a fissure opens between tectonic plates under the ocean floor, legions of monsters known as Kaiju start rising from the sea and attacking the heavily populated cities of the world. Humans created a weapon to battle them: gigantic technological terrors known as Jaegers. The war has been going on for years and the Kaiju have adapted to the Jaeger strategy. In a last attempt to destroy the Kaiju at their source, the task of saving mankind from the mounting apocalypse falls on the unlikely pairing of a washed up Jaeger pilot and an inexperienced rookie. 

Ok, let’s the get the ughs out of the way first. The weakness of this movie lies within its script. Right from the beginning, pretty much every character’s story is highly predictable almost to the point of giving the brain pins and needles before it goes numb all together. Whilst this works if you’re looking for a mindless action romp that looks very awesome, I myself like to have a little of intrigue in the mix. I don’t like my brain to go numb and my attention to be purely visual and inactive during a movie because it puts a damper on the experience. If my brain is numb from a predictable plot, how am I to experience emotions during the film? As a result, my experience of this movie was one that was highly pleasing to the eye, but pretty lacklustre in every other sense, aside from maybe the ears. I couldn’t bring myself to latch onto any character, the ‘romantic’, ‘dramatic’ and emotional stories lacked that sought-for emotion because they didn’t manage to pique it in the first place, and I couldn’t get excited even when there was so much action it would make Michael Bay climax! 

But, and this is a very big but, this does make for a very stunning movie to watch. The special effects are an absolute knockout, the different classes of the Kaiju were amazing creatures of the imagination, and the shot composition was so sleek and awesome that it truly was ‘science fiction’. 

Special applause too has to go to Ramin Djawadi who composed the score. It’s rare these days to find a film where the soundtrack can actually call attention to itself and get itself noticed above the action, sound effects, and pretty boy faces with blonde hair. But this score did, putting Djawadi in the company of James Horner, Alan Silvestri, and Thomas Newman. 

Starring Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Clifton Collins Jr., and Ron Perlman, Pacific Rim is a visually stunning piece of science fiction that just stumbles a little with the predictability of its characters and secondary plotlines. Filled with action, violence, knockout special effects, a brilliant score, drama, ‘romance’, and ‘comedy’, it’s a movie that I am happy that I have seen but I don’t think I would heatedly seek it out to watch again any time soon.