One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year came out earlier this Summer. If you haven't seen it, then use this review/post to help make your decision if you are so far undecided. Here we go..
Pacific Rim is an original story about an apocalyptic world where the human race is under attack by a huge race of monsters called the Kaiju, who make their way to Earth via a portal between dimensions in the Pacific Ocean. The human race's response is to come together to stop this menace and they decide to create huge robots called Jaegers in order to fight them off. This is our movie.
With a fresh premise and an original plot, Pacific Rim had a job of setting the scene for us and placing us into the conflict. They do this very well. The first 5 minutes is a narrated prologue where the stage is set. This is ultimately a good thing, as it saves us from a slow 30 minutes at the beginning of the movie which would have made it drag on for longer than it should have. That being said, the first 5 minutes could have been longer. I would have liked to have seen Cloverfield style events from the perspective of the people when the first Kaiju starts wrecking San Francisco. That would have been more effective, but I understand why they made the prologue as short as possible.
The main protagonist is played by Charlie Hunnam. His performance is Ok, but I saw nothing special from him. At times, some of his lines weren't delivered with the passion and drive I would have expected. More interesting characters include Rinko Kikuchi's character and Idris Elba's character. Elba is the star of the show. The man steals all of his scenes plus delivers one of my favourite lines from any movie that's come out in 2013.
Charlie Day and Burn Gorman both play scientists who are both relevant to the story and their relationship, at times, is quite humorous. However, at times it felt like they were just forced comic relief. That's probably the best way I can describe it.
The acting overall in the film is up and down. As for character development, it was poor. Very poor indeed. In the middle of this movie there is a slow hour where you sense they're trying for character development, but it is just not working. I don't think I've ever been so emotionally unattached from a group of characters than I was in Pacific Rim. Events happened at the end and I couldn't care less. I was just screaming for some action.
Now, the action. The whole point of Pacific Rim was to show off large robots fighting giant monsters. Both of them are visually stunning, as are the special effects. The robots themselves are really cool; they establish early on why 2 people need to pilot them and the monsters are just as cool.
The fight scenes are epic and are backed up with a very good soundtrack. The overall noise, effects and visuals present during the fight sequences are all mixed so well and make an extremely pleasant viewing experience. Also, props have to go to the cinematography. It's done so well that the size of the 2 things fighting is perfectly illustrated and is also adding to the overall pleasure of the experience. It's not all in your face, it excites you and you thoroughly enjoy yourself! Best visuals of the year by far, even better than Man of Steel!
Overall, I'm torn with this film. Poor character development and non attachable characters bring it down. But, the fact that the film does such a good job at what it was meant to do (cinematography, visuals, effects) this movie was a lot more enjoyable to watch.
Rating - B-
1 sentence summary - Poor character development but stunning and exciting action!
I think that's the best way to put it. So, have you seen Pacific Rim? Did you like it and is it better than Man of Steel? Please leave a comment.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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