Run, Kaiju, Run - Review: Pacific Rim

 This review will be just a bit different. Seeing as there isn't very much to discuss as far as preliminaries. It's Giant Sea Monsters vs. Giant Fuggin' Robots: The Movie. Either you're in or you're out. If you're in, feel free to continue. Otherwise, continue your trolling in peace.

Pacific Rim is the latest action/sci-fi vehicle from director Guillermo Del Toro which features gigantic humanoid fighting robots and their struggle against the invading alien race which seeks to take over the planet Earth. Now, I don't ordinarily set up a movie in such a clear-cut synopsis-type way but it seemed that I should for this movie considering that so many people seemed to not know what it was about. Early reports saw that the movie was tracking well behind competition, including the Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2. Make what you will of that situation, it's another subject for another time. I bring it up to make this statement: whatever you may think of Pacific Rim after you see it, it can't be denied that it will have fans split.

Chances are as word-of-mouth spread you may have heard comparisons of this movie to different anime features like Evangelion or Attack on Titan. A fair comparison as this is certainly a genre film. With its various set pieces and tropes, even down to its characters, it feels like a live-action cartoon. Whether or not you can enjoy that in-context may determine how you feel about this film. But whether or not you can get down with that doesn't take away from what this movie really has going for it. Which, as you could tell from the banner above, is size. This movie is huge. [So huge I almost considered using all caps there. But I'm not about that life.] Both the Kaiju and the robots – or “Jaegers” as they're called here – look incredibly massive. And unlike Michael Bay's Transformers who look like they're six feet tall and made of cardboard, these machines carry their weight. They feel as massive as they look. Each punch thrown; every step taken is a heavy task.

As one would imagine, a machine that large couldn't be handled by one person alone. The mental and physical burden is one that must be shared which is why two pilots who are “drift compatible” are chosen to co-pilot their machine. Once inside the drift, you see the other person's thoughts, experience their memories, feel their pain. This leads to some interesting - albeit brief – development. Brief being key with characters that do indeed hit every note you'd think they would. Even casual movie-goers should be able to spot them: the hero, the love interest, the grizzled veteran, the fiery young upstart, that one guy who's gonna die, the quirky nerd, the quirky Brit, that other guy who's gonna die, those guys over there who are probably gonna die, and the fuzzy canine companion.

That's not to say the acting was unwatchable. It was passable for a movie designed to be a live-action cartoon epic. Idris Elba – perhaps the best actor cast, who has a great record for giving above average performances in semi-decent movies – does well to keep things moving when there aren't any Kaiju to slice up. He is one of several characters who helps explain the science of the situation in a very wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey kind of way. How will you react to the inter-dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? That's up to you.

If you do see this movie, do your best to catch a screening at your nearest IMAX theater. This movie was built with IMAX in mind. And make no mistake, the enhanced experience may very well have swayed my final verdict of Pacific Rim. Scenes like the showdown in Hong Kong City or the drift memory of the barren streets of Tokyo post-Kaiju just wouldn't have been as effective without the crisp picture or earth-shattering sound that IMAX brings to the table.

So then how to score this flick? There's no doubt it's entertaining. And there's no doubt that it is quite silly, as well. There's no doubt that many characters leave a lot to be desired but you also have to note that they mostly serve their purpose in the context of this particular monster movie. Does one grade it on its merits alone, docking points in the portions it deserves? Or do you give it just due for wearing it's Jaeger heart on its sleeve?

I've found that is the best way to judge the movie and I, for one, will choose the latter. Who knows? Maybe my opinion will change once -if- I see it again in a home theater setting. Maybe it will be one of those films I don't wander near again for some time. But as I left the theater on that day, I felt that my money, and the semi-lengthy drive to the nearest IMAX, was not spent in vain. It was an incredibly visceral experience that assaulted my senses and for that, I'll give Mr. Del Toro a tip of my cap. Not many people get to make a passion project such as this. And while it wasn't a magnum opus of any sort, it was still a solid film.

Oh yea, and you can take it or leave it with the 3D.

4 Stars out of 5