PACIFIC RIM – To Fight Monsters, We Created Monsters!

Humanity is at war with monstrous creatures, known as the Kaiju. The rise up from a breach beneath the sea and leave destruction and millions of lives lost in their wake. For years Earth is repeatedly attacked by the giant Kaiju that emerge from a portal beneath the Pacific Ocean. Each Kaiju attack becomes more powerful and frequent than the last. To fight the Kaiju who are becoming more smarter and intelligent with each wave, humankind created a weapon: massive Robots, called Jaegers. The Jaegers are controlled by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge.
 

The Jaeger programme is called into action to fight against a wave 2 Kaiju attack during which a team of Brother Pilots are separated with one washing up on a beach with his Jaeger in tatters. Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) is that pilot.

Like ‘Man of Steel‘, ‘Pacific Rim‘ goes straight into the story telling and provides a glimpse of what is to come and tells the back story of the war between the Jaegers and the Kaiju, you then have a big bang and up pops the title ‘PACIFIC RIM‘.

The Jaeger programme loses its funding in favour of a new sea wall defence which is agreed by all countries across the world as the best defence against the giant monsters of the sea. The programme is moved to Hong Kong and they can fight with what remaining Jaegers they have and repair them but their is no further funding for the programme.

Raleigh leaves the programme and is later tracked down by Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) where he is building sea walls, the new line of defence against the Kaiju. Pentecost convinces Raleigh to rejoin the programme and he is reactivated as part of a final risky plan to destroy the portal and the Kaiju once and for all.

Raleigh goes through tests for his new partner and asks for Mako Mori (Rinko Kikcuhi) to be his new co-pilot, much to Pentecost’s disapproval. As Raleigh tries to heal his inner wounds and during a neural fuse with Mako he discovers why Pentecost was so against the partnership.

They meet up with a fearless scientist Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) who discovers a way to link using a similar neural fuse with a Kaiju’s brain. This proves a mixed blessing as he finds out more about the Kaiju. It provides information as to why they are attacking humankind. As the waves of attacks of Kaiju becomes more intensive Dr. Newton and his nemesis Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) need to once again build a neural link with a Kaiju brain to find out what is the best way to defeat them once and for all.

Gypsy Danger and Striker Eureka are the only two Jaegers remaining as the stakes rise for the final battle between man and beast. The plan is for the Jaegers to deliver a warhead into the rift and an unlikely pilot needs to be found due to one of team Striker Eureka being injured.

There seems to be a spate at the moment of British Actors playing the top roles in Hollywood, has the American Talent dried up all of a sudden? For once in a Hollywood film it is not the American’s that fight back but the whole world united as one to save the day.

There are standout performances from some less known actors here. Hunnam who left our shores and headed across the Atlantic has done some great roles since his stint as Nathan Jones in the UK version of ‘Queer as Folk‘. We have Robert Kazinsky, formerly of ‘Eastenders‘ fame, now in season six of ‘True BloodIdris Elba is a more well known name after ‘Prometheus‘ and ‘Luther‘. Charlie Day’s squeaky fast-paced voice is excellent for the role as the scientist, as it makes him come across as knowledgeable and passionate about the job he does.

The only way to describe this movie is to think about a kid playing with dinosaurs and robots and them having a fight. Think ‘Battleship‘ meets ‘Transformers‘ and you have a good premise of the movie. Normally we have man versus machine this is man and machine against beast. I do like the soundtrack and can often be heard humming the title track.

I had the pleasure of seeing this film twice and with two different experiences. The first time was at the IMAX and this was awesome. This film, due to the monstrous size of the Jaegers and Kaiju works better on that size screen. If you have ever been to Kennedy Space Centre you will understand the sheer size of the strong>Jaegers as they are just as big as the Space Shuttles they build.

The second experience was in a DBOX seat and was in 2D. Cineworld have converted some of their cinemas with motion seating that moves and vibrates and is supposed to make you feel like you are part of the film. It was enjoyable however they used the same motions for most of the battle scenes so it became a bit repetitive and predictable. I did like the free massage. You could probably recreate this at home with a great surround sound system and a lazyboy massage chair.

Some have slated this movie saying that it was big budget and boring, however I don’t think this is the case. It had a big budget that is clear to see, however I do think it will make big names of the less well-known actors
 

5 STARS out of 5 for me. I loved it, will be buying the BLURAY. Like I said, for once an unbiased America-saves-the-world movie. It’s exciting from start to finish and still develops a back story and some character and story depth.
 

I am sure we will have ‘PACIFIC RIM 2‘ in the not too distant future.

 

Director…   Guillermo del Toro
 

Starring:

Charlie Hunnam…  Raleigh Becket

Diego Klattenhoff…  Yancy Becket

Idris Elba…  Stacker Pentecost

Rinko Kikuchi…  Mako Mori

Charlie Day…  Dr. Newton Geiszler

Burn Gorman…  Gottlieb

Max Martini…  Herc Hansen

Robert Kazinsky…  Chuck Hansen

Ron Perlman…  Hannibal Chau

 

Go see it for yourself.

 

Mark LEGOBear MacKenzie