In the near future, a portal in the fabric of reality
within the Pacific unleashes a horde of powerful monsters, known as Kaiju, on
the Earth. Humanity was once able to
fight back with monsters of their own: Giant Robots known as Jaegers. But the Kaiju have grown stronger and the
Jaegers are beginning to fall. Down to
their last few units, humanity rallies its troops in Hong Kong for one final
assault to end the war once and for all.
Washed up veteran Ralleigh Beckett is recruited to join the battle in a
Jaeger that he once piloted with his brother.
Now teamed with an eager, beautiful rookie named Mako, Ralleigh and his
unit, the Gypsy Danger, may be the last trump card humanity has to play against
the Kaiju. Failure to close the portal
in time could result in a full on onslaught of more powerful Kaiju and, of
course, the end of the world.
What can I say but…WOW!!!
It's easy to go into the film like I did expecting live
action Anime because the summary of the film above is a combination of many of
the typical plots that power the mecha and sci fi genres of Anime. And boy do they do it right. Not only are the Kaiju and the Jagers amazing
to see in action but the human cast is also pretty impressive: Pentecost, the
figurehead with a shady past; Beckett, a former Jager pilot with a tragic
piloting history; Mako, an untested rookie who wants to avenge a wrong from her
past, all of the character types are there and their actors delve into them
very well, bringing out some great performances just as impressive as the
visuals. A special shout out goes to
Idris Elba, who sells his commanding role so well, you know the second this guy
is on screen, he's the one you DO NOT want to F with. In many ways he reminds me a lot of Captain
Kunigi from Rahxephon, a brilliant commander who appears to be cold in order to
get the job done and lead his people but there may be a bit more to him than it
seems, maybe he can feel. Rinko Kikuchi
was just as impressive as Mako, an Anime girl come to life (even with a bit of
colored hair). She's cute, feisty, a
helluva fighter and ever willing to help.
I do wish a little more was done with her.
Actually, that leads me to my only real gripe with the
film. The first three quarters feel like
your typical first three episode setup for a giant robot anime, establishing
world, characters, enemies, mecha, relationships and terminology etc. But when we get to the films last act, there
is the feeling that you are jumping 23-48 episodes ahead (most giant robot
anime typically range from 26-51 episodes long, i.e Evangelion and Rahxephon
clock in at 26eps while most Gundam shows end around Ep51). The ending feels a bit rushed and if this
film had been split into two, then a lot of time could've been given to
fleshing out these amazing characters a little more. But by the time for the final battle, the lost
opportunity for such storytelling is something you're just going to have to
roll with. Again, it's a nit pick, I
liked the story and the character, and the first 3/4ths did the best work with
them.
But if you really don't care about the story and are just
there for the smack down, then you will certainly not be disappointed. This is a film that needs to be seen on the
big screen in order to get the full effect of the scale of these fights. The battles feel big not just in opponent
size but in punches, shots, hell the scene from the trailers where Beckett and
Mako drag a boat along the streets of Hong Kong as their choice of weapon feels
large and exciting. If you were ever a
five year old who watched Voltron or Godzilla or Power Rangers and wished they
would go at it, then you will be grinning at least once during some of these
fights. Also amazing is the design of
the Jagers themselves. Much like mecha
Anime, all of the Jagers present are special and unique in their own way. Their weapons, fighting styles, all
customized and it's cool to see each ones special talents in action at least
once in their fights.
It's hard to believe that Hollywood managed to get
something many only thought the Japanese could do the best. Pacific Rim packs more punch, thrills and
human emotion into its runtime than the whole of Michael Bay’s Transformer
films put together. The world should
take note. If Pacific Rim could get all
of this right and not be based on any Anime…there’s hope that more live action
Anime like projects such as this one could see more success. It may not appeal to a general audience, but
for Anime fans and fans of Godzilla and his group of Giant Monster friends,
this was a dream come true. We have the
template, let’s make it even better next time.
8/10
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