As Guillermo del Toro’s New Film, Crimson Peak, Hits Cinemas 500 Days Of Film Reviews Reviews The Awesome Pacific Rim
The monsters came, not from space, but from deep within the Pacific Ocean.
The first Kaigu attacked and destroyed much of San Francisco. The second hit Manilla and the world then realised that attacks were not going to end.
The world needed to respond, to protect itself and to destroy the Kaigu. Humans needed monsters of their own. Cue the awesome machines of the Jaeger programme.
Is It Any Good?
Full disclosure here… I love Guillermo del Toro. Pan’s Labyrinth is now one of my favourite films and I can’t wait to watch Crimson Peak. So I was more than a friendly audience when I settled down to watch Pacific Rim.
This is a stunning film. It is so entertaining, is full of tension and yet has a heart and a soul.
The size of the Kaigu and the Jaeger machines are almost beyond comprehension. Each Kaigu is breathtaking - beautiful and horrific in equal measure just as I have come to expect from del Toro.
Meanwhile, the robot machines (called Jaegers) are spectacular. They feel real - they are grand in scale and you can almost feel their weight (unlike most CGI fighting machines).
The Jaegers are piloted by two people whose minds and memories are connected neurally. They have to work together in order to operate these huge machines. If the pilots do not care about or trust each other they cannot move the robots.
I love the monsters, the booms and the crashes in Pacific Rim. It is high octane action all the way.
However, this is not action at the expense of human storytelling. The characters are all treated with care and are all well developed - we feel invested in their journey. Crucially, each character has to go on a journey in order to find the connections that they need to survive in a world on the brink of destruction.
Idris Elba is superb as Stacker Pentecost. He has some fantastic, rousing speeches to give. Charlie Hunnam gives a strong performance as Raleigh. Meanwhile, Rinko Kikuchi is wonderful and powerful as Mako Mori.
I read somewhere that Del Toro said that he made Pacific Rim as a fun, blockbuster of a family outing. Well, he succeeded. I watched this film with my son and there were times when we both turned to each other and breathed an excited woah!
Random Observations
I'm so excited that del Toro is planning a Pacific Rim 2.
Have you seen Pacific Rim?
If you have and you love it as much as I do, feel free to leave a comment in the box below. If you don’t please don’t expect me to agree, but go ahead and make your case!