Rant and Rave: ‘Pacific Rim’

What is the most logical thing for humanity to do when a leviathan suddenly bursts out from the ocean and attacks major Pacific cities? Well, build huge robots of course! This is the main premise of Guillermo Del Toro’s latest brainchild, Pacific Rim.

Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnman) is a former Jaeger pilot, men who drive gigantic robots, whose brother’s death from battling monsters called Kaiju still haunts him. Working on a new defense against these creatures years after the incident, he is fished out by his former commanding officer, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba). Together with him, a rookie named Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) and other pilots, they try to rid the world of this catastrophe.

The film was able to revive the classic monster vs. robot genre and turn it into a spectacle that is action packed and glorious to watch. The special effects were simply amazing. From the monsters and the robots to the futuristic design of the cities, the computer-generated imagery was so appealing that bug-eyed anime eyes expressing total happiness will pop out of everyone’s eye sockets as they watch the movie.

The action scenes were no less of great. Gigantic mechanical men piloted by two people synchronized by their minds against large beasts bent on destroying the world brawling with each other is food to the eyes.

In all honesty, the special effects were the only thing that saved the movie from crashing and burning. If one were to remove it from the equation, it may have passed for a bad straight to DVD movie that people wouldn’t bother to rent.

The acting was, for lack of a better term, awful. There were times wherein the acting was in the extreme points, the under dramatization and the over dramatizations of scenes were revolting to say the least. This really is a disappointment since the movie was really hyped up and people were expecting it to be great. In the end, the special effects brought on complacency in the acting.

The screenplay was equally terrible; cliché lines and bad dialogue are just some of the factors that brought Pacific Rim to lower standards. The film also seemed to imitate the Iron Man franchise by having comedic scenes amidst the stunning CGI and actions scenes. However, they were very spread out and random.

Overall, Pacific Rim is an amazing movie; if all people watch films for their amazing special effects. A great plot subverted by horrible acting, low quality dialogue and obvious inconsistencies, it is a must watch for those that miss the good ol’ days of monsters slugging it out with larger than life robots. In the end, however, the movie was hyped up to be one of the greatest movies of the year but in the end it just does not live up.  The cinematography is what saved it from being a total flop. It really isn’t one of Guillermo Del Toro’s greatest works.

Rating: 3.0