Headed out to the movies again today to see Pacific Rim. I had been looking forward to this movie for two reasons...Transformers and Guillermo del Toro. I figured the creatures and graphics would be incredible! So off we went to the opening showing.
One of the reasons I loved the first and last Transformers is that you are supposed to take it seriously. Sure, there was some laughs but they were not campy. The reason I hated the second Transformers is because it resorted to campy comedy way too much. And thus the flaw in Pacific Rim. The previews led me to believe that it was like the first Transformers. It is much more like the second one or Hellboy. That is fine if you loved both of those movies. In fact, my husband didn't mind the camp but then he loved Hellboy. Unfortunately the camp wasn't like say, The Fifth Element (which we adore), it was more like trying to insert Medea into The Notebook. Seriously bad.
Quickly the story is about aliens who attack up from the ocean and not the sky. The creatures are definitely up to del Toro's reputation level. Fantastically done! The graphics are also up to his level. You don't feel for a single second that what you are seeing isn't realistic. The group of Rangers has been fighting the creatures for 7 years when our story opens and the fight continues on for another 5 as the creatures adapt to the battle and we play catch up.
The main characters, beginning with the leader of this group, Stacker played by Idris Elba (who we LOVE from the British Series Luther) does a really great job with the role of the commander in chief of this group of "Rangers" who begin as a military squad and end up as a rebel alliance. I have come to hate the "Braveheart" speech that seems to be in every single movie now that has a battle. But, for once, I didn't hate this one. Elba delivers a short but perfect speech that fits into the movie easily.
Our hero here, Raleigh Beckett played by Charlie Hunnam, is one of those "great guy" types who valiantly goes "once more unto the breech" after a tragic accident leaves him out of the loop for 5 years. He is paired up at the Hong Kong station with a protoge of Stacker's, Mako played by Rinko Kikuchi. She has all sorts horrid memories from losing her family to the creatures, known here as Kaiju (which means Strange Beast in Japanese) and is determined to become a Ranger and pilot the huge Jaeger robots (which means Hunter in German).
Now here are the issues. There are two scientists (played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman) at the helm here as well. And, of course, they are part of the reason we figure out how to defeat the beasts. However, for whatever reason, the decided to write these two characters as total buffoons. They are complete caricatures. Funny voices, weird twitches, manic every moment of the movie. Every time they were on the screen it would break the spell for me. I'd roll my eyes in irritation for a few moments and they would finally be gone and we could go back to the movie. Unfortunately the writers decided that those two characters were just not enough for this movie and they decided that Ron Perlman, as Hannibal Chau, needed to be added to the story. The character is supposed to be a Kaiju body part farmer and dealer. And, apparently, as far over the top as you could possibly make him to be. He embodies the comic in comic book in a big way...all the way down to the little mid credit scene. These three characters, and the fact that no-one can seem to communicate life or death information by anything but by being in person face to face...apparently cell phones, or phones of any sort, don't work anymore??...really killed this movie for me.
Unfortunately the great effects and creatures just can not make up for the poor writing and acting in this movie. With the opening scenes I was thinking this was a 9...then it dropped to an 8 with the arrival of the scientists and then to a 7 when Perlman entered the scene and ended at about a 6.5 when, once again, a cell phone just couldn't be used for the delivery of crucial information. My husband, who likes the campy comic book style movies, gives it a 7.5. I don't think I can recommend this one to anyone who didn't like Hellboy and he can only marginally recommend it himself. If your movie money is tight this summer then maybe you should wait to see this on Dvd.
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