Pacific Rim Review

A's thoughts on PR-

Rated PG-13   Running time 2 hours and 11 minutes

Let's start with a general synopsis of the movie...When monstrous creatures (Kaiju) start emerging from the sea, the people of earth band together to form enormous robots called Jaegers in order to fight back.  Each robot is piloted by two humans whose minds are linked together by a neural bridge.  Facing the mounting apocalypse, a small but unlikely group of pilots are gathered together to close the rift and (hopefully) save the world.

A fantastic opening prologue sets the scene extremely well, showing just how the rift in the bottom of the Pacific opened a portal to another dimension and allowed the army of alien creatures to come through.  During this prologue, the visual effects are stunning.  I recommend watching it in 3D for this scene alone.  It was breathtaking.

I must admit, the acting was sub par in most cases, but that fact wasn't entirely helped by the dialogue.  But let's be honest, do we really go to these movies for the acting or the dialogue?  It's always great if you can have it all, but you know what we REALLY want to see is robots kicking the junk out of some aquatic looking aliens.  We got plenty of that.  The fight scenes were, for lack of a better term, epic.  I particularly enjoyed a scene where one of the Jaegers used an ocean liner like a cricket bat to beat the snot out of a Kaiju.  FANTASTIC. 

The fight scenes are engaging and the Kaiju are equally disgusting and exciting.  Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi as Raleigh and Mako did a fair job in their roles, their best moment being when they spar against each other.  It was excellent to see a girl kick some tail and a man respect her for it, not to mention stand up for her afterward.  Playing the young Mako was Mana Ashida. In my opinion, this little girl was by far the best actress of the bunch.  She didn't have very much screen time, but I was stunned at the performance that she gave. Absolutely brilliant. My second favorites have to be Charlie Day as Dr. Newton Geiszler and Burn Gorman as Gottleib.  These two brought so much character to the film and every moment they were on screen was just fun.  It was a delight to see Burn Gorman as somewhat of an anxiety ridden scientist and something very different from his Torchwood character.  I was in love with Charlie Day.  The smart, but awkward totally worked for him,  while the skinny tie, tattoo sleeves and glasses pushed him to borderline sexy.  Ow Ow!

Idris Elba's performance as Stacker Pentecost was commanding, yet lovingly paternal.  Clifton Collins Jr. didn't offer a hugely memorable performance, but his ensemble of button up, suspenders and bow-tie made me think of Matt Smith.  Sarah and I had to make a "bow ties are cool" comment while watching.  Another random thing that just made me giggle had to be the Russians.  The woman looked like Gwen Stefani and the guy looked like Non from Superman II.  This made all of their screen time highly enjoyable.

All in all, I give this film a B+.  The flaws in dialogue and sometimes shaky acting were made up for by the friggin' sweet action sequences and epic battles.  I recommend seeing it in the theatre, and if you can watch it in 3D, do so.  I have a feeling it will lose much of it's luster on a smaller screen.  Make sure you stay after the credits for an additional scene.  :)


Graphics Girl here, and it's my turn to take a hack at reviewing Pac Rim.

I got a chance to look over Allison's eloquent take on the film and had to text her. "My version is going to be a bit simpler. EPIC!!! Whoa! GO SEE IT!!!" She seemed to like my take on it. So, let me preface this by saying that, I AM NOT A PAID MOVIE REVIEWER. These are my personal opinions. Take them or leave them.

All day I've been thinking about what I wanted to write about this movie. And to be perfectly honest, most of it sounded very much like the text I sent above. But then something happened...while listening to The Nerdist Podcast (with Charlie Day), Chris Hardwick geeked out about this movie and I realized that my reaction was completely appropriate.

People, this movie....I mean, it is EPIC. It's the type of movie 3D was created for. It's beautiful and amazing and HUGE....and please, if you have ANY desire to watch it, please do it now. Do NOT wait for the DVD. It was made for large screens and 3D glasses. Got it? I imagine Pacific Rim to be what the creators of the Godzilla movies of old envisioned for their films.

So, with that said, maybe the acting wasn't Oscar-worthy, but the intense action scenes and the stunning visuals kept me waiting for a potty-break till after the additional scene during the final credits. I loved that Raleigh's partner was a girl who could hold her own when sparring with him...and when it was appropriate, he defended her in a true display of chivalry.

If you are a geek and can appreciate a good dose of action, some creepy monsters, and special effects that just leave your jaw hanging....I think you'll like this movie. I would like to give this movie an A, but if I do that, it's going to be hard to judge anything else, right? I'll give it a B+ as well.

As a side note, The Nerdist Podcast: not only is there an interview with Charlie Day, there is also one with Charlie Hunnam. Listen to that one too, it's very entertaining. He's a very loquacious chap. NOTE: IT DOES HAVE EXPLICIT LANGUAGE!

Rotten Tomatoes gives Pacific Rim a 71% on the Tomato Meter.