25/08/2013

Pacific Rim (2013)

granted, this poster is not official.
It's really cool, though
Film: Pacific Rim
Release: 2013, Theatrical
Starring: Idris ElbaCharlie HunnamRinko Kikuchi
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: In the near future, humanity is brought together when monsters codenamed Kaiju start crawling out of the Pacific, killing thousands. To defend themselves they create Jägers, giant military grade robots that's piloted by two at a time.

Hans' thoughts:

Kaiju, the japanese name for a genre that is very much japanese in nature. Giant monster movies, that is. Here in the west, the general audience hasn't had all that much exposure to this particular niche. There's Cloverfield, the 90's Godzilla adaptation, The Michael Bay Transformers movies and of course the Power Rangers series. I would count King Kong if it wasn't because the creature is actually very small compared to the Japanese Kaiju creatures, the most popular Godzilla being 167 feet tall (400 in the American dub). Though his height has been of some debate during various movies (267 feet in the 1980's Return of Godzilla), it's always been quite a big larger than King Kong who is only 18 feet tall (or 24, if you go by the scenes in New York later in the original movie). Therefore, seeing a western take on this sub-genre is quite the treat to any Kaiju fan. You could almost be snarky and call it Hollywoods apology letter for Godzilla, but I digress.

Okay, so as you can probably tell I love this kind of stuff. Giant mecha's fighting creatures of unfathomable origin while the surroundings are smashed into utter muck. This is very much like watching a monster mash, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack being a prime example (quite a mouthful!).

Of course, had this just been 131 minutes of utter action I probably would've complained quite a bit, and fortunately the movie does give the audience a breather every now and then. The actors chosen for the roles are actually doing a pretty cool job, just don't expect to see a lot of big names here. The only two I could recognize were Ron Perlman and Idris Elba. Both of whom also did great. While not spending a lot of time on character development, the screenwriter(s) have actually managed to create some very compelling characters, one of the other reasons being some very good costumes. My personal favorite being the costume of Ron Perlman's character, he is very otherworldly in this.

No, the movie delivers on exactly what paying audiences came to see: Giant robots fighting giant monsters. Also designing some very cool creatures and robots in the process, giving each a memorable name. This is a franchise in the making, and I shall expect toys, cartoons and videogames to be released shortly if that hasn't happened already. These characters are exactly the stuff I would love to buy for my nephew.

All in all, this is a very fun movie to watch. I felt like an 8 year old kid, mouthing the word "awesome" to myself constantly. If you were disappointed with the Transformers movies, this is for you. If you liked the Transformers movies, this is for you. If you like disaster movies, this is for you and even if you just like a good action flick without too much shakey-cam, this is definitely for you!

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