Sometimes, the right man in the chair that says "Director" on the back makes all the difference. No disrespect to the actors and screenwriters involved, but without director Guillermo Del Toro's sure hand, Pacific Rim could have easily been just another loud, noisy, and dumb example of summer escapism. Instead, with Del Toro at the helm, this movie retains those first two adjectives but jettisons the third. Those attracted to this movie, a rare original property in a sea of sequels, remakes, and adaptations, for robot-on-monster smack-downs will certainly have their quota fulfilled, but Pacific Rim succeeds because it injects more than its fair share of ingenuity into a "humans vs aliens" template. This is the movie the Transformers films could have been, but weren't.
I like the way Pacific Rim introduces its backstory quickly and economically. As we're told in a voiceover, giant, scaly monsters known as the Kaiju have surfaced from beneath the Earth's oceans and gone on a rampage. When conventional weaponry fails, the Jaeger program, 250-foot-tall robots piloted by two humans linked by a "mind meld" to control the machine's movement, is born. Presided over by Stacker Pentacost (Idris Elba), the Jaegers win more than their fair share of battles, and the pilots achieve rock-star status around the world. But after one of the program's best pilots, hotshot Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) makes an ill-fated decision in battle that results in him losing his brother (and co-pilot), the Kaiju adapt to the humans' strategy and turn the tide of war in their favor. This results in the Jaeger program's funding cut off and Beckett exiled to a career in construction. But five years later, Pentacost wants to give the Jager program one last go to stop an impending apocalypse and bring Beckett back into action, this time aided by one of the brightest young minds in the business, designer and aspiring pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi).
For the most part, very little in Pacific Rim will surprise the veteran movie-goer. If you're expecting Beckett to encounter plenty of resentment among the rebels and prove he's really the right man for the job, you're absolutely right. And if you're expecting Mori to undergo the typical rookie struggles, you're right on the money. And as for whether certain characters live or die? Not hard to guess. There's also the token human antagonist (an egomaniac rival pilot who gets into a fight with Beckett), but he thankfully doesn't take up too much screen time. The Kaiju alone are imposing enough bad guys, after all. But a key conceit, that of a "neural bridge" linking two pilots' minds and memories together, is fascinating, unique, and effectively used throughout the film. This isn't just some throwaway plot device; it's an important part of how the story unfolds and how the best pilots are chosen for this physically and mentally exhausting task.
Pacific Rim is not an actors' movie (few summer blockbusters are), but this one nonetheless contains fine performances. Charlie Hunnam, best known as the star of the biker drama "Sons of Anarchy," has an effective "everyman" quality. Rinko Kikuchi, who I will never forget from Babel, not only gets numerous chances to kick ass big-time, but does a solid job of portraying her character's warring emotions in spite of her limited grasp on the English language. These two share more of a partner dynamic than that of lovers, which represents a refreshing change for a movie like this. In spite of this being an apocalyptic tale, there's plenty of room for comic relief in the persons of two engineers played hilariously by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman. And let's not forget frequent Del Toro collaborator Ron Perlman, who is once again delightful as a black-market Kaiju-body-parts dealer. He even takes part in one of the best post-credit sequences of any movie so far this year.
But the real standout is British actor Idris Elba. He dominates every scene and every line of dialogue with perfect intonation and intensity, and he even gets a speech that I'll argue is even better than that of Bill Pullman's similar one from Independence Day. His role as the stern, authoritative type is right off the shelf of Hollywood archetypes, but he brings a humanity that might not have been on the printed page. Elba may not be the lead, but he has most of the film's showiest character-based moments, and if there's a human star audiences will remember from Pacific Rim, it's him.
Del Toro brings a fabulous visual aesthetic to Pacific Rim. Lighting all around is superb, whether the action is taking place indoors, in or beneath the ocean, or in the spectacularly-lit streets of Hong Kong (nice to see a movie involving destruction not use New York City for once). Every Jaeger-on-Kaiju battle is cleanly edited and designed for "oohs" and "ahs"; at no time do we struggle to follow who's who. Every spectacle tops the one before it, and one of the scenes from the trailer, of a Jaeger wielding a long ship as a sword against an oncoming Kaiju, is even better in its full glory. Even some of the training scenes, especially one where Mori and Beckett go one-on-one, are a lot of fun. And mericfully, the 3D effects are well-utilized with very little motion blur, appropriate brightness levels, and solid depth-of-field. I was surprised as to how easy it was to watch fight scenes at night without itching to remove the glasses. Put this in the rare group of movies where the 3D surcharge is worth it.
Pacific Rim has plenty of company in its battle for the summer box office, but unlike Star Trek Into Darkness or the numerous superhero outings, I don't see this one polarizing viewers at all. For one, it's not based on another property (although there is a "prequel comic" to explain some of the backstory details, for anyone who cares), so it's not competing with uber-picky fan expectations. But it also gets the tone and scope just right for a blockbuster of its ilk. And the running time of 131 minutes feels organic rather than protracted. I certainly wouldn't want every movie to be like Pacific Rim, I enjoy complex characters and stories too much (two things that are a little undercooked here), but as slam-bang, escapist entertainment, it's tough to beat. As one character says early in the movie, "Let's go fishing."
Rating: *** (out of ****)
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