Pacific Rim

A film where the burden of the acting is put onto Charlie Day's shoulders and the writing is cliche to say the least, you wouldn't expect such a fantastic result. Guillermo del Toro's latest film is composed of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It's not the type of movie I normally would even watch but something about it from the trailer alone seemed so intriguing that I had to investigate, and boy am I glad I did! 

The film doesn't stray far from its main idea: epic larger than life fights. The plot is relatively simple, a rift in an ocean trench causes a bridge between our dimension and a dimension housing these monsters (dubbed Kaiju) to open up and it leaves the Pacific Rim susceptible to attack. Mankind's response? To build giant robots (Jaegers) to fight off the kaiju. A washed up Jaeger pilot is asked to return to duty as a new class of Kaiju appear. Partnered with a young, inexperienced women with abundant potential and a few other interesting Jaeger teams, they represent the humans last line of defense against the impending destruction. 

The great thing about the story that del Toro tells is that there's no extraneous love story, background story, or really any tangent to distract from the main point. While these subplots can add great depth and substance to a movie, based on the writing and acting exhibited in Pacific Rim, it was probably a good idea to leave out the extraneous stories. 

The brilliantly crafted fights between the Kaiju and Jaegers is a true testament to how far special effects have come. The fight scenes are visually incredible and completely captivating. They are the most entertaining part of the movie. 

The most intriguing part of the plot is Charlie Day's subplot. He's a scientist obsessed with studying the Kaiju. He talks at a mile a minute and is convinced that the Kaiju have a purpose other than destruction for its own sake. Using the technology developed for piloting the Jaegers, he links his brain with a Kaiju brain to learn of their origin and ultimately their weakness. 

Don't get me wrong, Pacific Rim contains more than its fair share of shortcomings, but if you take it in the sense of imagination and entertainment, it's one of the best movies of the summer and could potentially change the way people view blockbusters. Although falling short of achieving depth, the film aspires for substance and originality, which is something most big budget sumer films lack.

Grade: B-