Pacific Rim: A Fangirl Review

Pacific Rim: A Fangirl Review

Every year, Hollywood promises a summer full of blockbuster movies, but how often do they really deliver on that?   We get a lot of sequels and big budget movies that promise to entertain, but often leave us and our wallets feeling empty.

This summer has been hit or miss for me, so far.  I loved Iron Man 3 and Star Trek into Darkness but wasn’t thrilled with Man of Steel, and completely let down by World War Z.  I enjoyed Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 but didn’t leave the theater with the same love I had for the first ones.  Needless to say I had very high hopes that Pacific Rim would even out my summer movie experience.

My interest in this movie started last year at the New York Comic Con.  Guillermo del Toro held a panel with Legendary Studios and discussed Pacific Rim, and buzz over the movie quickly hit the show floor.  Sadly, I couldn’t get in to that panel, but I was infected by the buzz nonetheless and have kept up on its progress ever since.  Let’s face it, del Toro directing  a looming apocalypse, alien monsters that come from the deep rather than space and giant robots built to kick some monster ass…I’m all in! 

 

Pacific Rim is everything a summer blockbuster should be.  First and foremost, you should expect to be entertained, and you will be! Right from the start, we get an introduction into a world that has been invaded by Kaiju, gigantic monsters that do not come in peace.   They defeat the first one with Military firepower, but when they realize there are more, extreme measures must be taken and the Jaeger (Hunter in German) Program is born!

Please bear with me while my inner 12-year-old geeks out for a moment…the monsters are freakin’ cool and scary as hell!  The Kaiju (monster in Japanese) are measured on a Fujita-esque scale from 1-5: 1 being the first to emerge and 5 being the end of life as we know it.  They resemble dinosaurs and I love them all the more for it.  I would love to give more detail on them, but I really don’t want to give too much away. It’s much better to discover that for yourself.  I bit all my nails off during the fighting scenes with the Robots! Each time they would tackle, throw or spit toxic goo at the robots, I thought “Shit! How are they going to defeat this Kaiju?  It’s so powerful!”  As the movie progresses, they just get bigger and badder!

 

On to the robots!  You can’t help but be fired up over these things!  They are massive! They can fight on land and sea and they have some pretty cool gadgets for kicking some serious Kaiju ass.  Each Jaeger needs two pilots to control it, the stronger the bond between them, the better they fight.  The fight sequences between the Jaegers and the Kaiju are jaw-dropping.  We see them fight in all kinds of places, but the best one takes place in the Hong Kong bay.  The colorful background of Hong Kong and the intense fight between multiple Jaegers makes for one intense battle scene that garnered cheers from the audience at the end of it.  My personal favorite Jaeger was the Gypsy Danger, but they were all awesome.  I’m sure you’ll have your own favorite. 

Pacific Rim is 132 minutes of pure fun!  The plot is simple—Monsters bad, Robots good—but it’s a joy to watch.  Again, with this movie, the human storyline may take a backseat at times, but, honestly, who cares?  There’s enough of it to keep the story going and stay interested until the next epic battle. Personally, I liked the story; I thought it was well told and paced perfectly.  I cared just enough about everyone to feel something for them when they were in danger and to shed a tear or two at the end when…oh I won’t spoil it.  

Go see this movie!  If you’re tired of the crap that Hollywood gives you 90% of the time, then go see this movie and let the box office show that we still want original movies that for once can truly be called a summer blockbuster!