I loved it. Growing up as a fan of Gozilla films shown late night on Channel 4 in the U.K. and Mecha anime like Robotech aka Macross there was a good chance I would enjoy it but not a certainty as the abysmal Transformers film showed. I'm also a fan of Guillermo del Toro and he is probably the reason why the film works so well. He brings an attention to detail, feeling and humour that makes this film incredibly enjoyable; it's a simple action film that harks back to something older like 'Top Gun' rather than a more modern 'Inception'. We see well worn places and machines giving a feeling of realism with minor details adding to this like logos on the jaegars inspired by those from World War 2 bombers. There are archetypal characters but these are ones I cared for like in Star Wars, we also have the odd cheesy line in there too; I enjoyed their minor arcs and in particular the actress playing the young Mako was fantastic with her scene reminiscent of those from GDT's Pan's Labyrinth. Whereas Michael Bay turned a childhood series into a sleazy nonsensical mess, even in the context of giant robot beings, GDT brings a genre to life to meet it's full potential.
Knocking out an entire film's worth of back story before the opening credits, Pacific Rim doesn't waste any time in getting to the good stuff: thousand-foot monsters are swapping haymakers with their robotic counterparts inside of ten minutes. If you were expecting anything different, well, I'm not sure why because Pan's Labyrinth this ain't. It's exactly what the promo materials promised: a big-budget SFX sandwich with a dense layer of sci-fi sensibility spread through its guts. Hold the subtlety and nuance.
Fans of the classic monster movie will be, no doubt, tickled to see the evolution of that format (though some of these beasts are so foreign and complex, it's often tough to distinguish up from down amidst the mayhem of a fight scene) but I was somewhat puzzled by its herky-jerk pacing and weird sense of identity. It's a tale that can't choose between serious action and gaudy eccentricity, so it tries to move in both directions without luck. Likewise, I had difficulty looking past the odd jumble of TV stars mashed together at the center of it all, drawn from very different sources and plunked down together in a series of comically mismatched back-and-forths. The action is good, and abundant, but the plot is quite thin and the core characters are all basic caricatures. It's worth a watch, but only as a home theater demo or a simple bit of drunken escapism.
*Style over substance and not in a good way.*
Robots hit monsters. Am I meant to care? Guillermo del Toro's latest project involves humans controlling enormous robots and beating up Godzilla style monsters emerging from the ocean. It's very satisfying that this didn't actually do that well in America, because this is just total formula. We don't need movies like this. We've seen it all before. This action garbage has silver linings here and there. Visually, it's interesting and has plenty of awesome imagery. It's got a strong colour palette. Del Toro's direction is merely acceptable, but there is a sense of wonder in the movie, and the CGI genuinely looks great. In terms of style and visuals, the movie is quite strong and not everything can be deep and meaningful. Many will enjoy this, especially if they see it on a big screen. Pacific Rim frequently feels like a loving tribute to its genre and for some it will be a dream come true. At least it's a bit lighter and less serious than some other blockbusters these days. For some this could be a good antidote to Man Of Steel.
I saw this on 4K screen so maybe I'm biased. The thing which lets PR down is that it's not just robots hitting monsters. There is an hour between the first and second big robot battles and the film has the cheek to try and emotionally engage us with these pathetic, one dimensional characters. Seriously? The film may look great, but it's so cartoony and flat (While pretending it isn't flat by shoving loads of meaningless backstory down our throats).
My Score: 4/10
For me, Pacific Rim was a huge disappointment: I mainly bought the BluRay because the flick was directed by Guillermo del Toro (I really liked his first Hellboy movie) and because it had good ratings across all review sites (e.g. currently 74% at Trakt). However, my excited anticipation vanished in no time: I THINK del Toro wanted the Kaiju to be seen as evil monsters that inspire fear and rage in the audience and therefore their slaughter by the Jaegers to be seen as just and noble. However, I never had mercy with mankind being attacked by the Kaiju and therefore never could identify with the glorified pilots of the Jaegers as the saviors of mankind. Additionally, after 15-30 minutes one knows exactly how the flick will end (the world is saved by a odd combination of two pilots in an old and decommissioned Jaeger based on a discovery by "Kaiju hippie" scientist). The sometimes laughable dialogs do not help either.
All in all this makes Pacific Rim an uninspired action flick I cannot recommend to anyone, even though the special effects are decent and their is a quite some action to be had. Why this movie is getting such good reviews I cannot understand: a German magazine wrote that Pacific Rim is an "exiting mixture of Transformers, Godzilla and Inception". And while the references are not altogether wrong, it lacks in many ways because Transformers and Inception are both out of league for Pacific Rim and the word "exiting" is just wrong when talking about this flick!
7.5/10 - The Jaegers are freaking awesome! :D
Seriously, the Jaegers are super cool :) I like their designs/engineering and size/mass. And the quote about them being able to fight a hurricane.
Scientifically they don't make a lot of sense (e.g., it would seem smarter to pilot them remotely and they don't seem like cost effective weapons at all) but they're simply cool to watch.
My favorite scene was the one where they dropped down inside the Jaeger's head to connect to the body. I just like such mechanical rail/elevator constructions and find it fascinating to watch (cool CGI combined with cool sound effects and animations).
When the intro talked about the aliens coming from below I immediately had to think of the Crysis game franchise. Until that portal/breach got mentioned right after that which makes it a bit different.
And of course there's the soundtrack! The main theme is just epic <3
And the main characters are pretty fun. Becket and Mori are lovely together, Geiszer and Gottlieb are entertaining, Pentecost is the boss, and Chau is just badass (I'm glad that he isn't dead :D).
The beginning was really good but I got quite a bit bored during all of the fighting in the second half (I'm not interested in the Kaiju and it doesn't show that much of the cool abilities of the Jaegers - or maybe I'm just bored because it lacks depth/meaning).
Not my first time to watch it but I didn't remember much about it AT ALL, so watching it again was very enjoyable. Pure science fiction, so if sci-fi isn't your cup of tea this probably won't interest you at all. Gigantic Transformer-like robots (controlled by humans, not cars that morph into robots) battle against just-as-gigantic alien life forms that are wanting to invade earth. Yes, the premise is very definitely way out there but this is still a fun movie to watch…especially if you can get into stuff like the Godzilla or King Kong movies, or even the Alien franchise (which is one of my favorites). You have to disengage your brain for a couple hours (this is 2 hours PLUS of runtime) and just enjoy the show. What I enjoyed about it along with all the action sequences was that it had an actual storyline that made sense. Probably the one thing that I disliked about this was how cheesy the ending was; it just seemed ridiculous at the tail-end of such a high-performance, extreme-action movie like this. It wasn't "bad", mind you; just very cheesy and "roll-your-eyes"-worthy. (The final "sneak peek" toward the end of the credits was good for a grin, however.) The acting was satisfactory but again, you're not watching something like Pacific Rim in search of Academy Award-winning cinema. (If you are, I weep for you.) This was just a fun, action-packed sci-fi movie that was good for a couple hours' entertainment. Definitely worth watching - for the right audience, that is - and even though this is not my first time to see it, I may even watch it again.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 5BlockedParent2022-01-15T16:05:31Z
I believe you can't really listen to an album or watch a movie just once to decide whether you like it or not. There are rare occasions when I'll either love or loathe a film on my initial watch, but if I come away shrugging my shoulders, I'll try to see it again to coax my true opinions out.
I'm a giant monster fan. "King Kong" thrilled me as a child and still does as an adult, even though it was made in 1933. The original "Godzilla" and its sequels are among the most enjoyable movies I regularly watch. I know they're not really thought-provoking or examples of great acting or stories, but they are spectacles . You watch them to see giant beasts trampling the scenery. Razor-thin plots and ham-fisted dialogue are the norm and if you approach them with that in mind, they can be very enjoyable. This is exactly what I had to do with "Pacific Rim".
The first time I saw it in IMAX 3D. I had been looking forward to it for months. Movies featuring giant beasts don't come along every day. Superhero movies, yes. Kaiju, no. I have to say that my first go-round was disappointing. I couldn't follow the action, the characters were the cookie-cutter, "Independence Day" types, and the story was light to say the least. Worst of all, each battle seemed to be in the rain or in the water. Everything seemed dark and I couldn't get a sense of the scale of the beasts. The kaiju also seemed vacant of any personality at all. Bummed is the word I would say described my opening day viewing.
Then I kept hearing and reading that many people and critics enjoyed it. I gave it another shot but this time in 2D. Now, I don't know if I was in a bad mood on opening day, my expectations were too high or it was the 3D vs. 2D thing, but I really liked it the second time. I was able to follow the action much better and got a feel for how large the kaiju and mechs were. There were some great fight scenes, primarily during the second act. There were some tremendous scenes of awesome big things battling. The best moments for me were when the kaiju could be seen smashing through the city streets in the daylight. There were not nearly enough of these moments for my appetite, but when they did occur, I felt like a youngster all wide-eyed with mouth agape.
It's not worth carrying on about the plot. It was thin. Kaiju and Mechs fight and smash the crap out of each other and that is exactly why I watch these kinds of films.
Guillermo del Toro has not yet made a movie that I've disliked. He does a great job with the creatures he has a hand in creating and the worlds he creates are beautiful and awesome to look at.
My complaints about "Pacific Rim" is that there was too much focus on the Mechs or 'jaegars' and not enough on the kaiju. The kaiju didn't have enough screen time to leave any sort of personality or generate a great threat. They were interesting creations but seemed rather generic. I won't spoil anything by saying that the movie has an answer for why that is the case, but it still is disappointing.
If you've seen this movie once and came away unimpressed, you should give it another chance. A second screening sold me on del Toro's accomplishment of creating one of the coolest B-Movies you'll ever see.