Review of Pacific Rim

It’s built upon and speaks the language of nerd culture. Video games, action figures, monster movies, comic books, anime and Saturday morning cartoons were clearly the steady dietary building blocks of Pacific Rim. And what those blocks built them into was a ripping good time.

As an artist, Guillermo del Toro seems to have two settings: prestige and fanboy. Sure, Pacific Rim doesn’t hold a candle to the lofty artistic heights of Pan’s Labyrinth or The Devil’s Backbone, but it taps into that same smart, creative energy that fueled the two Hellboy movies. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a ton of imagination, creativity and lovingly detailed craft on display, because all of the money and love is right up there on the screen.

In his filmography, Pacific Rim may only out-rank Mimic and Cronos, but it still has many pleasures to offer. Let’s begin with the designs for the monsters, or as they’re dubbed here kaijus. The kaiju look like combinations of bats, apes, rhinos, sharks and other random animals assembled together, enlarged and filled with venom and mutated tongues. Lovingly detailed and thoughtfully crafted, these creatures are highly original, clearly descended from Godzilla and his gallery of foes but with their own unique spin. They’re obviously beings which have emerged from del Toro’s imagination, they wouldn’t be entirely out of place in Hellboy or smaller scale versions could fit into the world of Pan’s Labyrinth.

Each one got bigger, more deranged and enchanting than the last. To pick a favorite would be hard, but a few specific kaiju stick out in my mind and that’s most of the battle in crafting newer movie monsters. These creatures don’t have the benefit of being a highly specific archetype like a mummy or werewolf or vampire would. Kaiju means “strange creature” in Japanese so that’s a fairly broad net to work with.

To fight these creatures in the pre-apocalyptic future mankind has created gigantic robots piloted by two people called Jaegers. These reminded me not only of Transformers but Power Rangers, Voltron, Gundamn Wing and Battle of the Planets. Again, del Toro has taken these influences and popped out something wholly original on the other side. Clunky yet still beautiful to look at, these enormous mechanical men play out like a ten-year-old boys fevered play sessions with his action figures fighting his dinosaurs. Or maybe that’s just me projecting and remembering some fun times I had as a kid.

No matter, del Toro has also filled the cast with a quirky and strong bunch of actors. Charlie Hunnam does a fine job as the central character, and it doesn’t hurt one bit that he’s incredibly attractive and frequently shirtless. But none of that would matter if he couldn’t make us care about his character. Idris Elba practically drips authority by just looking sharp in his suit and standing ramrod straight. Charlie Day is fast-talking, shrill and hilarious as the fanboy cipher. Ron Perlman of course shows up, and he’s given a deliciously hammy and ridiculous supporting role. I would have liked to have seen more of him in the film. If they truly plan on making a sequel, and I’m not sure where else the story would go from here given how it ends, I’d love to follow his character around for a longer period of time.

The movie belongs to Rinko Kikuchi. Not only is she given the most engaging character and the fullest arch to act out, but she manages to layer her performance with enough pathos and genuine emotion to make the film even greater with her presence. After getting Oscar nominated for her emotionally naked and gut-wrenching performance in Babel, she’s managed to carve out a strange but immanently fascinating career in supporting parts in American films. She’s the best thing about The Brothers Bloom, and the same could be said about her work here. I hope del Toro finds more roles for her in his future projects.

Pacific Rim knows what it is, and does it all beautifully. There are enough interesting ideas and strong performances to keep it from going too brain-dead in spots, but there are a few moments where the dialog and events get too silly for even these seasoned actors to properly sell. Yet I still found that to be part of its charm.