My brief thoughts on Pacific Rim...

Pacific Rim_poster

I finally caught Pacific Rim yesterday night with my better half and son. This is supposedly THE movie to watch this summer and to be honest I was rather curious to see whether it does live up to its much propagated hype. We went to watch the 2D version but you could also opt for the 3D format if that's more of your cup of tea.
 
Right, moving on to my quick thoughts on the movie.
 

Pretty basic premise here. Giant monsters destroy cities all over the world. Giant robots were successful in the beginning but they were shelved by governments of the world due to clumsy human errors to pave way for a more effective 'solution' i.e. 'walls' to be erected. Giant robots re-called back into action, manned by the very last remaining pilots after governments of the world realised that they've practically wasted time (5 years) and resources constructing 'walls' that proved to be useless to keep giant monsters at bay. Giant monsters were discovered to be artificially created by an alien race hell bent to 'terra-form' planet earth for their invasion needs. Giant robots went for the kill by stopping the giant monsters at the source hence taking the alien 'masters' out at the same time. The End. Pretty cool plot huh?
 
pacific rim battle
 
The monsters were called 'Kaiju' or literally means 'strange creature' in Japanese. The exo-skeleton suits or mech-suits or simply put...the 25 tonne giant robots eg. Gypsy Danger, Cherno Alpha, Crimson Typhoon and Striker Eureka were called 'Jaeger' (pronounced as 'yay-gur'...means hunter in German). Seriously, my mind immediately took me back all those years back to a certain Japanese anime series called Gigantor where that little kid got to control his giant robot using a remote control or something. True enough, I've also discovered that this has been confirmed by director Guillermo del Toro himself. There is also a strong rumour that the anime called Evangelion also served as the primary inspiration behind Pacific Rim's 'mecha versus monsters' premise. But to be fair, the likes of Ultraman, Gundam and Godzilla deserved a special mention too.
 
hannibal_chau
 
The film lack some A-list cast members but the appearance by fan favourite Ron Perlman, who played a black market trader who sells body parts of the Kaiju for his personal profits made my day. I think this movie is destined to achieve 'cult status' just like many of del Toro's other work. Seems to me that the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp relationship chemistry is starting to rub on the Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman partnership too. I love Perlman's acting and his character certainly added some impact into the movie. SPOILER: He even appeared in the movie's post-credit scene! So don't leave just yet when the credit starts to roll as the character played by Perlman appears after 2-and-a-half minutes or so into the credits.
 
pacific rim nerds
 
I kind like the concept of 'drifting' where both pilots (them Jaegers need 2 pilots each at any one time) would gain access into each other's memories and thoughts to form the 'neural' linkage needed to pilot their Jaeger robots. One of the bumbling scientists also 'drifted' into one of the dead Kaiju's brain to gain some insights to what really went on with the whole kaiju attacks. To tell you the truth, I think the inclusion of the two squabbling scientists was a homage to R2-D2 and C3-P0 from Star Wars, that is of course if R2 could speak (well he does actually but it only made sense only to those who understood the 'beep' language!). GEEK TRIVIA: What's really cool and unbelievable is that there is even a line uttered by one of the scientists similar to that of Han Solo in 'A New Hope'! Can you guess which line was that?

I felt that del Toro even gave Independence Day (or ID:4) a nod when Marshall Pentecost gave a 'Bill Pullman' heroic speech before they went into the ocean to destroy the portal opening that brought the Kaiju monsters to the surface. I also felt that the ending is almost too similar to that of ID:4 but this time without Will Smith!

pacific rim portal
 
I love the idea of an alien invasion coming from the bottom of the ocean rather the cliche invaders coming down from the sky and that there's an alien race behind the whole Kaiju invasion. Kinda like a 'biological' terror weapon created by the less intimidating aliens to destroy humanity. I  think it's refreshing to watch such a different concept altogether for an alien invasion movie. But I must admit, the movie does ring aloud like some of the good 'ol Japanese monster movies of yesteryear, which is a good thing really! What's more astonishing is that del Toro has hinted that there will be a kaiju/jaeger hybrid for the sequel. He has even expressed his enthusiasm for a potential cross-over between Pacific Rim and Godzilla but nothing has been confirmed as of yet on this. Interesting time indeed to be a sci-fi movie buff.

In the end, Pacific Rim succeeded to do what it's supposed to be, a fun-filled popcorn movie at its very best! Great CGI, fast & intense action sequences, good plot, surprisingly good acting and you'd get to feast your eyes on one of the most colorful movie of the year. Would I watch it again? Sure. But I'd rather wait for the blu-ray rather than re-watching it again on the big-screen.

Omigosh, did I say 'brief' review? LOL.

Now on the action figure front. NECA has already given us the 7" action figures of the Jaegers and the Knifehead kaiju (more will be coming in series 2 last I heard).But the real treat is knowing that they're also gonna do the 18" versions of the Jaegers and Kaijus, now those sound interesting! Let's wait for those. They're gonna look great towering over the rest of your action figures in your collection!

*Note: I do not own the rights to any of the images appeared through out this post. Those were acquired randomly from the 'net so readers won't get all bored reading endless nonsensical rants from The Rebel! All rights pertaining to the pictures above ultimately belong to Legendary Pictures.

Comments

desmond said…
Yes bro, this is one of the must see movie of the year. I am going to collect the 7 inch series. But wave 1 figures are currently out of stock.
The Rebel said…
Des - I think re-stocks are coming our way....the demands are crazy for Wave 1!