Pacific Rim
Robots versus Aliens seems fairly predictable at the outset, but I think Pacific Rim tries hard to create something original, visually impressive and attention grabbing. I will do my upmost to explain the film, without giving too much away, as well as boring you to death.
The premise for the film is: Aliens spawn out of a rift between two tectonic plates in the ocean, called ‘The Breach’, the Kaiju have been there since the dawn of Earth’s existence and now have risen to destroy mankind (they don’t actually say this, but I assume the destruction of several cities implies this), It took 6 days to destroy the first and tens of thousands of lives were lost in doing so. The Jaeger programme was born – a two piloted Robot, one pilot controls the left hemisphere, one the right, in order to achieve a symbiotic bond the pilots must be ‘drift compatible’, meaning they must have some sort of relationship, history, friendship that makes their bond strong enough so that their minds might merge and full control of the Jaeger can be achieved. The Kaiju’s are getting stronger, so the Jaeger programme decides it is their only option to find a way into The Breach and destroy the spawn inside.
Firstly I’d like to say I watched the film with no agenda, no expectations and with no hype, and I suggest that is the way to watch it. It was refreshing to have aliens come from a breach in the Earth’s plates, rather than the usual – from space. In the opening scenes we see a Kaiju standing well over the San Francisco Bridge, scaly, dinosaur-like, and monstrous, destroying the structure while being pointlessly fired at my jets and tanks which have no effect. I think it is crucial to understand the enemy before introducing the hero, and that is exactly what the film produced, a well-structured start to the film: Introduce Kaiju, Reaction from Earth produces Jaegers, battle ensues.
The Jaegers are impressive. The duo hemisphere pilot system is well thought out, they are visually stunning and bulked-up, but after watching them for a while I was left with a sort of Power Rangers/Transformers taste in my mouth, it was oddly familiar. Perhaps they are not as original as I first thought; I mean after all, Transformers are Robots, who fight Decepticons, who feel a little bit alien to me, throw in a couple of Power Rangers morphing into a MegaZord and you can see some similarities. One thing that annoyed me is why if they’re in the future, with this sort of technology, everything looks so archaic, rusting and old. Forgetting about the parallels with Power Rangers, it made me smile to here Glados from the Portal series as the Pilot voice for the Jaegers, and to follow a Jaegers punch right into the face of a Kaiju.
On to Actors – Idris Elba, Stacker Pentecost – the Commander in the film, is a fantastic actor and in many ways carried the film. Authentic, gritty and terrifying when angry. Charlie Hunnam, Raleigh Becket – the hero, is watchable, but tries too hard to be the tough-guy renegade and should have been more focused on actually making his role more believable – show some fear and realisation of what’s really happening. Next – Rinko Kikuchi, Mako Mori, an interesting character to be placed where she was in the film. With little understanding of who she was I had to trust it would be explained at some point, and it was, brilliantly. A confusing and wonderful love triangle emerges between these three characters, not all are sexual (Mako and Pentecost), but they present the viewer with a reason to believe in the characters, and wish them to survive.
Comedy duo – Charlie Day, Dr Newton Geiszler, and Burn Gorman, Gottlieb, were unforgettable. Above everything I rate Charlie Day as a phenomenal actor who can make me cry with laughter on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and in this film delivered refreshing one-liners and clownish incidences that gave a break to the intensity of Jaegers vs Kaijus *Queue Inception Drone Sound*. I thought the relationship between Geiszler and Gorman was fun, witty and well scripted, more than that their side mission to find a way to get inside the Kaijus brain, almost literally, could have been a film in itself, as they attempted to find a plausible way for the Jaegers to get into The Breach. In comes Ron Perlman, Hannibal Chau the Kaiju expert and black-market Underlord – genius. This character in many ways is unnecessary, but I am glad they kept him in. Perlman and Day’s scenes in the film consist of shouting matches, battles of intelligence over popularity and lots of ridiculous scripting:
Geiszler: So I take it you’re Hannibal Chau, Right!?
Chau: You like the name? I took it from my favourite historical character and my second favourite Szechuan restaurant in Brooklyn… now tell me what you want!
Moving on to an annoying ego-battle and bromance between Raleigh and Robert Kazinsky’s character Chuck Hansen. It frustrates me how the film tried to tick every box on the lists of stereotypical box office clichés – Hero and girl fall in love, Comedy duo, girl has daddy issues, battle of egos, blah blah blah. In an effort to make the Jaeger programme seem international there are teams of separate Jaeger pilots – Russian, Asian, American, Australian – which gives each Robot a certain original style to it, but ultimately reminds me of Hunger Games-esc teams, all competing for glory and each one a different nationality, race, colour, in an attempt to reach out to different audiences.
I haven’t spoken a lot about the actual film, because there isn’t that much to tell. It is a tense action packed ride of metal vs scales, endless battles scenes (that don’t necessarily get boring) and gruff one-liners from the pilots. The Kaiju’s are all different, some look similar to dragons, other trolls, some seem more aquatic-looking. What I did enjoy is one of the monster’s open it’s back up and an EMP strike pulsed out of it, shutting down the Jaeger and the cityscape in the background. I feel as though this in itself would be a good premise for a superpower, alien power or weapon in a film set in the future – in a world where everything is now digital, and would be shut off from an ElectroMagnetic Pulse, humans would be forced to turn to analogue ways of battle, using cunning and strength to fight back.
Skipping to the end and revealing nothing that would spoil the film, I was glad that it was not stereotypically soppy and I thank whoever forced that decision. I was impressed with the number of extras used, the setting and sets, the design and clothing and genuinely blown away by the graphics. However as a final thought I wish films weren’t aimed at a certain type and age of audience so that films like this one could be a higher rating, making it grittier, raw and uncut so as to truly understand what a situation like this would do to people and convey through uncensored acting.
My Rating – 6.5 outta 10