Pacific Rim: tribute to Mecha

I always imagine Guillermo Del Toro as a serious director with layers, I always love his Pan's Labyrinth. He even made superhero movies bit different, just look at Hellboy. However, after watching Pacific Rim, I must say, that even Del Toro a long time ago,  was a young little boy. And this movie is like a huge dream comes true for a little boy.

The story is fairly simple and run-or-the-mill for disaster/ monster movies. Monster invade the earth (this time via deep down in sea: imagine Battleship). Mankind is on the losing end (almost ALL monster movie). Mankind develop some hope (again, ALL monster movies). Team develop a plan (well, even for disaster movies). Team with glitches leading to sacrifice (imagine ID4). Mankind win. Hero gets the girl. Nothing we had never seen before.



This time, the monster is call Kaiju, from another planet/ dimensions which came via a crack under the sea. Mankind build enormous robot call Jaegers, always powered by  2 pilots which share memories and thoughts via a neural link. There has to be a hero with a dark past, Raleigh and he has to meet his co-pilot, Mako Mori. Together with other Jaegers, they develop a plan to stop the Kaiju all for once by closing the gateway. Someone had to be sacrifice and the end.


First. The character develops and the chemistry between them is really forced and appeared artificial. Really disappointed at this, I would have though Del Toro would do a better job in this department. The only true moment was probably when father and son pilots from the Australian Jaeger parted ways knowing that the son may never return from the suicide mission. The rest human scenes were all rather sterile. The final prep up talk (imagine ID4 moment before the airstrike) was fairly OK, but pale compare to ID4 (tag line: THIS IS OUR INDEPENDANCE DAY vs TODAY, WE CANCEL THE APOCALYPSE).


But I still love this movie. Not just like, but I actually love this movie. The action is really really good. And being an otaku myself, this movie simply rocks with all the tribute to all those Japanese show/ manga/ anime. The Kaiju resemble all the monster from Godzilla and Ultraman. Imagine giant monster fighting and destroying buildings. The Jaegers, is what mecha is all about. Big giant robot. Though not as complicated and stylish like Gundam, this is way better than Transformer (the movie, not the American or the Japanese series) which turn out to be more like "mechanical beings trying to act in an action film". This would represent how a mecha movie is to be made. Every moment when Jaegers are introduce, it send a chill down my spine. Totally love it when they brings out the Russian and the Chinese Jaegers, though prefer them to have a bit more role in the whole storyline. The action is better than Transformers probably because the opponent is organic monster so one can differentiate the good and bad guys. Otherwise it would be metal and gears moving all around.



All mecha fans should catch this movie. Now, I really hope they would do a live Gundam movie.

ratings: 3 half poink!
comments: low low poink due to the human touch. high high poink for the Jaegers. However, the last 2 mecha is bit difficult to differentiate so the last finale battle turn out to be most disappointing battle in the whole movie.