At
least, they do not destroy New York City.
For an apocalyptic film that constitutes real restraint. The bad news is it is only a matter of time
before all of mankind finds itself on the business end of the next major extinction
event in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim
(trailer
here), which
opens today nationwide.
In
the not too distant future, way down in Deep Thirteen . . . a mysterious alien race
has begun rising through a breach in the Earth crust, sending gigantic monsters
up to ravage Pacific coastal population centers. They become known as “Kaiju” in honor of the
great Japanese genre monster movies. To
combat this threat, the frontline nations joined forces to create giant Iron
Man-like fighter-crafts they call “Jaegers” (the German word for
hunters). For a while, the Jaegers were
taking care of business, but the Kaiju evolved, becoming bigger, stronger, and
harder to kill.
Nobody
understands this better than Raleigh Beckett.
Siblings like Beckett and his brother Yancey were often recruited as
Jaeger pilots, because they are highly “drift compatible,” meaning they can
form a strong neural bond with each other to control their massive fighting
machines. Unfortunately, when Yancey
dies in battle his surviving brother shares the experience. Shortsightedly, the Jaeger Project is
discontinued in favor of a public works boondoggle of a barrier wall. When that predictably fails, Beckett’s former
commanding officer Stacker Pentecost rounds up all the mouth-balled Jaegers and
a motley crew of pilots for a last stand.
There
are the odd environmental
implications to Rim, but frankly the
film only mentions the ozone depletion mumbo-jumbo explanation in passing. Of course, in old school Kaiju movies, the
atomic bomb was always responsible for creating the monsters. Ironically, a nuclear warhead might represent
humanity’s salvation in Rim, if
Pentecost’s team can slip one past the goalie, deep enough down the breach.
Even
if it is an effects driven tent-pole, most cineastes will be interested in any
film starring Idris Elba and Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi. As one would expect, Elba is one of the very
few name actors who has sufficient presence and masculinity to pull off the
gruff on the outside, but slightly less gruff on the inside Stacker Pentecost
(by the way, is del Toro’s Ronco character name-generating machine still under
warranty?).
Yet,
the real breakout star is Kikuchi, who exhibits both acute sensitivity and
legit action cred as rookie Jaeger pilot Mako Mori. Charlie Hunnam is basically adequate as the
out-for-redemption Raleigh Beckett, but that constitutes a significant
improvement from his embarrassing turn in the laughable atheism advocacy potboiler,
The Ledge. Mana Ashida also deserves great credit for
her tremendous green screen work as the young Mori, but viewers will start to
absolutely despise del Toro for making her look so terrified.
Obviously,
Pacific Rim is inspired by Kaiju
classics, like the Godzilla and Daimajin franchises, but in terms of tone, the
film feels more closely akin to anime, with its battling bots and angst-ridden
crews. In fact, the Jaegers bear a
distinct resemblance to the Eva units in the Evangelion series. Frankly, a
cheesy j-pop theme song would have come as a welcome relief from Ramin Djawadi’s
ridiculously ominous score.
The
visual effects are suitably impressive, particularly when rendering a sense of
the enormous mass and scale of the Jaegers and creatures. Still, it is too dark overall, never really
giving viewers a good daytime shot of the Kaiju. You start to wonder if they are allergic to Vitamin
D. As usual, the 3D adds little to the
experience.
