Pacific Rim

If I were nine years old, I would see the monsters-versus-robots adventure Pacific Rim 50 times. Because I'm in my forties and have two kids and two jobs, I'll have to be content with seeing it a couple more times in theaters and re-watching it on video.

A huge, CGI-heavy popcorner that still feels personal. Come for the epic monster-on-mecha showdowns, stay for the likeable humans.

There's not a single original moment to be found in Pacific Rim's 130-minute running time, but that doesn't much matter because the familiar beats are conveyed with maximum expertise intended to provide a visceral experience.

There’s no denying Pacific Rim is the best film of its kind. It remains to be seen whether the film’s epic clawing and clanking satisfies a pent-up demand equal to its ambitions.

Guillermo del Toro doesn't rise above the obligations of staging a film of this sort as a multi-level video game, a stylish but programmatic ride toward an inevitable final boss battle.

"Could be worse" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of Pacific Rim, but my head is still ringing, and hurting, from long stretches of this aliens vs. robots extravaganza that are no better than the worst brain-pounders of the genre.

Laudable as its world-building is, the film drags not just in its interminable middle hour, but also during the redundant monster-on-mechawarrior smackdowns.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A colossal and visually thrilling spectacle of mechanical might that delivers pure, unadulterated blockbuster entertainment.160111 (3.0)"Pacific Rim" (2013) is a large-scale science-fiction spectacle directed by Guillermo del Toro that pays passionate homage to the Japanese kaiju and mecha genres. Set in a near future where colossal alien monsters known as Kaiju emerge from an interdimensional rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, humanity unites to construct towering robotic war machines called Jaegers to fight back. Because the mental strain of piloting such massive machines is too much for a single mind, each Jaeger requires two pilots whose brains are linked through a neural bridge known as the Drift. The story follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up former pilot traumatized by the loss of his brother during a past battle, who is called back into service by Marshal Stacker Pentecost as the Kaiju attacks rapidly escalate toward a global apocalypse. Stationed at the Hong Kong ****, Raleigh is paired with Mako Mori, a talented rookie pilot driven by a painful childhood trauma of her own. Together, they must pilot the legendary, analog Jaeger Gipsy Danger in a desperate final assault to seal the ocean breach forever. Featuring an international cast including Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba, and Charlie Day, alongside Ramin Djawadi's thunderous, guitar-driven musical score, the film delivers stunning visual effects, massive scale, and tactile heavyweight combat sequences set amidst rain-drenched neon cityscapes and oceanic depths. Viewing the film in 2015 proved to be an entertaining and visually exhilarating experience. While the human drama and dialogue lean into familiar blockbuster archetypes, the film's infectious enthusiasm, immense sense of physical scale, and jaw-dropping creature-versus-robot set pieces make for a thoroughly enjoyable cinematic ride that earns a solid score.

Just didn't seem to take the characters that seriously which I had a gripe about. It just relies on its action and just uses characters as an attempt to make the action seem more emotional and I feel if you go that way then you need to make it have way more action then the movie had

Tons of fun for the right person. I really like the detail and the visuals. The story works well enough for one not looking for an incredibly unique story-line, and the acting is quite good. I think fans of these kinds of action films will like this movie, or love it.

NOTE: All my reviews right now are being published as 0/10 for some reason. I actually gave this movie a three, so ignore the current rating. I went into this movie expecting nothing but big dumb fun. What I got was big and dumb, but sadly lacking in "fun". Too much of the film is centred on one-dimensional human characters just talking while we impatiently wait for the action to start again. I know we should care about the characters and everything, but even with all this time spent with them, I couldn't care less about whether they lived or died. The main character is so bland that I can't even remember his name (or really anything he does) and his love interest is just as bland (though at least they tried to give her a backstory). Idris Elba's character was the only one who had any personality. Even the Robot-Monster fights occupy about 15 minutes of the running time and are mostly done in darkness. This is disapointing, since Guillermo Del Toro is such a great director, and this film should have been so much better. Instead, it begs unfortunate comparisons to Michael Bay's "Transformers" series. If you're fine with there being more uncompelling human "drama" (if it can even be called that) than the action they promised us, then good for you. Otherwise, I can't recommend this. 3/10.