Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim may well have been one of the easiest Hollywood elevator pitches ever delivered; "think giant robots fighting massive aliens. Who wouldn't watch that?!". And indeed, that's exactly what we've ended up with, all wrapped up in some pseudo-story about apocalypse and confronting your past and family ties and whatever other sci-fi buzzwords could be crammed in round the edges. Fortunately, there is a touch more craft involved in Pacific Rim than just making a movie out of the Power Rangers Megazord (in this case, the Jaegers) vs. Godzilla (Kaijus), and it all falls to Guillermo del Toro's expert hand.

As could have been expected with del Toro's involvement, the visuals are pretty lush. The special effects are relatively decent for the most part (a little lessened by tiny things, such as the ability of an umbrella to stay completely static even with an army helicopter landing directly in front of it), and complemented by some surprisingly compelling 3D, especially for a film relying on the post-prod addition of the extra depth after the director quite literally changed his mind.

Aren't those the robots from the Citroen Xsara Picasso production line?

Given the mecha versus monster storyline, Pacific Rim is absolutely stuffed full of exactly the kind of cliché you'd expect; impossible-to-win battles, heart wrenching sacrifice, miracle resurrections - they're all here. But sort of unashamedly so. There's no pretence, no illusion. After all, you're watching a film that has sold itself on nothing save the sheer size of it's battling protagonists, so it would be tricky to hide behind any kind of more sophisticated veneer. This is one big walking, talking, alien bashing cliché, but knows it inside and out, and is all the better for admitting it and playing to its strengths.

Cherno Alpha; the biggest lighthouse in the Pacific

While the film is undoubtedly slightly slow in places, it does rather successfully curtail any kind of action fatigue - each fight sequence still feels fresh and interesting despite the fact that it's almost identical to the previous one, which makes a nice change from similar titles. Unfortunately, sandwiched in-between the battles, Pacific Rim is not quite as witty as it thinks it is, with more than a few lines falling a lot flatter than they probably sounded when they were written (not least in a rather damp excuse for a post-credits sting). We're also forced to put up with a rather annoying female lead in the form of Rinko Kikuchi's Mako Mori, who seems to spend the whole of her screen time being rather pathetically subservient to Idris Elba's leader of the Jaeger programme, or mooning over Charlie Hunnam's leading man. Poorly written girl characters aside though, Pacific Rim has plenty else going for it. As long as you know what you're going to see (Shakespeare, this is not), there is more than enough charm in the way the film has been made to be able to get over the lack of depth in the content. In my eyes, there was plenty of half naked Charlie Hunnam to satisfy the gay in me, and enough apocalyptic action to keep the excitable 8 year old me happy too... Take it at it's superficial best, and you'll be fine.

Vital Statistics
Director	Guillermo del Toro
Cast	Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Ron Perlman
Length	131 mins
Post Credits Scene	Yes, but 15 seconds of a disappointing joke that totally misses the mark. Not worth sticking around for.
TFC Mash-Up	Transformers meets Cloverfield
Star Rating