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'Pacific Rim' a gigantic blast
(courtesy of Warner Bros)With a plot featuring a masculine storyline about giant robots battling giant monsters, Pacific Rim surprisingly manages to grab the audiencesâ attention while stirring emotions at the same time
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(courtesy of Warner Bros) (courtesy of Warner Bros)
(courtesy of Warner Bros)
With a plot featuring a masculine storyline about giant robots battling giant monsters, Pacific Rim surprisingly manages to grab the audiences' attention while stirring emotions at the same time.
In Pacific Rim, director Guillermo del Toro takes an epic monster-fighting titan story, drenches it in a solution of energy drinks and steroids, but still manages to churn out an emotional and engaging tale of camaraderie.
Pacific Rim brings out del Toro's signature visual aesthetics and fascination with monsters, stirring up the passions of fans of Japanese style sci-fi genres of masked superheroes, giant monsters and piloted giant robots.
The movie begins with protagonist Raleigh Becket (played by Charlie Hunnam) informing the audience that legions of monstrous giant creatures, known as the Kaiju, have started rising one by one from another universe through a seabed portal in the Pacific Ocean.
The Kaijus wreak havoc on coastal metropolitan cities around the globe, causing all nations to stand together and battle against the threat through the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC).
To counter the threat from the giants, the defense corps construct a handful of massive humanoid fighter robots, called Jaegers, which consume humanity's resources for years on end.
The Jaegers work in pairs and are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. Raleigh is a Jaeger pilot who left his post after he lost his co-pilot and older brother Yancy (Diego Klattenhof) in a previous battle against a Kaiju.
The Jaeger program, headed by military officer Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), however, has become more and more obsolete in the face of the relentless Kaiju. The world's nations decide to alter their defensive efforts by building massive walls to block the constant attacks.
Stacker, however, is determined to continue the Jaeger program as a self-supporting-resistance combatant and collects the last remaining Jaegers and their pilot teams from Australia, Russia and China.
Stacker has a plan to detonate a nuclear bomb inside the Kaiju portal using his most advanced Jaeger, the Striker Eureka.
The plan though, requires a second Jaeger. Stacker then turns to Raleigh, requesting him to pilot his former Jaeger, the Gipsy Danger,.
Tagging along in the team is rockstar scientist wannabe Dr. Newton Geizler (Charlie Day) and his polar opposite Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), who both have intimate knowledge of the Kailua.
Raleigh finds his new co-pilot and neural-locking match in untested trainee Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), whom Stacker is very protective of.
Raleigh and Mako do not have the time to fully train together, because Kaiju begin to arrive at an increased rate, forcing Stacker to go on with the detonation mission immediately.
Pacific Rim gives the audience what they expect from a movie that pits giant robots and giant monsters against each other: through massive, terra-crushing, yet fleeting and eye-pleasing epic bouts.
The robots and monsters have mixed-martial arts fights splashing in the ocean, crashing into skyscrapers, and reaching limits of the Earth's atmosphere .
Kaijus utilize mostly physical attacks: striking head first with hardened skulls, delivering kicks and punches with screeching noises while grappling and throwing their opponents.
Jaegers counter with their own methods: rocket-powered knuckle throws and jet-propelled body slams, with the aid of chest missiles, three-armed rotary blades and plasma cannons.
A Machine-monster battle royal is definitely what the film is about, one that is presented with mechanical fast-paced editing.
Winning points for not being part of a franchise or adaptation movie, Pacific Rim is a breath of fresh air as an original storyline, although it references numerous elements from Japanese tokusatsu cinematography ' namely: lizard-like giant monsters, piloted colossal robots, global defense forces and city destroying battles.
The story plot is simple ' if not cliché' with the ending pretty much visible from the start.
However, PR is making a stand for action movies that do not need to use insignificant skin-showing sexy female protagonist ' unlike another giant robot franchise ' and instead puts up a fearsome and pivotal female character in Mako.
PR definitely leaves the audiences thirsting for more after the ending. Del Toro and screenwriter Travis Beacham have announced that script for the sequel has been developed, although it has not been fully confirmed.
The director hopes that the movie will sustain enough box office success to ensure a second installment and possibly more.
Pacific Rim
(132 minutes, Warner Bros.)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenwriters: Travis Beacham, Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Rob Kazinsky, Max Martini, Ron Perlman, Burn Gorman, Clifton Collins Jr., Diego Klattenhoff
Producers: Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Guillermo del Toro, Mary Parent
