Pacific Rim

When I first saw the trailer for Pacific Rim back in January or February I laughed at it as a mix up of "Real Steel and Godzilla." I never planned to be excited by it or even see it, but as the months wore by and more trailers were released and I saw Charlie Hunnam in the lead, my interest grew. When I saw initial reviews and box office predictions I knew I had to see it. Now I find my first prediction was correct: Real Steel and Godzilla. Except that's not such a bad thing.

The film starts off with a fissure opening between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean that is a portal between worlds. Ours and one apparently populated by giant, dinosaur/Godzilla beasts (called Kaiju) who love destroying cities because the first thing they do is start taking out buildings. Human tanks, planes, and soldiers can't get the job done so the world bands together to build super huge robots to battle the beasts. But the robots (Jaegers) cant be controlled by just one person but have to be controlled by two people who are neurally linked. That means they share minds, memories, and feelings. At first this plan works and the Jaegers start kicking some Kaiju butt, except then after a few years the Kaiju evolves to deal with the Jaegers and humanity faces its greatest challenge....again.

I'm not a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro....or robot movies....or monster movies (exception: any Spielberg monster movie) so I figured that Pacific Rim had already struck out but 20 minutes in I was 100% hooked. The fight sequences alone would redeem this movie with Jaegers and Kaiju beating the living daylights out of each other, but then you have completely likable characters with compelling arcs. Now some people will say the story arcs are completely predictable but I don't care. Let yourself be taken away with the story and just love Pacific Rim for what it is: the best darn monster movie in decades.