Medacakathareal

Ever since I was a kid I've loved monster movies. Films like Godzilla versus MechaGodzilla, the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and King Kong versus Godzilla got as much playtime for me as a kid as did Star Wars or Batman. B-movies have a certain charm to them, they usually have paper- thin human characters blended with whatever alien or monster element is providing the special-effects draw of the film.

Pacific Rim is the perfect blend of old-world B-Movie schlock and new world visual effects. The human characters are caricatures or thinly veiled stereotypes, their backstories are predictable and so are most of their actions in the film. You can guess what's coming a mile off. Just from the trailer you can guess the basics and yet, with as stupid as the plot is, when they get into the giant Mechs (Jagers) and start battling monsters the spectacle of it is jaw-dropping. You really feel the sheer weight and size of these things, both the Kaiju and the Jagers, which is no small feat considering how hard it is to convincingly portray mass and size with CGI. There's something about traditional model making that makes it easy to get a sense of weight and scale but here the visuals manage to show us, and more importantly let us feel, just how toweringly massive these behemoths truly are.

Even with a by-the-numbers plot I still found myself rooting for the Jagers every single time they faced a Kaiju. The adrenaline rush of seeing the two pilots move with the machine, all their will-power, all their memories, merged to fight this threat. Metal getting sheered, torn, battle-damage to the Jagers, monster bodies crashing through buildings.

When I was a kid there was a film called Robot Jox that used stop-motion for the giant mechs. With modern CGI we've come a long way. Rather than try to get gritty or grim or realistic the film stays true to its schlocky silly predecessors.

If this film had come out when I was twelve it would have changed my life forever. It's an awesome sight to behold that leaves you pumped. This is a film that admits what it is up front, if you've seen the trailer than you know what to expect. It is a homage that blends the plots of a thousand other monster movies into a perfect blend of pure visual cinematic awesome.

In short, it ain't perfect, but its the most entertaining film I've seen this summer. If giant monsters battling mechanized soldiers doesn't put you in a theater what are you seeing, a comedy? On the big-screen? For shame. Go see Pacific Rim!

PS. Portal fans, her voice IS in the final cut of the film!

Immediately after viewing Ridley Scott's triumphant return to science fiction I found myself a divided house. On the one hand we have stunning visuals, some fantastic alien creatures, and a story that delves into deep themes about the creation and destruction of life. On the other hand however we have one-dimensional characters whose motivations are often dubious or whose actions are often inconsistent with aspects of their characters seen moments ago. We have a plot that wants to pretend it's all about seeking our creators, whoever or whatever they may be, which much also pay lip-service to Alien by having obligatory suspense and terror.

The film has been called related to Alien but not a prequel in and of itself, but this is just a clever marketing gimmick to skirt around the fact that the movie attempts to answer all the questions a fan of Alien might have about xenomorphs and what created them AND us, but then it falls short and answers none of them. The movie comes tantalizingly close to connecting the dots in a satisfactory way but then in the final act decides against bringing the story to an agreeable climax and instead opts to simply set up more sequels.

Presumably these sequels will also connect the dots further leading in to Alien. So while I enjoyed the film and absolutely love seeing Ridley play around in the visual sandbox that is the Alien universe again, I also feel very much cheated by the movie. It teases you with pseudo-explanations and leaves you filling in many of the blanks yourself while the dots it does connect with Alien only leave you with further questions. Had this movie only been tangentially related to Alien, but been a stand-alone story, it could have worked, but the movie instead seems to want to be half-prequel and half-original all while setting up for a sequel to the prequel. Honestly after feeling hoodwinked by this film I'm not sure I want to pay to see another two hour plus series of half-answers, when really deep down the xenomorphs themselves are more interesting than pseudo-philosophical musings on how and why they were created.

The movie is by no means bad, it has its flaws to be sure, but if the buzz so far is any indication I have a feeling it will be polarizing and leave many who had different expectations with a bad taste in their mouths. In the end it's hard to give it a rating on a scale of 1-10, parts of it are brilliant, stunning, and deep, other parts of it are shallow, pointless, and at times downright silly. Not bad, perhaps okay, but certainly not great.