Pacific Rim (2013) Review

★★★ 1/2

By: Kameron McBride

In the breakroom at Target—where I spend my mild-mannered work days—they typically give us product that has been overstocked or perhaps hasn't been selling well or maybe even they're testing it to make sure that it doesn't turn you blue or something, I don't really know.

Either way, one day they had a pile of cellophane wrapped candies by the brand "Candy Unjunked." The packaging claimed that these caramel nougahat bars, peanut butter cups and chocolate buttons all were made without any artificial flavors or any of the "fake junk" that made candy so terrible for all of us. The candy wasn't actually healthier, it was still candy and still tasted like candy, it was just well–made candy that didn't resort to ingrediants made in test viles to trick us into thinking we like "Milky Way" bars when in reality we probably wouldn't.

Essentially, this is what I think about Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim: the summer blockbuster unjunked. It is a big, dumb movie about monsters and robots battling each other but it is an honest, well–made big dumb movie.

The story centers around the fact that monsters dubbed "Kaiju" (so named after the popular Japanese monster movie genre) begin appearing out of the Pacific Ocean and wrecking all kinds of havoc in coastal cities. An attack by one monster results in the death of over 10,000 people. In response, the armies of the world build gigantic robots called "Jaegars" to battle the Kaiju in one–on–one combat.Initially this strategy works, the Jaegars push back the Kaiju but eventually the monsters evolve and continue their forward advance. 

The Jaegars themselves are piloted by two people at a time, who engage in a "neural handshake" in order to control the giant robots. This involves the two pilots being mentally engaged with each other to the point where they share memories, emotions, etc. One of these pilots, Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) pilots an American robot named Gypsy Danger. However, after one turbulent event he goes on the lamb, choosing to hide in Alaska.

One of my big problems with the film is how forgettable Raleigh really is. He doesn't have any real identifiable flaws, doesn't have any real goals and just didn't hold my interest. His best part might be the voice–over narration at the beginning. I don't mean that facetiously, just that Hunnam actually has a pretty good voice for it. 

Raleigh is picked up in Alaska by Marshall Stacker (Idris Elba) to come back and join in on the Jaegar program once more, as humanity devises one last plan to defeat the Kaiju.

The story here is admittedly pretty weak but I think it's supposed to be that way. It's an homage to Japanese monster movies that never had great plots but did have lots of monsters slamming each other into buildings. I do think, however, that we could have gotten a little more mileage out of our characters. Overall, though, I think maybe the strongest aspect of the story is that it doesn't dwell on itself too often, it doesn't bring to the forefront the aspects of it that are flimsy. Instead, it pushes the relatively weak story under the rug and moves on to the fun the movie has to offer.

Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favorite directors, especially with his visual effects. In his fantasy films like Hellboy or Pan's Labyrinth he presents creatures that are unique and interesting in an age when CGI too often renders creatures that end up looking like the indistinguishable piles of nothing ramming into each other for hours.


In Pacific Rim the greatest strength of the movie are these effects and in particular the fight scenes. They are really well composed, with the audience having a very good idea of the fighters and the arena they are fighting in. The action occurs in a way where we can appreciate the awesome special effects. If I have one gripe it might be that too much of the action occurs late at night in the pounding rain when I think showing off the effects in broad daylight would be easier to see. Overall, however, these action scenes and effects are by far the best of any big film to come out this summer and much better than a majority of summer blockbusters.

Pacific Rim represents Del Toro's first directing effort since Hellboy II: The Golden Army came out in the summer of 2008. I like the fact that Del Toro basically made the film he wanted to make and didn't really care about anything else, it's kind of rare to see passion projects put on with the scale of a summer tentpole film.

Overall I feel that a lot of care and effort was put into this film and it shows through. This is not a great film in any other context that big–budget blockbusters but it is a blockbuster that it feels okay to like. It is candy unjunked, it's still candy, it just settles in your stomach a little better than most.