Pacific Rim

Let me tell you something immediately, why the hell is this film called Pacific Rim? I get it, there's a rift on the ocean floor of the Pacific Ocean, but in Britain, we use the word 'rim' for other purposes. It's a known fact that the English language can be melded into any kind of innuendo, everybody I've ever known has been a variation of the Todd from Scrubs, literally everyone can turn any given statement into something rude with enough thought and sniggering, if not, well they just aren't trying hard enough. Minds in the gutter. So here we are, Pacific Rim, it was literally just too easy. I mean come on. (See also: Snatch, Hurt Locker, Golden Eye, more may come to mind later...)

This was a halfway decent film. I would go as far as to say I actually enjoyed it. Guillermo Del Toro is one of those special people I would describe as an auteur, his fingerprints are all over this project and he has such massive creative control, it's so easy to collar this as one of his films, but there's a distinct difference, there's a huge massive crazy blockbuster budget! There are flashes of brilliance shining through the bellicose insanity taking place in this film. It's the biggest project Del Toro has had to date and clearly the most money he has had to play with and there is fight sequence slap-bang in the middle of this film which is sheer entertainment, it's jaw-dropping, it's thrilling, sure it makes no sense out of context, but the whole scene is so damn good I would let it off and pay for the ticket price alone just to watch that particular scene again. Unfortunately the rest of the film doesn't quite match up to that particular twenty minutes, which is a shame because when it's firing on all cylinders and we see such a good sequence which galvanises everything to this point and pulls us to the final act, it's quite disheartening to see the rest not quite match up.

Pacific Rim is big hulking concept, but who cares when all you have to understand is that there are giant robots scrapping with big bulbous crazy monsters from under the sea. According to my sources there is a whole wealth of exposition that was left out even from the well paced introduction, but hey overloading people with this stuff wouldn't be very thrilling. I described it to a customer as a big action film, much like Godzilla meets Transformers, she let out a loud squeal and said 'Oh no, not for me.' I think the very concept made her want to run away screaming, well she did let out a little scream and then tottered away. Oh right, just to add to that, Kanye West has declared it his favourite film, of course from his aesthetic, he would love something with neon colours and destruction; does this tarnish the film for me? Would I be that petty? Would you? Food for thought.

My point being, this film won't appeal to everyone, and for the most part it almost didn't really appeal to me, but hey Guillermo Del Toro did such a damn good job with Hellboy, and Pan's Labyrinth was such a dark delight, I trusted his judgement. But the lesson here is, bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. The magic of Pan's Labyrinth was how genuinely terrified the scene with the Pale Man made me feel, it was essentially a skinny bald guy chasing a girl down a corridor, it was so much cheaper but my god was it gloriously effective. Not once did I react as strongly Pacific Rim.

I don't want to call Pacific Rim mediocre because it's still a much more interesting concept than the standard popcorn fodder I've deigned to sit through the past few weeks. In fact out of the big blockbusters I would say it was the most interesting and visually immersing than anything wearing a cape I have watched of late.

There are too many spinning wheels too many cogs turning for Pacific Rim to be a fully realised experience, the main characters cause me a bit of a headache, there is the whole science-y part, there's the tentative but ultimately weak romance, there's emotional scars all the characters are trying to carry, there's the fact that the Kaijus are mostly indistinguishable and for giant monsters to not really see much of a difference can confusing, sometimes it's hard to determine just what is taking place on screen, but let's take all that and admit; you can't deny it's ambition.

Idris Elba, king of 'Don't you ever touch me again, oh and one more thing, don't ever touch me again.' Luther* excels at giving the film a level of gravitas that the giant rock-em sock-em robots don't quite manage, the man can literally fill the screen with his presence, he is something else and I'm so glad he's been given something meaty to work with after a scant role in the dreadful Prometheus. Obviously apart from him and the much loved Charlie Day from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, there is nothing exciting about the roles on offer in this film. The lead male is played by Charlie Hunman, he's actually a local lad from Newcastle which feels like home to me at least, I have great respect for anyone with Northern roots (see: Gina McKee), unfortunately all of that is stripped away and replaced with a gravelly standard American accent, that's fine, but he suffers the same fate as Emma Watson with her accent-changes, he literally cannot emote for the life of him with the voice. Which is fine, he's a standard heroic type with a deep pain to tackle and a knack for kicking people in. Then there is his romantic interest, she was in Babel, and as far as romances go this one is straining for credibility. Sure there is a wisp of chemistry between the pair but let's just back up a second.

A unique aspect of powering up the giant robots to contend with the big ole beasties smashing the Earth to pieces, they need two pilots who need to be connected by the brain to control the giant mechs, this is used satisfactorily to tie up the 'getting rid of the monsters for good' conceit and it's just overall a pretty nifty idea which is mostly well executed; it comes with a set of rules. One of the rules is that the two people combining their minds have to have a strong connection 'the stronger the connection the better the fighter' or something to that effect. The two leads barely have any contact apart from the walk and talk, the gaping at each other in a corridor flirting and whacking at one another with sticks, does that a strong connection make? Since when? Was there not enough time to throw in a tiny bit of body contact with out, ahem, wooden sticks? I know it's not that kind of a film, and hey getting horizontal does not a romance make, but I couldn't really see their connection very well, and for their partnership to work there had to be something more to grasp onto surely? There are brother et brother, father et son, a bunch of basketball chums (I think...) two old Ruskie chums, but the presumably most proficient machine is being manned by two people who barely know one another, sure, as it turns out they are pretty damn efficient in the end but godamn, the amount of time spent with them, we don't see much of their 'strong' connection, the film tries pretty hard to set it up, but it doesn't really work... Possibly because the material given to the actors wasn't enough, or perhaps the actors had so little chemistry it was just assumed we'd accept it. I just don't get it, call me idiotic. Never mind...

Then there is the whole science-y part, I'm not going to go into great detail about it but stock scientist archetypes working through their theories to provide a decent plan was just a bit bleh... Funny to a degree but still achingly standard.

Pacific Rim as a film certainly has it's problems, there are some timing issues which is hampered by a pretty much failed attempt at fleshing out some of the characters which mostly just falls apart. Then there is the fact that out of the action sequences the best one is in the middle of the film, we see all four Jaegers taking to the field and watch as two quite interesting monsters shred through them, then it goes from the ocean to the city, just basically the whole sequence was awesome, the film before that was set up, the film after that was just a bit disappointing. It also mostly set at night in the rain, it's a film that's desperate to be seen in 3D (which I avoided) and for once I was a bit disappointed I didn't see it in that form because I can imagine the added depth to certain sequences might have aided it, because damn it's a beautiful film, my brain will be filled with images of neon brightly coloured streets glowing in the midnight rain, as giant mechs attack indistinguishable squishy monsters. But hey just to change it up a tiny bit, why not see a sequence in the daylight? Or would that be more difficult...?

Del Toro's personality shines through in each shot, visually it's a stunning film and it's sometimes quite breathtaking to observe, but it's also a film, lest we forget, about giant robots punching giant monsters, and that's all it will be remembered for, because for the most part, that's what it did best. I do believe we have learned that in this regard bigger isn't always better, but I would warrant that this is a learning curve for Del Toro, and he can only get better, it feels like he literally went mad with the amount of money he had to make this film and he enjoyed every second, and that beams through the screens, he's having a damn good time. Sure most people won't really see what all the excitement is about, but letting this man loose can only mean good things, and perhaps this is a step in a direction that could lead to great things. Pacific Rim has made me optimistic for the future, and it's just good to know that Del Toro has an infinite imagination and a good sense of humour, it'll serve him well because I really think this could lead to something very interesting.

*What do you mean you've never watched Luther, I implore you to go forth now and watch it!