Review - Pacific Rim (2013)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, today I'll be taking a look at a monster movie I probably should have reviewed last year, but didn't think about it until just recently, and that is Pacific Rim. Released in 2013 by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, this giant monster beat-em-up was directed by Guillermo del Toro, and focuses on a war between humanity and giant monsters from another dimension. It was loved by both critics and audiences, and is still fondly looked back on to this day. So, let's dive into Pacific Rim. 

          So we open with the revelation that a dimensional rift, called the Breach, opened up beneath the Pacific Ocean, and unleashed giant monsters called Kaiju. After four Kaiju attacks against cities like San Francisco, Cabo, Manila, and others along the Pacific Rim, humanity decided to set aside past differences and unite to fight back, building a fleet of giant robots called Jaegers. Unfortunately, due to the massive size of the Jaegers, they require two pilots connected together by a neural link called the drift. 

        Two such Jaeger pilots are brothers Raleigh and Yancy Beckett, who together pilot the Jaeger known as Gipsy Danger. Raleigh and Yancy, stationed in Alaska under the command of Marshall Stacker Pentecost, gear up, and head out in Gipsy to fight a massive Kaiju called Knifehead. After what they think is an easy victory, Knifehead begins to rip Gipsy to shreds, hurting Raleigh's left arm, and ripping Yancy out and killing him. Raleigh then finishes off the massive Kaiju single handedly, and walks Gipsy back to shore. 

        Years later, and the Jaeger program is being shut down, as too many Jaegers have been destroyed, with the leadership of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps deciding to shift focus onto a new project, the Wall of Life, which is a series of coastal walls that would keep the Kaiju confined to the Pacific Ocean. Pentecost is ordered to take all of his remaining assets to the Shatterdome near Hong Kong. Raleigh, meanwhile, has been working on helping build the Wall of Life in Alaska, where he and the other workers see a Kaiju tear through the Wall in Australia like it was nothing, only for the Kaiju to be taken down by a Jaeger, Striker Eureka. Pentecost then arrives to meet Raleigh, and offers him a place back in the Jaeger program, as he is the last living pilot of the Mark-3 Jaegers. 

        So, Raleigh and Pentecost arrive at the Shatterdome, where Raleigh meets Mako Mori, who has been under Pentecost's care since he saved her from a Kaiju attack in Tokyo when Mako was a little girl. Mako has been overseeing the restoration of a Mark-3 Jaeger that has been recovered. Raleigh is introduced to three other Jaegers that are part of the team: Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha, and Striker Eureka. Striker is piloted by the father/ son duo of Herc and Chuck Hansen. (Hey! My name's Chuck. So, yeah, I share a first name with a Jaeger pilot in this movie. Cool.) Mako then takes Raleigh to the Jaeger he'll be piloting, and it's none other than Gipsy Danger. Meanwhile, Pentecost and Herc meet with scientists Newt Geiszler and Herman Gottlieb. Herman deduces that soon, there will be multi-Kaiju events in the Breach, and the best opportunity to drop a nuke into the Breach is just as the Kaiju are coming through. Newt, however, believes he can learn more by using the tech that creates the neural bridge between Jaeger pilots to drift with part of a Kaiju's secondary brain. Pentecost refuses this, as it's too much of a risk for Newt to drift with a Kaiju. 

          Later, Raleigh auditions several candidates to be his co-pilot, and all but one are failures. The one that isn't is Mako, who proves that she and Raleigh are drift compatible. Pentecost initially refuses this, as he doesn't believe that Mako can control her emotions in the drift. Pentecost then relents, and Raleigh and Mako begin their first drift, which starts off great, but goes awry when they slip out of link. The connection is terminated by technician Tendo Choi, an old friend of Raleigh's from the Alaska facility. The two are then grounded until further notice.

         Newt, meanwhile, uses junk to assemble a neural bridge device to drift with the Kaiju brain, which gives him pieces of information on the Kaiju and their creation. After relaying the information to Pentecost, Pentecost then sends Newt to a part of Hong Kong called the Bone Slums, where he is to find Hannibal Chau, a black market dealer of Kaiju remedies, and get another Kaiju brain. Newt, while looking around, is surprised to see a Kaiju skin parasite still alive, when Chau tells him the trick is to soak the parasites in ammonia. Chau then proceeds to break down how every part of the Kaiju is worth a fortune, and even how a single cubic meter of Kaiju crap has enough phosphorus to fertilize an entire field. Chau then sends Newt to a public Anti-Kaiju refuge when it's learned that two Category-4 Kaiju, named Otachi and Leatherback, arrived through the Breach, and Chau believes that, due to him drifting with a Kaiju brain, Newt is being hunted by the Kaiju. Back at the Shatterdome, Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha, and Striker Eureka are deployed to keep the two Kaiju from the shoreline. Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha are destroyed, while Striker Eureka is deactivated by Leatherback's EMP strike. Unfortunately, everything is shut down due to the digital nature of the Jaegers... except for Gipsy, which is completely analog. Raleigh and Mako suit up, and head out in Gipsy to fight the Kaiju, defeating both after a pair of lengthy battles. Herc, however, broke his arm during the fight and is unable to drift. 

         Newt then goes back to Chau, who agrees to get him the brain he's after. Unfortunately, the brain is damaged beyond use, but it is revealed that Otachi was pregnant, and a baby Otachi forces its way out, only to die after a few minutes, swallowing Chau whole. Newt then begins the process of drifting with the baby's brain, but with Herman joining him in the drift this time. Soon after, two Category-4 Kaiju arrive, but simply hover around the Breach. Pentecost then decides to suit up to help Chuck pilot Striker, and gives a pretty epic speech about "cancelling the apocalypse." Concerned, Chuck asks Pentecost about whether they'd be drift compatible, Pentecost reveals that he takes nothing with him into the drift, and that he figured Chuck out instantly, so the two of them would drift just fine. 

        Gipsy and Striker then head to the Breach, where they fight the two Kaiju and prepare to drop the nuke into the Breach. However, Newt and Herman arrive and tell them that they need to attach the nuke to a Kaiju or else it won't go through the Breach, and Tendo reports a third Kaiju arriving: the first ever Category-5 Kaiju reported. Striker detonates the payload, killing the two Category-4 Kaiju, and Gipsy uses the Category-5 to enter the Breach, setting the nuclear power core to have a meltdown, detonating and destroying the Breach. Raleigh and Mako eject before detonation, and return to the ocean's surface safely, glad that the Breach is sealed and war is finally over. 

          Okay, so aside from the fact that I share a first name with one of the Jaeger pilots in this movie, I think that Pacific Rim is a ton of fun. Borrowing from Japanese monster films, or Daikaiju films as they're also known, and mech-based anime like Voltron, Gundam, and even Transformers, this movie is the best of both worlds: giant monsters and giant robots. Not only that, but the designs of the Kaiju and the Jaegers are wholly unique. You wouldn't look at these and say "oh, that's like something out of Gundam," or something like that. No, the designs are so unique that they could only exist in the world of Pacific Rim.

           The cast of this movie is also terrific. Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Rob Kazinsky, Clifton Collins Jr, and Ron Perlman are all terrific in this movie, with my favorites being Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh, Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost, and Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau. And, yes, the banter between Charlie Day and Burn Gorman as Newt and Herman is hysterical. Overall, director Guillermo del Toro made a film that is fun for all. The action is fun, the humor is fun, and just the idea of giant robots fighting giant monsters is fun. I give Pacific Rim a rating of 5/5. 

          Now, there was a sequel released in 2018 called Pacific Rim: Uprising, and I will likely get to that one this summer. In fact, here's my promise. On July 12th, I will give you, my readers, my review of Pacific Rim: Uprising. In the meantime, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.