Pacific Rim-Review

Pacific Rim-

There is a reason why I absolutely revere the beautiful unpredictability of movie business. Sometimes you predict something and the inevitability of uncertainty ensures that you in the end are only left confounded, wondering how the usual play safe Hollywood mentality sometimes goes all the way to produce something so risky. First there was Inception and now there is Pacific Rim, both being multimillion tentpole sci-fi features they are, and most importantly they are completely original properties. Dabbing into history, Inception went on to gross more than 800 million USD, but what is it we can expect out of Pacific Rim?

In strict terms, this is not exactly an original idea, but more of homage to all the guilty pleasures a spoiled adventure loving kid has ever had in life. Referring to a Variety article I read earlier this month, this is Transformers minus the crass Michael Bay mentality plus the playfulness, the cutesy dumb action and the human sensibilities omnipresent in every Del Toro movie, a far cry from all the overtly lamenting and pseudo dark superhero movies we’ve been bombarded with every now and then.

The plot is very simple, with some finer storylines intertwined in its strands- ‘The world is about to end as water beasts ‘Kaijus’ start appearing out of a crack deep inside the oceans and start devouring the entire planet ( and not just the New York city!) and the human resistance starts producing monsters of their own to fight against them .

On the surface, it feels all too familiar, but the whole premise livens up when we learn that these monsters called Jaegers are inherently controlled by two human beings, one controlling the left and the other, the right hemisphere through a neural bridge of some kind drawing us in and making us actually care about the people who are fighting against the ungodly Kaijus and not think of them as just a walking and trampling piece of metal. This little trick is what shakes you inside when a Jaeger gets defeated in Alaska and the Rayleigh (Charlie Hunnam) ‘s brother gets killed , or when we accidentally are divulged the secrets of the elusive Mori(Rinko Kikuchi) and learn who had saved her, and what is it that she had been hiding inside her all the time.

This Pacific Rim, is a pure summer blockbuster contender which thank god, does not take it too seriously, but only serves to appease that dormant inner child in us all, through relentless action pieces, awe inspiring visuals, occasional comic relief in the form of Charlie Day’s geek scientist and Ron Perlman’s Hannibal Chau- a Kaiju organ harvester, and the beautiful sequences featuring the people inside the Jaeger machines and the innate flame of bravery that is driving them forwards. There being no scope for some iconic dialogues , Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba(playing the defacto African-american army captain), immerse themselves into the proceedings so much that you yourself are subconsciously forced to clap and cheer when they deliver whatever corny and cheesy lines they are regularly made to enunciate.

Technically it is very evident where all the money went in and it shows, the movie looks gorgeous, and the visuals are very innovative. You can easily say that Del Toro is definitely among the most creative directors working today when you keek into the brilliance he has exhibited in some of his well known movies( the Hell boy series) and the lesser known Pan’s Labyrinth and Devil's Backbone

The imagery invokes a sense of magnificence and grandeur that no other contemporary action work has managed to achieve. The cinematography by Guillermo Navarro is just about perfect, with very well conceived shots and well captured frames filling your olfactory senses, with no gimmicks like the usual lens flares, the sudden zooms or shaky camera works I have come to detest overtime. Ramin Djawadi’s soundtrack is also very memorable, with thundering cues and rollicking guitar lines blasting away alternatively, giving you something different everytime a scene changes or segues into another.

Sadly , the early trackings have shown that the movie will have a slow opening, maybe even lower than the mean spirited and low brow comedy, The Grown Ups 2, but as I discussed earlier in the article, the film industry is grossly unpredictable. While Christopher Nolan had a rabid fanbase supporting him, Del Toro has had his own share of fan fare and who knows what a fair bit of word of mouth would do to a film like this. Or did it need more of the humane touches throughout its runtime or a maybe a better promotion from the part of the Warner brothers?

Rating 4/5.