PACIFIC RIM
With Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky
Written by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Godzilla vs Transformers anyone? In Pacific Rim earth falls victim to gigantic monsters known as the Kaiju, entering our realm via a dimensional portal between the earth's core and its crust on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. With conventional weapons virtually powerless against the relentless (but timed) attacks of these titans, as a result the governments of the world devise a programme to fight back, known as Jaegers. This comes in the shape of humongous humanoid mechas, which has to be controlled by two people whose minds get fused to work in unison (the process too much for one brain).
When the Kaiju attacks increase and the defense seems to become useless, a retired Jaeger pilot who lost his brother in battle is pulled back in as they get ready for one final stand. His Jaeger is resurrected and he is set to team up with a young Asian woman to stop the menace.
I'm a big fan of Guillermo del Toro, but feel this movie is just a bit too big to contain his amazing brand of fantasy film-making, which always has an intimate humanity to it (even the comic book world of Hellboy). At least Ron Perlman has a small role! (but doesn't share screen-time with his Sons Of Anarchy co-star Hunnam, who I feel is not a good choice here for the lead - his unconvincing American accent aside, that Tatum Chaning-type look that some girls may like, and deadpan brooding act doesn't work for me).
However, you can expect some heavy duty battles on a ginormous scale, with a bit of humour injected via Perlman and a duo of scientists (who may have found a way to stop this Kaiju Armageddon). This may be Del Toro's most exoensive movie, but while enjoyable, is currently my least favourite of his.
While I'm sure this won't diminish the public's excitement for the next Transformers movie (maybe even excite them more), I do wonder how the next Godzilla installment will go over – yeah, scrap that, even with the worst acting under the sun, or lame script, the spectacle of a huge lizard crushing buildings will have them lining up (let's just hope they get a less lame artist for the theme song).
3 / B
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