Movie Review: Pacific Rim

By Joaquin Medina @joaquinigo

Image from here.

Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse!

The film is set in the near future, where alien monsters have suddenly started appearing from within a rift in the ocean, and humanity is forced to unite and face them with their own technological terrors. Piloted Mechs are used to do battle and protect mankind from the Godzilla-like monstrosities.

Image from here.

I never really paid close attention to this movie since I thought it'd just be another lame summer movie. I began hearing good reviews about the action so I wanted to see it for myself. I have been a fan of big mechs like those in the game Xenogears, and the Megazord (Haha okay, very uncool reference) and the action is portrayed very, very well in this movie. It is worth watching for that alone. The movie is quite long too, so there will be no lack of it.
This movie is directed by Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy 2, and he really does know how to tell a tale of this magnitude. Though the main character did not give a very memorable performance, the cast worked well. I especially enjoyed watching the apocalypse-cancelling Idris Elba and Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.


Image from here.

The story wasn't amazing, but it was believable enough (for sci-fi) and did I mention the action was great? The mech and technology designs were all quite beautiful, and the creatures just looked awesome. I was on the edge of my seat with eyes wide open for most of the film. As you can see in the trailer below, there is a scene where a robot uses a ship for a sword. a ship. for a sword. yes.
Other Notable Cast:
Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket - He reminds me of Channing Tatum but he's much more interesting and is a better actor.
Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori - She looks a lot like Faith from the game Mirror's Edge.
Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau - Interesting to see Hellboy in human form.
Ellen McLain as Jaeger AI - GLaDOS' voice from the Portal games appears as the AI voice in the film. Now, that's cool.

Check out this cool Jaeger creator app!

Verdict: 4/5 - This action-packed film is one hell of a ride to watch. Story isn't awesome but it's a nice tale about survival. and ship swords.

Here's the trailer!