REVIEWZ (of Movies!) | Pacific Rim (2013)

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo Del Toro
Starring Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi & Idris Elba
Produced by Legendary Pictures

I was twelve years old again for approximately two hours.

Like the Jaegers and Kaiju that compose of this film, Pacific Rim puts its heart on its sleeve right out of the gate, and dares you not to smile, at least a little bit, and think, 

"Alright, this is pretty fucking awesome."

Brevity, clarity, and purpose. Among the tenants of proper visual storytelling, this is one rendition that I hold to be very true. The best test of its applicability is to watch movies and use it as an infallible checklist to watch for. 

Tell things in the shortest, most efficient way possible. Tell them in a way that cannot be confused with any other way of telling them. And make sure the reason you're telling these things to me is there from the start, and stays there, from the first fade in to the roll of the credits.  

Well, the elbow rockets, pulse cannon blasts, and acid-spewing mouths didn't take a lot of time to get to where they needed to go: directly into my soul. It's clear from the start what this is. It's giant piloted mechs versus giant extra-dimensional monsters. This film never loses sight of that.

How can you? It's all, So. Damn. Big. 

There was always a reason for this movie to go where it does. And a lot of that is a testament to the cast and their performances. It didn't waste time. It had piles of backstory to lay onto the audiences, and it still managed to maintain a pace and a style that never cut corners. Thank all the art and design people for that one, thank Guillermo del Toro's untouchable imagination, thank the rain physics algorithm some team at ILM devoted their entire production schedule to create.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making this film so I could see it. 

I have nothing else to say. Everything else would be downright unintelligible circle-jerking about how fucking cool every minute of this movie was. 

Just see this film, try your best to make it do better financially than Grown Ups 2 in the long run.  If there's a proper metaphor for this, than Pacific Rim is the last Jaeger standing midst a sea of Hollywood-created Kaiju. This is the eleventh hour against Hollywood's production culture. If a film like this cannot beat films like that, we are at the edge of all hope. And maybe it might not turn out so well. 

This may be the swan song of a dead age of movie making. When you sat in your seat and your jaw was open the entire time. When your little sibling tugs on your shirt sleeve and points at the fifty foot tall screen and makes sure you just saw the same incredible, unbelievable scene that their tiny eyes just witnessed. 

When movies meant something bigger, you know? 

Pacific Rim, you gave us a world on the brink of annihilation, but you created a world full of boundless enthusiasm for the extraordinary. I felt it; that feeling when you know a movie was made for you. We, or rather, I may never feel that again. So, if you're like me, enjoy it while it lasts. 

Now, here's a bunch of robots  mechs, monsters, robots mechs fighting monsters, and videos of said robots mechs fighting monsters. Need I say more?

This is not the perfect film, not by a long shot. But I have to read these negative reviews coming in, however well constructed, logically developed, and artfully written, and think, "What exactly were you expecting with this film?"

Did you see Gispy Danger pummel Kettleback with a cargo freighter? 

If that did nothing for you, I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry for you. 

Make sure you watch it in 3D.