Thursday, August 1, 2013

Movie Review: Pacific Rim

Go big or go extinct!


I know I'm many days late and a few dollars short, ok, ridiculously late! but I just wanted to put my two cents in about Pacific Rim. At least it is still actually in the theaters...haha! Rachel and I went to see it the Sunday on opening weekend. I'm a fan of Guillermo Del Toro's non-horror stuff like Pan's Labyrinth and the Hell Boy movies. So I had been looking forward to seeing his latest project. I had been loosely following articles about the designs and story line. Plus, it had Charlie Hunnam (plays Jax on Sons of Anarchy) and Ron Perlman (also in Sons of Anarchy and Hellboy)...not to mention Idris Elba who is a great actor. 

All the previews I'd seen looked awesome. The special effects looks great without being too slick and over the top. I mean, if you suspend belief enough to make a battle between robots and giant aliens plausible, they looked downright believable. So what if the story line was a bit cliched...the whole thing was an homage to the old monster movies. It's not like the story was bad, just a bit recycled. :) What can I say, I was excited about it! lol

Movie Synopsis: When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)-who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse. (c) Warner Bros

According to Rotten Tomatoes:

Pacific Rim (2013)

TOMATOMETER
71
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 234
Fresh: 167 | Rotten: 67
It may sport more style than substance, but Pacific Rim is a solid modern creature feature bolstered by fantastical imagery and an irresistible sense of fun.
AUDIENCE
83
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 89,332

So anyways, I'd made Rachel watch the previews, and she was excited to see it too. David wanted to go too, but he wasn't quite feeling up for it :( Anyways, we loved it!!! The story was fun, the Kaiju were super scary, the Jaegers were awesome and the mayhem was immense! I really liked how the mecha (robots) were all scarred up and dirty...you could tell they had seen action. They had plenty of comedic moments interspersed throughout. I loved Ron Perlman's black market character...Rachel really enjoyed Charlie Day's mad scientist repartee with his British counterpart. It added just the right amount of levity in the midst of the chaos.

We had a really good time and I'm looking forward to watching it again with David. Sure, it's a big summer popcorn flick, but it's a really good big summer popcorn flick. It's like what the Transformers are trying to be, minus the huge amount of dumb! I gotta admit, I also loved that fact that it's an original, standalone movie...not some toy ripoff, sequel of a sequel, or reboot. Not that I have anything against those when done well! See my love for the new Star Trek, the Hobbit movies, or Marvel movies. I just thought it was great that they took a chance with a brand new property...I just wish it had paid off more! Unfortunately it didn't make a lot of money...Grown Ups 2, which scored a dismal 7% on Rotten Tomatoes beat it. Makes one lose some faith in humanity...not that I have much. ;) But seriously, that still blows my mind...how could anyone pay movie theater prices to see that drivel?!?!?

Here are a couple of links to some articles about the movie that express much more beautifully my thoughts about the movie. ;)

Pacific Rim: MSN Movies Review
You don't know squat about Pacific Rim

If you find yourself with some spare time and a few extra bucks...and this is at all your type of thing...go see the movie! It's really fun, well done and worth it!




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