REVIEW: Pacific Rim

PLOT: As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.

REVIEW: One of my most anticipated films of the summer has finally come, and boy did it deliver on the fun. Pacific Rim looks like a retread of the Transformers franchise that became wildly popular over the last few years with the moronic Michael Bay exploding his boyhood all over the place for 3 hours each time, but Tranformers this was not. Guillermo del Toro directs his first movie in 5 years, and it's an extremely welcome sight to see this guy back in the director's chair. With a relatively under the rader cast, del Toro creates a vivid world of giant robots and monsters that's as entertaining than anything of the sort I've ever seen. I did not see the film in 3D, but as I was watching in 2D I caught a few 3D gags but they did not ruin the 2D experience like most 3D films do. I do think the film could have been a pleasant experience in 3D, but I was not going to risk it. There's a lot of CGI here, and if you're going in expecting anything different, you're going to be disappointed. I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this film that complain about the overuse of CGI, and wooden acting, or lack of depth in the story. What I find comical is that what in the hell else were you expecting from Pacific Rim, a movie about giant mechanical robots controlled by humans that fight gigantic aquatic monsters? I mean, really people?

The main criticism I keep seeing with Pacific Rim is with the fact that it's an overly loud, obnoxious, retread of the Transformers franchise, when really it is the exact opposite. Pacific Rim is the perfect example of robots, monsters, and CGI used in a creative, original and unique way to create a viewing experience unlike the rest. No one could have done this like del Toro did, and I would trust the guy with anything. Had I seen this trailer and seen any other person's name in the director's spot, I would have said the same thing and never seen it until video. But Guillermo del Toro creates a mythology in his film that gives it a breath of fresh air, so no it's not anywhere near Transformers or any of its subsequent, miserable sequels. And the fact that there's a complaint about the use of CGI just baffles me. The movie is about giant robots bashing giant monsters around in a futuristic world where we're susceptible to attack from underwater giants, and you thought it wasn't going to be CGI heavy? Get over yourself and go watch The Silver Linings Playbook again and revel in the fact that it uses no CGI, because it doesn't have to. This was del Toro's sandbox film, and it was meant to be big and loud. But what he did was do it right by creating a simplistic but compelling story around central character, and making all the big and loud happen for a reason, not just to show off that it can be done. All the action in the film is awesome because it doesn't go in slow motion, or comment on itself showing you how awesome it is. Guillermo del Toro gives life to the monsters and mechs, but he does it for the story and the reasons that things that are bigger than ourselves are so amazing, and to get the audience involved. It's not to recreate childhood bathtub dreams of explosions and monsters for the sake of using CGI and getting every 13 year old boy in America excited about buying Hasbro's new toy line.

Guillermo del Toro however, has once again proved why he is such a talent in Hollywood today. He's truly the best working director in my opinion, and I don't believe that he can do any wrong. I did not take this into the film as a bias, as throughout the film I was critiquing things that were done not so well and maybe could have been better. But despite it's problems, del Toro made an extremely entertaining film that like I said earlier, I don't think anyone could have done with the same material. Even if Guillermo were to have laid all of this out for a director and he produced it, it wouldn't have nearly the amount of magic and fun that it ends up containing. I really look forward to seeing if del Toro has any other plans for his Pacific Rim mythology because I really think it has the chance to be even more than it was here, besides just a new toy line which I'm not even sure exists, but probably will. So for those of you expecting a Transformers movie, you will be disappointed because this movie is ten times more sleek and sexy than Transformers 4 will be, and on top of that it's smart, and not a big, dumb summer blockbuster like most audiences have gotten used to seeing, and dealing with. Pacific Rim starts out with a perfect introduction scene to introduce us to our main character, and describe where the Jaegers (giant mech robots) and the Kaiju (giant monsters) come from. It's simple, it's quick, it's action-packed, and it gets us right into the story with plenty of time to spare.

The acting in the film is one of its core problems. It's fairly wooden, and I can't say that anyone stands out above anyone else, with maybe the exception of Idris Elba who is known to be a pretty great actor. Playing the commander of the Jaeger program Stacker Pentecost, Elba communicates a stern but mysterious vibe with his character. His sideplot unfolds as the film goes on, and it probably creates for most of the heart found within the Rim. There are two Charlies in this movie, the first being Charlie Hunnam of Sons of Anarchy fame in what seems to be his first major motion picture role. He does an excellent job of portraying the tough on the outside, soft on the inside warrior, and even though it comes off as not such a great job of acting, it is servicable. The other Charlie is also of TV fame from FX's hit show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Obviously, Day is a pretty big surprise when it comes to casting for this movie, but he also does a passable job as Dr. Newton Geiszler and provides some of the few laughs had in the film. As he is a huge fan of the Kaiju, he's even tatted up with full sleeves of them, he is the main character that develops the story of the Kaiju as all of the Jaeger fighting goes along throughout the film. If I had one complaint with the story, I wish that the Kaiju exploration side of the story was a little more in the foreground as it was probably the more interesting of the two halves of the film. The other being all of the Jaeger action, which was awesome too so it worked out in the end anyways. The rest of the acting was pretty passable, as it wasn't excellent, but it wasn't awful enough to trash del Toro's beautiful, yet destructive vision of a future where monsters are king.

I don't really have much else to say about the film itself, or its neverending criticisms, but I really hope that everyone gets out to see this one. It's the definition of what a good summer blockbuster should be, it has just enough in every department to be a completely fresh and fun take on a seemingly exhausted genre. I think filmmakers and Hollywood could stand to be taught a lesson from this film. Bigger isn't always better, and capitalizing off of previous successes isn't always the way to go either. If you trust a great director with a project, and let his genius go to work, you will have an amazing finished product. Original and fresh takes like this are what Hollywood needs, and not stuff like Grown Ups 2 and a Transformers 4. If we're going to keep bashing robots together at the movies, let's at least find a way to reinvent the thing every once in awhile so we're not watching the same old garbage we saw the first time. If you go see Grown Ups 2 over Pacific Rim this weekend, well you're probably the same person that complains about the use of CGI in a monster movie. But seriously, if you do, you should stop seeing movies. You're the ones responsible when we get these sequels, and then complain about how awful they are. Support unique and original films like del Toro's Pacific Rim, and hell we may get to see more from the wizard himself. Taking a look at his IMDb page, del Toro has a lot on his plate right now and let's hope that it's not another 5 years before we see something from him again. As for myself, I'm off to find some old Gundam Wing and Neon Genesis Evangelion DVDs because Pacific Rim brought out the still existent inner child of my soul last night.

ACTING : ( 5 / 10 )

STORY : ( 6 / 10 )

EXECUTION : ( 8 / 10 )

POSTER : ( 8 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 10 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 8 / 10 )

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Magnet Releasing

This weekend sees this release of yet another batch of summer films for crowd enjoyment. Adam Sandler's sequel vehicle Grown Ups 2 is being released this Friday, a movie that I never foresaw being made when I saw the trailer for the first Grown Ups. Granted, I trashed the movie before I saw it, and once I did I actually enjoyed it. How did this make enough money to warrant a sequel though? Oh wait, it's Adam Sandler... He does what he wants. Also coming this Friday is one of my top 3 most anticipated films of the summer and that is Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim. Originally I was to be looking forward to The Hobbit by del Toro but that eventually was scrapped and handed off to Peter Jackson after half of his work had been done. So I'm super excited to be seeing a film from Guillermo, as he's my favorite director currently working in Hollywood, or outside of Hollywood depending on how you see it. He's made so many films of science fiction that escape the boundaries that the genre typically sees, and his achievements include making an original knock of Alice in Wonderland, making vampires scary again, and doing monsters, comics, and their fans, justice. Fruitvale Station will also be out in some limited release, and has been receiving a lot of praise at film festivals. Actor Michael B. Jordan who I have only seen in Chronicle, in which he is super likable, is apparently putting in a great portrayal of the true story of Oscar Grant and others are receiving praise as well. One film that comes out on Friday in limited release, and I'm sure digitally too, is V/H/S/2, the sequel to last year's indie horror success V/H/S. I have seen V/H/S and while it didn't particularly wow me, it did wow horror fans all around and had quite a bit of buzz surrounding it. I did enjoy the horror anthology a lot, and even though it wasn't the scariest film I'd ever seen, it definitely had its moments that what would make you ask what in the hell you were watching. V/H/S/2 is being released through Magnet Releasing, who also released the first, but what else have they released to us? I'm going to count down the top ten Magnet releases, as I'm sure there are few of you who have seen them, but they have been putting out quality genre film now for the last 7 or so years and I think it's about time they get some of the recognition they deserve. Not to say they have anything to do with the quality of the film, but their marketing and seemingly great eye for sci-fi and horror is making them more of a Hollywood household name.

10. Rubber (2010)

 

Rubber is a movie that you don't just pick up out of nowhere and watch for no reason. The reason you watch it is because the antagonist of the film is a tire. No, it's not tiring, the movie actually focuses on a killer tire. No I'm not joking either. It's an absolutely absurd idea, a killer tire on the loose, unable to be captured by its pursuers. But so is the idea for the film, an absolutely absurd idea is it not? What you get with Rubber is pretty much the unexpected, the irregular, and the irreverent. I can't say it's a movie with much plot, but it's definitely an interesting concept. There's a lot that happens during the movie that makes you want to keep watching it, maybe to find out something worth your while but in the end it really is just what it says it is, a movie about a killer tire. There's a lot of meta and figurative plot in this movie, so it's not for everyone. But, if you do think killer tire fare is up your alley, well I've got the movie for you! This movie is the reason that Magnet Releasing impresses me, because it's a constant stream of films that you truly will never see anywhere else. I've never seen anything like this movie and a lot of the other movies on their bill, granted I haven't seen them all and that's probably why this made the list, but it's one of the most joyfully weird movies I've ever seen.

 

 

9. Special (2006)

 

This is one of the films on the Magnet bill that deserve a little special recognition for being ahead of the curve. In a time in film where super heroes are completely oversaturating the market, director/writer Hal Haberman found a way to change the game. Starring Michael Rapaport, the story unfolds as Rapaport's character becomes psychotic and thinks he is a real life super hero. He starts wearing jumpsuits, he starts trying to help people and talk to people, and it's all because of his new medication. It's a haunting yet poetic vision of a real life super hero, if it were created by such a mistake as medication. Rapaport is so convincing as the psychotic Les, and this movie is a great example of his acting chops. I was mostly impressed by his role because of his acting, and I can't foresee that anyone else could have done it quite as well as him. This is definitely for fans of the super hero genre, but also if you're into the quirky dramas or sci-fi dramas like this one, this is a treat. I will also add that it's very heartbreaking, as Rapaport's acting soars towards the end into a super finale.

 

 

8. Murder Party (2007)

 

Probably more of a personal favorite than a quality film, Murder Party was recommended to me by my boss when I started working at Blockbuster (which is when and where I discovered Magnet Releasing). It's a horror comedy, which at the time after successes like Shaun of the Dead, was becoming a popular sub genre. Really, the film is quite silly but it just goes far past the point of that to become something horrific too. This lonely slob of a guy discovers an invitation to a Halloween party on his doorstep. No idea who it's from, where it came from, or why it was given to him. But when you're lonely, you do whatever you can not to be. So sets off our main character with a homemade tinfoil knight costume to his Halloween party which he's for sure going to have fun, right? Wrong. Just about everything you wouldn't want to happen when accepting a random invitation to a party happens. Don't expect either because it's about a Halloween party, that it's like a high school or college party comedy film. He actually walks into some real shit when he gets to the party, and it only escalates until the very end at which the Halloween party becomes a Murder Party. This is definitely a movie I recommend to horror comedy aficionados if you can still find a copy somewhere, because even at Blockbuster we only had one. But I'm so glad I'm doing this list because I forgot all about how awesome this film was, and am now currently seeking out a copy.

 

 

7. Bronson (2008)

 

This movie is the sole reason why when Tom Hardy was cast as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, I got super excited and knew that Christopher Nolan really knew how to cast his characters. Hardy is a brooding and brutal machine in this movie, as he portrays who you come to know as Bronson, and just puts the smack down on everyone as they try to keep him in solitary confinement. It's a wicked movie to see Tom Hardy in, as he's absolutely gargantuan in comparison to anyone in the film, and surely some camera trickery to disguise his height, or lackthereof. He displays excellent acting, and I'm not entirely sure why it wasn't praised or recognized by anyone when he was discovered by Nolan to play Bane. He really wasn't much of anyone, but recently he's been in films like Warrior, This Means War, Inception and obviously The Dark Knight Rises. All of which he is a hunky guy, but he can play nice as well as he can play mean, but Bronson is example of the far out side of mean. The mustache and the man make for a truly entertaining action, hardcore drama, and if there were any doubters of Hardy out there, this was the movie I always brought up in his defense. He's absolutely crazy and psychotic, and it has to be Tom Hardy's best work to date.

 

 

6. Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)

 

Living in the same realm as over-the-top revenge flicks, Hobo with a Shotgun is an action romp hardly recommendable to anyone but at the same time packs a hell of an action punch. It's over-the-top in the sense that it does just about every morally wrong bit, right, and at the same time creates a compelling enough story to live up to the title. A down on his luck hobo gets involved with a couple of criminals and decides to take justice into his own hands. It's a film that can get you excited just for the fact that it's a complete nobody taking the law into his own hands, or into his shotgun, and blowing everyone away that ever does wrong. The wrongdoers are definitely hard to like in the film, they go as crazy as lighting a school bus full of children on fire and that wasn't all they do. There's like killer rock 'em sock 'em robots or whatever too that are like the final bosses of the film. So as you can see, it's way over-the-top and I mean not even in the stupid way. This film surpasses stupid and becomes stupendous just for the heart poured into the hobo character by Rutger Hauer, though it is silly, and because of the outrageous stuff that happens in the film. It's much like Rubber in the sense that you truly will never see a revenge actioner as cartoony, wacky, yet unrelenting as this one.

 

 

5. Monsters (2010)

 

I have a review of this film somewhere from my old website, but I was unable to find it to put it on here. This is a movie that not a lot of people liked because you never really see the monsters all that much in the film. It's more of a drama, and a film of beauty in the sense of the picture it paints of a post-apocalyptic, alien-invaded world. It's an outstanding story in such a different kind of world, and I remember really praising the film after seeing it the first time. It was a pleasant sci-fi surprise after the hit District 9, which I loved so much, and it lived up to its name as far as I'm concerned. Gareth Edwards, the director, did impress enough from this film however that he's landed the directing job for the new reincarnation of Godzilla. Hopefully Matthew Broderick isn't the first guy that comes to mind for him when casting the main roles for the film. However, I believe Edwards could have the knack for monster film as he did a great job at making this monster story compelling even though it hardly features the monsters it was appropriately named after.

 

 

4. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (2010)

 

Another relentless horror comedy from Magnet Releasing, Tucker & Dale does something that was surprisingly never done as well as it was done here. Tucker and Dale are two guys just bumbling about in the woods, trying to live their lives. But when a group of rowdy teenagers go out to find a fun getaway, they are greeted by evil in all the wrong forms. As the teenagers are quickly being offed left and right by two backwoods guys, Tucker and Dale are trying to figure out why they are so misunderstood by the group. It's a truly hilarious film, as Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk star side by side as the duo of unintelligent everymen. This was probably one of the best horror comedies I've seen since my obvious favorite Shaun of the Dead, and it's amazing to me that something like this had never been attempted before, at least in this fashion. It's really a three way movie as the teenagers are being offed by what they think are the two guys, and the two guys are seemingly finding themselves at the scene of the crime everytime. The two groups both fight evil, and despite all of the blood and guts, the movie is laugh-out-loud funny.

 

 

3. Goon (2011)

 

Another great example of Magnet Releasing's eye for the mixing of genres, this sports comedy is about the character of the goon in hockey. Probably a bit of a lost art now, but the goons were the bouncers on the ice. They would check, punch, and smash their way into victory and rarely do a whole lot else. Seann William Scott plays Doug, an inspiring and heartwarming character who is labeled as a tough guy and isn't as successful as his family wishes he was. In the end, he comes out on top and it's a really great but violent story of his rise to fame in the semi-pro hockey world. His rival, is played by Liev Schrieber who has been known to turn in a funny role or two, and this is definitely one of them. Rocking a handlebar mustache from hell, he's out on the warpath to prove that he is the ultimate goon and Doug is just a failure. Doug's buddy played by Jay Baruchel, who also co-wrote the script, is so dumb but funny. He's crude in all of the right ways, and probably gives Doug more dimension as a character in comparison. If you're a fan of hockey, sports, or The Mighty Ducks, this might be the movie for you.

 

 

2. Let the Right One In (2008)

 

This is how a vampire love story should be, post-Twilight. Let the Right One In is such a compelling tale of a boy who meets a vampire in his home yard one day, and slowly discovers her secrets. Surely, they fall in love with each other as they're both growing older in their respective cultures, one a little further along than the other however. Where the boy learns from the vampire, the vampire learns from the boy, and in the end they are there for each other. This probably has one of the most heartwarming endings for a vampire film, as I particularly love the vampire's actions towards the boy at the end of the film. It's such a dark and dreary movie to watch, and it is in another language, but the experience is so rewarding compared to a lot of the vampire garbage we see today. It's a great story, with great characters, and the kids are amazing actors in the film too, extremely convincing. This film was received so well that it was eventually remade in America, titled Let Me In and despite being a shot for shot remake of this original, it was equally as entertaining and excellent which goes to show the power of the original.

 

 

1. Timecrimes (2007)

 

 

I still maintain that this is the best movie about time travel I have ever seen. The only film I can think of that even comes close is Primer, in terms of the usage of the concept of time travel. There are obviously much more entertaining films that revolve around the concept, and bigger films too, but those two exemplify the use of the actual concept itself and not just the environment. Timecrimes is an eerie display of the power and misuse of time travel, but at the same time shows the complexities and such of time travel as a concept. It's a mind-boggling film that begs to be watched twice, and is easily my favorite time travel movie beside Primer. An example of how great this movie is, at least in terms of myself, is when I brought it home, it was solely for the cover. It looked like a creepy horror film with a scary looking killer, but I was so wrong when I discovered it was more about time travel. After I finished watching it, I was immediately wowed and begged my roommate at the time, with whom I did movie podcasting and had our old website, to watch the movie again with me. He was against it at first, but after watching it he was impressed as well and still refers to it often as one of his favorite time travel movies. Magnet Releasing has been putting out genre gems like this for a long time now, and to think myself or my roommate never would have seen this movie had I not picked it up at Blockbuster. How do these films go so unnoticed by people? Timecrimes is the perfect example of a diamond in the rough.