Chris Reviews Pacific Rim

So this was probably my most anticipated movie of the year. I have always been a fan of monster movies such as Godzilla, Rodan, Reign of Fire (Dragons count) and even Cloverfield so this was something I was going to see no matter what. Did this manage to meet my expectations as a bad ass monster movie or is this just another disappointing Summer Blockbuster that have been so typical of 2013? As usual read below to find out....

The Good-

Oh yeah this is a hell of a lot of fun! This is a film that does exactly what it promises which is huge scale, bad ass Mechs vs. Monsters mayhem! I love the fascinating and unique universe that Del Toro has created with this and as with any Del Toro film it has some fantastic production design that will blow you away! This is a film that the bigger of screen you see it on, the better the experience. That is because when the fights between the Jaegars (Robots controlled by people) fight the Kaiju (monsters) the scale is so huge that you have to watch it on a big screen to really appreciate it. Unlike the Transformer films fight sequences which I thought were boring and confusing, these big fights are spectacular, engrossing and easy to understand.

The Bad-

Notice I did not mention anything positive about the writing or acting? That is because those two things are what hold this film back from being so much more. I think the premise is fascinating and unique (although there is one aspect that is extremely derivative of every Alien Invasion movie) but the characters are very flat, and the story arc is pretty basic. Most of the movie this works okay because you are watching some bad ass Robots fight Monsters but when people die there is just no emotion behind it. Part of the problem is that the story and universe is just so huge that it is damn near impossible to develop every character. I just can't help thinking that this could have spectacular had it not been for weak character development.

Summary-

This is the type of film that would have blown me away as a kid. Considering that I thought Reign of Fire was the shit growing up, I can't imagine how much I would have loved this film then. Now that I am a lot older and much more critical of films it is harder for me to look past the flaws of a film like this. That being said I still had a great time and this was probably the first film this year that I really got sucked into and just went along for the ride. This is the type of Summer Blockbuster I wish we got more often instead of bullshit like Grown Ups 2 and The Internship.

MY RATING-

4 out of 5

-Chris "Da Franchize" Hart