Runtime:
132 minutes
Directed
by: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring:
Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
From:
Warner Brothers
I'll
be honest, when I first heard that this was going to be a movie, I
wasn't sure what to expect of it. The plot sounded wacky but
definitely cool, giant mechs vs. the type of kaiju monsters that
Godzilla fought. I haven't seen as much of Tel Toro's filmography as
others, to again be honest. Finally, earlier in the year I started to
get pumped up for it and I suddenly was glad that it was here; the
fact that I didn't feel like watching anything in the theatre last
month was also a factor.
The
plot, taken from the Letterboxd page for the movie: “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.”
I
won't be giving too much away, but even with some minor quibbles that
I wish would have been different or not done at all, overall I rate
this rather highly... to the point that as of this moment this is my
movie of the year. Yep, even more so than Fast & Furious 6. I
will explain why.
This
is not a soulless bloated dour serious mindless action movie, like
you seemingly get from the typical summer blockbuster, and it's also
not a stupid movie. You start off with an explanation of what
happened and then get an action scene. After that you spent some time
getting to know all of the characters, and they're certainly colorful
characters. There's a lot of arguing, but it's not tiresome as a lot
of it is fun and it makes sense for the situations as all of these
people are in a bad spot and you get to see how everyone deals with
it.
A
lot of the movie is set in the Hong Kong of the future, and it
inspires me to mention how I loved the look of the movie, from the
mech design to the creature design, the colorful look of the city and
yep, the bitchin' fights between the mechs and the kaiju, all of
which are clear to see and follow (no shaky-cam crap nor quick
editing garbage). This is simply a lot of fun as there's humor
throughout and you enjoy the characters and their adventures.
So,
of course it underperformed at the box office. Losing to a kids'
movie is one thing, but Grown Ups 2? That is quite unfortunate, as
that sequel looks absolutely atrocious and apparently is worse than
it looks. Sigh... I guess that too many people found the Rim of
Pacific to be “weird” or what have you (or how it doesn't star "an A-list actor" or what have you), even though I say that
anyone who enjoys grand adventures and awesome fights should enjoy
the hell out of this fine, fine motion picture.
I'll
be back tomorrow night.
Character-development may blow, but at least the action is thrilling enough to hold you over. Nice review Blair.
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