Disappointing.
Hugely disappointing. I am not in the Guillermo Del Toro as 'master auteur' club, but, I still expected more from this admitted geek and decent director, particularly considering all the resources at hand.
The first big mistake, is that the film begins with an epic battle between the kaiju monsters and the robot jaegers. It's not bad, and in some ways refreshing that they don't begin with a backstory. Not every movie has to do a chronological 'origin story', but PACIFIC RIM doesn't just have this teaser opening; Basically, the whole first half of the movie is kaiju and jaegers. Virtually, the only humans we see are in relation to the kaiju, jaegers or their giant cavernous training headquarters. In short, there is no 'human scale' to the proceedings. Well before the mid-point of the movie, whenever someone sounds the alarm that a
really big kaiju has attacked, you just shrug your shoulders. So what? We've already become inured to the size and scale. Del Toro has become
The Director Who Cried Kaiju.
When we belatedly get some in depth character development, it's too late. A sorta romance between the dull lead Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) develops* (more in the spoiler section below), but, it hardly soars. The tough leader Stacker (Idris Elba) is just a cliched 'Cop on his last assignment' stereotype. And, the less said about the 'comic' duo Charlie Day and Burn 'channeling Crispen Glover' Gorman, the better. It's great that Del Toro feels loyal to Ron Perlman -- But, what a grating, embarrasing character.
A hint of what could have been comes in Mako's flashbacks to a kaiju attack when she was a little girl. There's real suspense and emotion there, but they come waaaaay to late in the proceedings to matter. Also, some of the Blade Runner-esque Hong Kong street sequences contain a few brief snatches of decent filmmaking.
But, those brief pluses are outweighed by the poor dialogue, hackneyed plotting and hommages/references/ripoffs of everything from TRANSFORMERS, Anime, 5 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH and even the much derided U.S. GODZILLA. (and Boston Marathon fans will also notice more than a little resemblence to this year's underrated entry, WAR OF THE WORLDS: GOLIATH) Of course, it's not too unexpected coming from the writer of the CLASH OF THE TITANS rehash, is it?
Del Toro can talk all he wants about his love of classic kaiju and monster cinema (the film is co-dedicated to original GOJIRA director Inoshiro Honda and Ray Harryhausen), but he fails to heed the lessons of Honda and Harryhausen: You do need at least a modicum of build-up. You do need to give the creatures some personality. You do need to have human characters of some interest. And, most importantly, you have to let the audience see what the hell is going on! Crikey, with hundreds of millions of dollars floating around, why does everything have to be cut so quickly, lit so darkly, and in so tight that you can't follow the action?! And, when in doubt, just amp up the noise to boot. With all the melange of different accents AND the sound effects AND the loud "music" you can't hear what is being said half the time (might be the point, since most of it is so lame in the first place). The "music" by Ramin Djawadi is another loud percussion score that just seems like an appendage to the sound effects. Oh, Akira Ifukube, where have you gone?
* Spoilers Below **********
And, what's with the chaste "romance" between Raleigh & Mako??!!! Not even a kiss? A half-hearted hug and touching foreheads!? In 2013!!? What, they think the nerds and geeks will find it "icky"? Or, is it, I'm afraid because of the interracial angle? I sure hope not, but, I'm reminded of the Cho Chang character in the Harry Potter series who's relationship wtih Harry is dropped after just one film. Again, it's 2013. I think even the dudes in their Parents' basement can deal.
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