Pacific Rim

The upcoming Power Rangers movie is something I've remained skeptical about since it was announced. In theory it's awesome. Who doesn't want to see big time Hollywood production values applied to cheesy, hastily adapted Japanese super sentai shows sold to American kids in the nineties? By that same token, I remember how disappointed I was by the recent Ninja Turtles entries, and how many eighties kids want to shank Michael Bay for making the Transformers movies. Regardless of how the film actually turns out, I've decided that I've kinda already got a Power Rangers like movie in my collection: 2013's Pacific Rim. So to prep for Power Rangers, I'm revisiting the kaiju battling cult favorite.

It's the near future, and humanity has been beset upon by a series of gigantic monsters sent from a portal in the Pacific Rim. To combat them, humans have built massive mechanized robots called Jaegers to defend the costal cities and citizens from harm. However, as the threats continue to grow and humanity decides walls may be a better investment, the remaining Jaeger pilots will have to band together to stop their enemy once and for all.

There's a lot to be said about Pacific Rim, but if you're wondering whether or not you'll enjoy this movie there's only one question: Do you want to see giant robots punch monsters in the face? If so, please watch a freak the hell out. If not, get out....of my country like right now. Despite an easy reason for monster movie fans to love it, there's other reasons Pacific Rim stands out.

It's Sincerely Silly

There's a lot of blockbusters that seem ashamed of their insanely silly premises. So much so that almost every movie makes meta move to the camera where the lead actor shrugs and goes "This is super dumb right?" Not here my friends.

We're gonna dive into all of this robotic and monster nonsense hardcore. Big speeches? We got'em. Larger than life melodrama? Plenty. Time for silly asides in the middle of gigantic robot vs monster battles? You bet. This approach is adopted from the filmmaking style which aims to make everything look semi-functional in the real world to the acting which is all straight-faced and sincere. 

Aside from keeping the fun quotient up for the entire film, this also allows the audience to gloss over plot holes. Why did they pull out this giant sword now and not before the fight? Who cares this is awesome!

A Solid Female Character

For most movies the involvement of a non-white female lead in a big budget action movie would be enough. Thankfully Pacific Rim takes it a step further and makes her an honest to goodness character. She's physically capable, smart, inventive, vengeful and her gender is never brought up in regards to piloting. I'm sure some will point out that the main crux of her storyline is a bit of a female stereotype, a young woman attempting to move past her protective father figure's shell, but I'd say this has character driven reasons behind it.

Once she actually gets in the pilot's chair, Mako truly gets to shine as Raleigh's (Charlie Hunam) equal, because as it turns out they need to be completely in sync to operate the Jarger properly. No romance, just a good old-fashioned battle buddy complete with personal motivation to take up the fight.

Del Toro's Phenomenal Imagination

There are few modern filmmakers that are as good as Del Toro at creating living worlds for his characters to inhabit. The mixture of CGI and practical effects is stellar, the cityscapes are all vibrant and exciting, and the production design is full of bright colors. 

The same attention to detail also applies to the Jaegers and the monsters. Each Jaeger has it's own special abilities, nation, and look as do their monstrous opponents. From there we can just start creating fun scenarios and monster battles. With all of this in place you can sit back and enjoy the simple things in life, like a Jaeger using a shipping vessel like a bowstaff.