Pacific Rim: Straight Canceling the Apocalypse!

The opening frames of Pacific Rim provide the following definitions (I'm paraphrasing):

Kaiju: Big Ass Monster

Yeager: Hunter

In five seconds time, you know exactly what this movie is going to be. There is no bullshit here, no complication, almost no character development. Buying a ticket to Pacific Rim signs you up for Monsters vs. Robots, and that is what you receive. 

The premise: a dimensional rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is spilling gigantic monsters (called Kaiju) into our world. Said Kaiju set about reeking all kinds of hell on major cities along the Pacific Rim. In the interest of preventing annihilation of the human race, a world wide defense effort called the Yeager Program is initiated. Giant, heavily armed robots are constructed to combat the aliens. BAD-ASSERY COMMENCE.

Pacific Rim is a good steak of a movie. It is meant to be enjoyed as is, with no bold-flavors sauces like a love story or complex characters. And, like most good steaks, I finished it wishing it was bigger.

At 2 hours and eleven minutes, the movie doesn't fee long. It emphasizes monster/robot combat above all else, as it should. Yet despite it's admirable efficiency, it's a film that would benefit from 30 more minutes of screen time. The two-pilot mechanism for operating the Yeagers, the "drift", deserves greater exploration. So does the development of the Yeager program itself; make no mistake, these things a long, rad walk from mere Megazords. It's also really hard to give a damn about the leads. Movies of similar ilk--Armageddon, Independence Day, Jurassic Park--threw decidedly more meat on the bones of their heroes. In Pacific Rim, the Yeagers are the stars.

And there's nothing wrong with that. This is a movie about robots and monsters, and the things they do to each other. It should be enjoyed for exactly that. And for how FUCKING AWESOME IT IS.

Directed By: Guillermo del Toro

Stars: Stringer Bell, that guy from Sons of Anarchy, Charlie Kelly, Hellboy

You Should See it if: You think you can handle a YEAGER.