Kicking off the first of a staggering seven new movie reviews today (and hey, a couple of them are even brand new movies) proving once again Alabama Liberal’s diversity is Pacific Rim, a new monster movie that’s either a slight disappointment or the sleeper hit of the summer depending on what article you read and who you ask.
What Works: The plot couldn’t be more straightforward. Giant monsters show up on Earth and it takes giant, man-made robots to defeat them. You’re essentially watching a Godzilla meets Transformers movie and for a big chunk of the audience that will be more than good enough. People are saying “It’s light on substance but it’s a good summer movie.” Problem is, Hollywood only seems to be making summer movies these days so you might as well call a really disposable blockbuster like this a good movie without equivocations. Charlie Hunnam (from Sons of Anarchy, more convincing here than he ever was on that show) is a likable lead, Idris Elba is smooth as top-shelf scotch, Rinko is this summer’s most interesting action babe, and even Charlie Day isn’t that annoying when paired up in his scenes with Ron Perlman as a black marketeer who’s made the apocalypse work for him. Some of the fight scenes are even inventive, as when a giant robot arm smashes through a skyscraper but slows down so much that it slightly bumps a desk to set one of those ball-devices in motion.
What Doesn’t Work: There are loads of cliches here, from the standard dialogue to the needless (and unlikely) friction between robot pilots to the pilot who wants revenge on the monsters for killing their family, etc. There are good chunks of the movie where nothing much happens and you could mentally check out and not miss a thing. Plus, I feel like a late-in-the-game revelation about where the monsters are coming from and who’s behind it adds a needless complication to the plot. It’s like they just couldn’t resist tricking it up a little more.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Let the monsters just be monsters. Gotten rid of certain extraneous elements (like friction amongst the pilots) that barely makes sense, given the stakes. Maybe found a way to trim about ten minutes. All in all though, this thing works better than it has any right to.