PACIFIC RIM TOUCHED SMALLS IN HIS NO-NO'S AND HE LOVED IT

My God I loved this film. For anyone who has ever smashed their toys together when they were young, imagining epic fights, Pacific Rim takes these moments of playtime fun and translates it to the big screen....making a film of an epic scale.

In Pacific Rim, A rift in the Pacific Ocean becomes a portal for a whole host of monsters (called Kaiju's) which begin to wreck havoc on our world. In response, we created our own monsters...giant robots (called Jaegers) piloted by 2 people. Their sole purpose: To lay the mother of all beatings on the Kaiju. For several years, this worked but then, the Kaiju started adapting...many Jaegers and pilots were lost. Now, 5 years later the Jaeger program is on the verge of being shut down...so the ones in charge decide to throw all they've got in one final showdown between the remaining Jaegers and the most ferocious Kaiju's we've encountered thus far.

Pacific Rim is the latest outing from Guillermo Del Toro, and boy does he not disappoint. He has made mostly nerdy films, and Pacific Rim is indeed a film made for nerds ...especially nerds that enjoy some big robot on alien butt-kicking. The film has earned comparisons to Transformers, but I an happy to report that this is a Grade A Prime Rib compared to that other franchise. You really get a fantastic sense of scale for the robots and the monsters that Transformers never really accomplished, plus you can actually tell what's going on in the fight scenes (all of which are intense and insane, but more on that later.)  Expect to walkout of Pacific Rim saying Transformers who?

One of the things I had been hearing gripes about was a lack of character development....well, I am once again happy to report that I was surprised that there was actually character development here....and it was of a pretty good quality. It's always nice when you walk into a film expecting a brainless action fest and instead get a film that is indeed an action fest, but one that has some brains and characters in it. (and what's more, characters you actually care about).

Our cast of characters here include Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam), an ex- Jaeger Pilot who used to be the best of the best but quit when his brother and co-pilot was KIA. He is brought back on board the Jaeger program for the final battle and he is the lead character here. Charlie does a pretty great job in the role, adding charisma and believability to the character, I was impressed. There's Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), the head of the Jaeger program who is a complete bad-ass. Idris Elba is absolute perfection in the role, and I pretty much squeed whenever he was on screen. There's also Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a new recruit to the program....Rinko did good but I wasn't as impressed with her as I was with others. One of my personal favorite characters was Ops Tendo Choi (Clifton Collins Jr.), one of the head guys at the program. I don't know what it was about him, but he just screamed super-cool bad-ass to me, and Clifton Collins Jr. added a lot of charm and style to the role that probably helped. Joining our crew is Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Gottleib (Burn Goman), an oddball scientist duo. Dr. Newton is really the focus out of the two and Charlie Day does have a lot of scene-stealing moments here...but Burn Goman also does an excellent job at his role of the straight-man. I really dug the chemistry these two shared and the almost brotherly dynamic they had going on. Finally, Ron Pearlman gets essentially an extended cameo as Hannibal Chau. He is all kinds of fun in his role although the film doesn't really give him much to do.

Now although Pacific Rim has a fantastic story, great characters, and great performances from it's cast...that's essentially all delicious toppings. The main reason we came here was to see some superb action and fight scenes, and as I said before my god does this film not disappoint. While there is a sizable gap between the first fight scene and the 2nd, there are plenty here and all are guaranteed to get you clasping your arm rests pure unbridled shock, joy and awe (especially in 3-D. Torrents of water drown you, Kaiju open their large mouths and roar right in your face, Jaegers step right over your head, in the opening scene the theater is engulfed in a star field. The 3D also enhances the sense of scale, and even the epicness of the battle scenes. it really feels like you are right in the middle of the action). I can't even begin to describe how truly euphoric I was watching Jeagers beat the ever-loving snot out of the Kaiju...I was in Nerd Nirvana.  Pacific Rim also has some of the most beautiful visuals I've seen in a film all year....downright gorgeous and breath taking. There is plenty of CGI here but none of it bothered me and for the most part it blended pretty well into the live-action parts of the film.

Pacific Rim runs at 2 hours +, and you do start to feel it near the end (feels like a 3 hour film). However, this doesn't really detract from much. I'd rather have an epic action-packed film feel like 3 hours than have it feel like 90 minutes. Also, the film is kind of fast-paced and a lot of info is spit-out at a fast speed...so it helps if you stay alert and listen closely....basically just pay attention if you want to get everything that's going on.

Pacific Rim was my most anticipated film of the summer, and I couldn't be happier with the product I got. Superb fight/action scenes, beautiful visuals, fantastic 3-D, strong performances, great characters, A fantastic story, some tender moments, and some surprisingly good character development. I couldn't say enough good things about Pacific Rim. It's the event film of the summer. Guillermo Del Toro shows Michael Bay how it's done. I'm pretty sure the words Kaiju, Jaeger, and Gipsy Danger will be the It words of this year. Without a doubt in my mind, this is the best film I have seen this summer...it's certainly the most fun I have had in a movie theater in quite a while. Pacific Rim brings some magic back to the action/epic film genre, magic that has been sorely missed  for a while.

5/5- BETTER THAN SEX

I could easily see them turning this into a ride somewhere

The first 20-30 minutes is set-up and the first fight (The film drops us right in the middle of the action, several years after the first Jaeger was built), the next 45-60 mins is spent establishing character and story and the last hour or do of the film is all fights.

Gotta throw in there that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sets in this film, especially the awe-inspiring and pure awesome Shatterdome: The home of the Jaeger program.