Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rino Kikuchi, Charlie Day
Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro's first summer blockbuster, is a modern take on the 1950's Japanese monster movies. Pacific Rim is set in the 2020's where the earth is frequently under attack from giant alien sea monsters known as Kaju and humanity's best defense against the Kaju are giant mechanized robots that must be simultaneously piloted by two humans called Jaegers. Does that premise intrigue you? If yes, you will like this movie. If no, I am not sure.
Del Toro has a keen visual eye and while Pacific Rim's fights appear frenetic they are well constructed and much easier to follow than the 8 cuts per second style Michael Bay uses in the Transformers movies. A monsters fighting robots film traffics in easy spectacle, but at least Del Toro has the chops to make the spectacle worth watching.
A common critical refrain surrounding Pacific Rim is a version of "A 10 year old me would think this is the best movie of all time". This is true, but a backhanded compliment. It implies that the avatar of the reviewer's childhood wouldn't care about acting, story or writing in the same way the wise adult the 10 year old grew up into does. Pacific Rim has corny dialogue and thin characterizations, but I don't think children are appeased by the screenplay via stupidity or low expectations, I think children appreciate the earnestness of Del Toro's screenplay more than adults.
Most summer blockbusters attempt to attract an adult audience through either the snarky, double entendre laced, pop-culture laden, ratatat of the Iron Man trilogy or via solemnity masquerading as maturity as seen in Nolan's Batman films. I prefer some of those movies Pacific Rim, but it's unfortunate that blockbusters are peppered with jokes kids don't understand or full of 9/11 paranoia for a generation that remembers blockbusters recreating 9/11 better than the event itself. Pacific Rim is an engaging throwback that is too rare in the current blockbuster landscape, a 10 year old me would love it and that's because to quote The Hudsucker Proxy "it's y'know ... for kids."
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