PACIFIC RIM
Cast: Charlie
Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Rob Kazinsky, Max Martini,
Clifton Collins Jr., Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman
Clifton Collins Jr., Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Running time: 131 mins
Entire review in brief: dire, immature, atrociously acted, riddled with clichéd stereotypes and caricatures, abominable script, incomprehensible waste of vast investment in CGI and ridiculously overhyped marketing/publicity. I fondly recall a far more enjoyable couple of hours I spent last month, watching the paint dry on my living room door. Need I go on? If I must.
We are moved forward in time – several years on from when the Kaiju first appeared (according to a mind-numbing macho voiceover narration). These aliens are girnormous inter-dimensional metallic-organic monsters – who apparently sneaked down to Earth and somehow slipped unseen to the bottom of the sea without being noticed by an apparently snoozing human race. Us mere mortals responded by bashing out a series of “Jaegers”, ridiculously massive robots, so complex that they have to be controlled by two pilots in a “neural bridge” that lets them share memories and thoughts – and following a series of aquatic tussles, all had gone swimmingly (pardon the pun). However more Kaijus have now emerged from down deep, and this lot are far more growly and resilient – and need to be taken down a peg or two.
At the behest of Commander Pentecost (the usually more discerning in his choice of material) Idris Elba, disgraced Jaeger pilot Raleigh (the grotesquely one-dimensional and singularly untalented) Charlie Hunnam (when did casting and auditioning hinge on how physically fit an actor should be at the expense of any discernible acting ability?) must join a coalition of the remaining Jaeger pilots for one final huge push on the source of the Kaiju threat, while at the same time navigating his own troubled past, and forging a bond with his new co-pilot, Mako (Rinku Kikuuchi).
All this tosh is helmed by someone who had been (until now) one of the most inventive genre directors around (Guillermo del Toro) and looking back at his previous outings Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy - and his eye for stunning visuals in terms of creature design and composition – it has to be asked ‘what the hell happened?’ - so nightmarish is this utter disaster of brutal and epic proportions.
If the film had any kind of dynamism or intelligence to it I wouldn’t be so slating - but it doesn’t. It’s simply a series of predictable scenarios and narrative drivel – with dumb enemies brutally and thunderously thumping and bashing one another until the plot dictates that one of them should die, at which point one of them does. The bulk of the full-length battles we see occurring are in close up and shot in darkness, often in the rain or in murky water with rapid edits, explosions and splashes, leaving the whole thing bereft of any sense of scale or magnitude.... (and don’t start me on the 3-D!)
As for the performances by the human beings in there somewhere, only Idris Elba emerges with anything even remotely resembling acting credit or integrity – but the script is so rote and predictable that it beggars belief he truly wanted to be part of this. The remaining cast should chuck it now and go back to bar work – anything other than prolong the pretence that they have any actual thespian ability.
