Pacific Rim - Review

          Hello! Today was my dad's birthday, so happy birthday to him! <3

        Let's get right on with this - before I do begin though, I will mention that any spoilers will be clearly marked, and will be in red, so if you haven't seen this yet and plan to - avoid red. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/

        So, as I said on Friday - I went to see Pacific Rim. It was release day, but being as it was still sort of during school hours, there were very few people in the cinema, which I tend to enjoy, being as I hate crowds. I'm not sure if that affects how I view a film or not, but I thought I'd add that, just in case it did. I also had the BIGGEST bag of pick'n'mix, so I was having a great time before the film even started. If you haven't seen it yet, here's the trailer:

         Now, I was only vaguely aware of this film happening before maybe, last Tuesday, which is why it wasn't in my post with all the mini pre-emptive trailer reviews. When I saw the trailer, it didn't even immediately strike me that it would be my sort of film, but I went with a group of guys and we all know I much prefer massive bad-ass robots to emotional chick-flicks with sappy dialogue. 

           Pacific Rim, dirercted by Guillermo del Toro, was released in the UK on Friday 12th of July 2013, and is rated 12A. (which I guess is a PG13 in America, basically - if you're under 12, you need a parent) I think it should be said, that if your kid leans towards being a bit more sensitive - the depiction of the Kaiju in the first 15 minutes or so of the film is pretty intense, especially as they look so realistic, - so they might find it a bit frightening. That being said, the fight scenes are epic, and that fear will likely dissolve pretty quickly and be replaced with awe. 

           As I said - the fight scenes are so awesome, which is helped by the fact that the graphics are pretty much flawless - I never once sat there and thought 'such obvious CGI' or 'they could have rendered that better.' On the contrary, I continuously found myself thinking 'holy sh*tballs' and at one point - 'Jesus Christ, that things can fly.' My point, is that for a good deal of the film, my jaw was on the ground. 

Individual photos from http://www.imdb.com/

            The three main stars of the film are Raleigh Beckett, (Charlie Hunnam) Stacker Pentecost, (Idris Elba) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), As far as character and storyline go - this film doesn't offer much. We're made to feel sympathetic towards Raleigh in the beginning, but then he's pretty standard, apart from being a good guy and a great fighter. As for Mako, her story was actually pretty heart-breaking in a way that demands you're empathetic, and if you don't really have it in you to feel on behalf of others (and that's not a bad thing - some people just aren't wired that way) then that's basically just explanation in picture form, which is pretty handy because it's not a film which relies heavily on words. In fact, the only line I remember from it (and I normally store a good few quotes from films after the first watch) is some thing like '...or we can take these ray guns and do something really stupid' which was funny, and really awesome, given the circumstances.

               I know I said there isn't much in the way of characterisation - and I did not mean that to come across as negative in the slightest - it's not a film which requires you to really care about the characters or even be aware that they have back-stories. But they did do a really great job of making me absolutely detest Chuck Hansen (Robert Kazinsky) -

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2059117/?ref_=tt_cl_t8

 *SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*

             Which, A) made it so, so cathartic when Raleigh punched him square in the face, and B) meant he died more of a hero's death, accepting what was coming with courage.

      

          

           

             Something which I haven't mentioned yet, is the 3D element of this film, and that is simply because I didn't watch it in 3D. What I will say though - and this is in contrast to my general opinion of 3D films - is that I can really see how this would look great in 3D. I think it'd be best to sit further back, as everything is so huge, it may give you a slight headache as I can imagine it being pretty intense.

             I don't know for sure, but there is a very vague page on IMDB for Pacific Rim 2, so perhaps that will happen. I'm not really sure how it can happen, but let's just see where that goes.

              All in all, I'd say this deserves at least four pandas, for being really awesome, but if you go to the cinema looking for a storyline, you'd be hard-pushed to find one here. Saying that, I would recommend it, and I would watch it again when it comes on the TV later in the year. What I will say finally, is that I really want a Jaeger suit. No joke - those things are bad-ass.

                 So, I'll be back on Friday to make something up for you. I have no idea what yet, but when do I ever? I hope you liked this review - if you've seen the film, do you agree or disagree? What were your thoughts about the film? Have a really great week!

   

                                           Thanks for reading, Laura

                                                                         xoxoxox