Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Movie Review: "Pacific Rim" (Guillermo del Toro, 2013)


TEETERING ON THE "RIM":
DEL TORO'S "PACIFIC" BALANCES ACTION AND HUMANITY
by Bennett Campbell Ferguson
 Above: Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba, and Charlie Hunnam battle to save humanity
 
If you are a regular moviegoer, you’ve probably had a hard time forgetting the poster for the new sci-fi blockbuster “Pacific Rim”—a massive robot, staking its fist on the ocean shore.  It’s a powerfully hulking image, and yet strangely enough, it is not androids who make the movie into reasonably reliable summer entertainment.  No, it is the warriors who pilot the ‘bots—Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), a disheveled, easygoing fellow; Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), his immaculate and innocent partner in battle; and Marshall (Idris Elba), their commanding officer.  If none of these characters are as wonderfully complex as Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne, they are still charming and emotionally troubled enough that they effectively draw us into the movie’s bombastic world, a world dominated by Kaiju.

            But what are Kaiju?  According to the film, they Godzilla-like monsters who enter our world from the ocean floor but are actually from an alternate dimension.  They run rampant for years, launching assaults on San Francisco, Sydney, and Hong Kong, forcing humanity to take up arms by building the massive robotic suits (which are called, “Jaegers”) that Beckett, Mako, and Marshall will ultimately pilot into a battle to save Earth. 

            As I watched Beckett first suiting up to fight, I wasn’t sure whether to go giddy or groan.  I loved the early shots of him stepping into that massive robot, I felt a surge of excitement, especially since it was accompanied by a rock-synth score by Ramin Djawadi (who did similarly smashing work on “Iron Man”).  I also liked Beckett’s voiceover about how even though he was a great Jaeger pilot, he’d never been a terrific athlete.  I couldn’t help smiling at the thought that director Guillermo del Toro might be envisioning a futuristic nerd paradise in which a gang of slender geeks and their robots nobly accept the task of saving mankind. 

            Still, something bothered me.  At the beginning, Beckett pilots his Jaeger with the help of his brother.  As they prepare to take on the Kaiju, they exchange mild witticisms, enjoying each other’s companionship, some much so that I immediately knew that one of them was going to die.  Because in action movies, the brother or best friend is always expendable.  He’s not the protagonist and he’s not a beautiful woman, so his sole purpose is usually to expire and thereby inspire the hero to take revenge.  To say the least, this narrative is a tired trope, one that has been worn out by everything from “Speed” to “The Lone Ranger.”  Those films never really believed in the death of these characters; they simply used tragedy as a device to move things forward.  The same is true of “Pacific Rim” and this is just one example of the film’s stumbling blocks, which include convoluted action and a lack of character development.

            In other words, “Pacific Rim” exists several artistic notches below a fully-formed emotional saga like “The Dark Knight Rises.”  And yet somehow, it never tumbles into the realm of meaningless bombast occupied so agonizingly by recent films like “Man of Steel.”  The war with the Kaiju may be a battle of brute force, but Mr. del Toro makes you care about the people fighting it.  The chaste, sweet flirtation between Beckett and Mako (she nervously peeks into his room in a very funny moment) gives us something to latch onto and care about, as does Marshall’s stoic dignity, which conceals his deep compassion.  So when it comes time for a final Kaiju-Jaeger slug-out on the Pacific Ocean floor, the sonic booming of the fight almost deafens and desensitizes you but it’s too late for the film to fail—you’re already hooked on the human drama, even if it is slight.

            There are other reasons to see “Pacific Rim.”  Mr. del Toro furnishes the film with supreme visual style (especially in his colorfully rainy depiction of Hong Kong), packing it with cartoonish touches that feel just right.  In this world, jittery scientists wear bow ties and square glasses while the wealthiest criminals can afford shades and noisy, metal-plated shoes.  But as delightful as Mr. del Toro’s brand of charming goofiness is, it’s the way he mixes humanity and action that keeps the movie on course.  This is especially true in the case of Mako, who wants revenge because she watched her family slaughtered by Kaiju when she just a kid.  Thus, it’s a powerful moment when high above the planet she shouts, “For my family!” before unsheathing a robotic sword to slay one of the vile beasts.  It’s a freakishly cool display of weaponry, but it’s her declaration of vengeance that makes it powerful. 

Her words may not be profound but somehow, they’re enough. 

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