Pacific Rim (2013)
As is often the case, my main motivation for seeing this movie was the director. I absolutely love Guillermo Del Toro's work, even on a bad day. "Hellboy II" is one of my favourite superhero movies of all time, "Pan's Labyrinth" is one of my favourite movies of all time, and "Blade II" is pretty good fun too. So if there's anyone I'm going to trust to give me a good giant robots vs giant monsters movie, it's Del Toro.
Now the giant monsters side of thing I'm entirely on board with. I loved the original Japanese "Godzilla" as well as "Mothra Vs Godzilla" and I'm highly anticipating the upcoming American reimagining of Godzilla by Brit director Gareth Edwards whose debut feature was the awesome "Monsters" (which featured giant monsters, though they weren't often seen in the movie). Asides from "Monsters" other giant monster movies I've found highly enjoyable include "Troll Hunter", "The Mist" and also "The Host" from the awesome Korean director Joon-Ho Bong (though in "The Host" the monster isn't really anything like as huge as in the other films mentioned).
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The bigger concern was giant robots. Naturally the most obvious recent giant robots movie was Michael Bay's live action "Transformers" movie and there's a very simple reason why I haven't seen beyond the first one: I found it boring as hell. In order to make an action film interesting you have to set up what is at stake and you have to make us feel for the characters. These aren't elements that are lacking in most Michael Bay films no matter what else might be wrong with his movies, but in Bay's "Transformers" movie I felt nothing for the characters nor did I really get a sense of what was at stake. And so it left me cold.
The other giant robots thing that comes to mind is "Power Rangers". So giant robots aren't really something that has a long history of being done well in movies. Not as a major focus of the film at least.
I had a few concerns with "Pacific Rim" from what I saw in the trailer:
1. The trailers looked rather dark making it hard to make out what was happening. - Admittedly later trailers had already shown the footage more brightly and clearly and I think they must have been gradually making the effects work look better and better. What I finally saw in the cinema was bright, clear, colourful and absolutely breathtaking.
2. Idris Elba's speech made his English accent VERY obvious. - There'd been some complaints that his accent in Prometheus wasn't very convincing and I'd been worried that his accent would be even dodgier here. Fortunately it quickly becomes clear that Idris Elba is not putting on an American accent at all. An important element in his character is that his past is clouded in mystery, so the idea that he has not simply landed his role by virtue of a position in the US army if anything makes him more interesting. The UK is next to the Atlantic rather than the Pacific and it makes sense that a British engineering or even military strategy team could easily be brought in to support the US program in the instance of a threat in the Pacific.
3. The voiceover narration about the portal under the sea sounded daft. - Admittedly this is still the premise of the movie and there is even a voiceover narration section at the beginning of the movie, but somehow it doesn't sound as daft in the movie itself. I cannot help but feel that it was better written in the movie, but perhaps it was just the way it was presented. So that issue was solved. The portal itself becomes important enough to the plot of the film that it doesn't remain an annoying macguffin that we must all just accept
4. Asides from Idris Elba there seemed to be no real named actors in Pacific Rim at all. - Now actually there were several people I recognised in smaller roles. First of all it should be noted that Ron Perlman has a relatively small but pretty damn significant role in this movie. He's playing quite a cartoonish figure and many of the side-characters are quite cartoonish in tone. I think it's possibly an inevitable part of paying homage to mostly Japanese films and tv with this "giant monsters" and "giant robots" theme to them that you also take on board some of their silliness.
Burn Gorman is playing a particularly silly figure, seeing as he is not only supposed to be an English scientist, but an absurdly reserved and posh-voiced one who even, in spite of not being terribly old, walks with a cane. My first experience with Burn Gorman was in Torchwood in an episode which really didn't show him at his best. He's since given a pretty good, albeit small, performance in "Dark Knight Rises" as a sleazy businessman sentenced to 'exile', but here he really enjoys hamming up the role.
Gorman's scientist character works along another American scientist and the bickering between them is a big source of comic relief in the movie. The American scientist is played by Charlie Day who seems to be most well-known for his role in "Horrible Bosses" (which I haven't seen). The two of them work really well together. Day has the bigger role of the two and he does a good job with it.
Some particularly significant side-characters are the Australian Jaeger team. Once again they are played for comedy (though not quite so obviously as with the scientists or Ron Perlman's character) and so there's a protective father figure and his cocky arrogant son who team up in the Australian robot. They all perform their roles very well, even if, once again, those roles are a little on the hammy side. That being said, I'm not really much of an expert on Australian accents so having discovered that the father figure on the Australian team is played by a New Yorker and the cocky son is played by a Brit from Sussex, I hope their accents weren't overblown and cartoonish. They didn't seem like it to me.
The main three actors on the poster are Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi and Idris Elba, so I'll need to explain them in a moment. But first I think a few issues have been raised by discussing the Australian pairing.
The giant robots are known as Jaegers, "Jaeger" being the German word for 'hunter'. Their full title is "Kaiju Jaegers", "Kaiju" being the Japanese term used for the giant monsters in movies like "Godzilla". In the very brief introduction at the beginning we are informed that the early Jaegers were manned by just one person, but controlling a Jaeger was too taxing on the human brain. As such teams of two are now used to control the Jaegers. Two compatible minds go through a process known as "drifting" which allows them to act in unity as two hemispheres of a larger mind which can then control the Jaeger.
Del Toro, unlike Bay, knows that a good action scene requires that there be something at stake. So a great deal of the time towards the beginning of the movie involves setting up the characters who are going to be driving the robots and dealing with tensions between them. The main source of tension? Well not to give too much away, a major focus is the recruitment of a new Jaeger pilot. Their recruitment is important and urgent because someone has died and they need a replacement at short notice. On top of that is the issue that both their level of skill AND their ability to 'drift' with their co-pilot are in question.
Charlie Hunnam, like Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, The Wire), started out in Rusell T. Davies hit tv series "Queer As Folk". Unlike Aidan Gillen, he didn't go on to gain massive success elsewhere. He has actually had some small roles in two movies I liked. He was secondary-evil-bastard to Ray Winstone in the movie "Cold Mountain" and he was another highly untrustworthy guy in "Children of Men". In both cases, you are unlikely to recognise him due to his bizarre hair. In "Cold Mountain" he had some ultra-white whispy hair under his puritan hat, while in "Children of Men" he had some major dredlocks action going on.
Here in "Pacific Rim" I found Charlie a little bland, but admittedly that is in part because he's playing a bit of a boy scout figure. However, he works well with the character of Mako played by Rinko Kikuchi. While I've only ever seen Rinko in one other movie, she made a big impression. I doubt anyone who has seen the movie "Babel" will have forgotten the storyline involving the deaf girl. It was by far the best part of the story not least because of Rinko Kikuchi's incredible central performance in that particular storyline. Some actors and actresses can lose some impact when they try to speak in another language or even simply another accent. I tend to feel that Colin Farrell is better when he can use his Irish accent and there's a big contrast between Penelope Cruz's performances in English-language movies and her incredible performance in the Spanish movie "Volver". It may well be that Rinko Kikuchi is even more awesome when she perform in Japanese and I'd like to be able to compare because if so her performance in her native tongue would be off the charts. Here, being expected to stick mostly to English, she is absolutely fantastic.
Del Toro clearly relies a lot on the performances of his actors and the main figure holding the film together is Idris Elba. While commanding authority and remaining mostly mysterious, small subtle facial expressions help us to understand the full range of feelings involved. He is a character with split loyalties and conflicting interests, often balancing cold logic with personal emotions. It's a very interesting role and Elba clearly had to make careful decisions as to how much to show on the surface and how much of his character's feelings to keep buried. Once again, this is a trope of Japanese media that while you often have the side-characters providing comic relief there is normally a highly serious authority figure who may have a soft side, but who bears the weight of the world on his or her shoulders.
So, the one thing I haven't mentioned so far is the actual aliens and monsters. In part this is because the movie needs to be able to work without those sequences. The story needs to be good enough that if all the fight scenes were done with the old man-in-a-big-monster-suit effects I'd still be really happy to sit and watch the film. I think that side of things has been very successful indeed.
That being noted, the fight scenes are incredible. As already stated above, these sequences are colourful and clear, even when they take place at night. The monster designs are gorgeous, as we'd expect from Guillermo Del Toro. The Kaijus differ each time and they always did something new to surprise me.
While I'd seen each of the giant robot designs on posters, the way they move is much more impressive. I'd actually thought that the American Jaeger looked the least interesting of them, but I quickly changed allegiances when I saw the movie. Okay, so part of that is because I'm gunning for the main characters to succeed, but another important part is that their Jaeger reminds me of Samus' Power Suit.
Okay so they're not massively similar, but during the movie it seemed close enough. Also occasionally, I won't say how, we get glimpses of the alien world on the other side of the portal and these sequences also reminded me of the stunning visuals of the Metroid Prime games (particularly the third one).
Image from Metroid Prime 3.
I may be slightly misleading you about what is happening in this pic.
During the fight scenes I could make out everything that was happening in the fight scenes and what makes this particularly incredible is I was watching it in 3D! Now I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about the 3D. I still intend to watch this again in 2D so I don't have some dark smeary glasses getting in the way of enjoying the visuals. (I highly appreciated being able to take off the glasses at one point so I could get a better look at Idris Elba's facial expressions. It meant the background appeared all blurry, but that didn't matter too much for this particular scene.)
This is a post-conversion job, but unlike in John Carter where it was really hard to focus on anything, here most of the 3D was properly coming out of the screen rather than those depth-effects where you have to take the glasses off occasionally in order to remind yourself the 3D is even there. There's some fish that swim by right at the beginning of the film which look like they are right in the middle of the room. My eyes were able to properly explore the screen without causing everything to go out of focus, the fight scenes were able to show me everything that was happening without blurring, and I finished the movie without a headache. None of these things can be said of "Avatar", just for the record.
The monster/robot fights are exciting because Del Toro knows how to set up a story, how to develop his characters and how to make sure we feel there is something properly at stake. It also does no harm that it's not just the monsters and the robots, but also the whole way the movie looks during those sequences. "Pacific Rim" is an absolutely gorgeous movie and the fights happen in a number of different settings. The way water splashes on the camera or the way light reflects off buildings all contribute to the spectacle of each monster/robot battle scene.
This is definitely more of an action film akin to "Hellboy II" rather than a thoughtful fairytale movie like "Pan's Labyrinth". That's also reflected in the child-friendliness. "Pan's Labyrinth" was horrifying in places and while "Hellboy II" was pretty creepy too, it's quite clear to me why "Pan's Labyrinth" has a 15 and "Hellboy II" has a 12A certificate. This is a full feature film for any family who reckon their children are old enough to handle giant monster fights. It has a mixture of well-developed characters, stock characters and comic relief characters. It has moments that will have you laughing out loud (like some of the stuff involving Ron Perlman - trust me) and it has others that will make you genuinely emotional (when it starts exploring Rinko Kikuchi's character's memories of hiding from a kaiju). This isn't a dark brooding tale (like "The Dark Knight), an all-out comedy (like "Iron Man 3"), nor is it a live action cartoon (like "Speed Racer"). This should be seen more like Spielberg's "Jurassic Park": a whole blend of serious moments, comedic moments, scary moments with a central spectacle shot intelligently to work as an important part of the wider story as opposed to just as one-off set pieces.
"Pacific Rim" is not Guillermo Del Toro's best movie, but it keeps to the high standards that we've come to expect from his more recent efforts. This sets a high bar for Gareth Edwards' Godzilla movie due next year. I hope you all check "Pacific Rim" out yourselves (though naturally I don't promise you'll love this as much as I did) and don't forget to wait for the mid-credits sequence before you leave the cinema!
A+
Ranking Guillermo Del Toro's movies
8. Mimic (1997)
Starts off with a lot of the Guillermo Del Toro hallmarks. The idea of an insect amongst us, acting like a human, with humans as it's new prey, is quite a cool idea. The idea is set up pretty well. However, in the second half the film is relying on jump scares and really loses any sense of plot. Del Toro refused to ever work with the Weinstein's again as result of his experience making this movie.
7. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
While some people think of this as one of Del Toro's best films, my prejudice against ghost stories came up quite strongly with this one. I could probably do with rewatching this story of a ghost in the middle of a Spanish civil war scenario, but I remember finding it frustrating.
6. Cronos (1993)
Del Toro's debut is a rather more arty film than some of his others and has a slower pace than other films. Still the central premise is highly compelling. A machine in an old antiques shop allows an old man to gain immortality. However, a particular buyer with greater understanding of the device wishes to take it and gain immortality for himself. Ron Perlman plays the rich buyer's self-centred son who cannot wait to inherit his father's fortune. While this is a pretty cool film, the pacing is quite glacial at times and there isn't really enough payoff to justify the long wait.
5. Blade II (2002)
There are problems with this film, particularly when things are resolved towards the end. There's a rather naff twist about two-thirds through the film and things pretty much go downhill from there. In this Blade movie, Blade is expected to work with the vampires in order to suppress an even greater threat. A more powerful version of the cancer-like mutation causing vampirism is creating monsters that themselves kill vampires. However, once the vampires are gone it seems pretty clear that humans will be next on the hit list for this new breed, so Blade reluctantly agrees to the alliance. Ron Perlman is fantastic as a vampire that isn't happy with this team-up and the power play between him and Blade becomes one of the most enjoyable elements.
4. Hellboy - Director's Cut (2004)
While a lot more bland in the version that went to cinemas, somehow the longer director's cut makes all the difference. With each action sequence being given the proper context, it means the audience is more fully invested in the story and the film is a great deal more enjoyable as a result. Hellboy turns out to be quite an intelligent action film in some ways, but generally it's just great fun. Del Toro's passion for Lovecraftian imagery comes across quite strongly here.
3. Pacific Rim (2013)
Well I've already described how much I liked "Pacific Rim" above. It's a fantastic feature film. But now I need to explain what I preferred about the final two entries in this list.
2. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
I've heard Hellboy II criticised for including Hellboy at all. In many ways it feels like an extension of the world introduced in "Pan's Labyrinth". We are introduced to a race of fairytale people with a whole world-mythology behind them and later we get to see the troll market where they interact together in a whole society that is hidden from ordinary human beings. We also see another bizarre figure added to Hellboy's team in the form of Dr. Johann Kraus, a figure who is essentially a ghost, except that he is able to interact more normally with the world through a kind of astronaut suit. (The main reason I have trouble getting on board with the hate sometimes directed at Seth MacFarlane is because of the way his voice acting sold this character for me.)
Eventually the Hellboy character is tied to the world of these fairtale creatures by the idea that he is the last of his kind. That, just like the fairytale creatures, he should not need to hide from the humans. Of course, the other side of the coin is that humans might be right to fear Hellboy since it is regularly prophesised that he represents humanity's ultimate demise. Perhaps eventually we'll finally get a third entry to the series which resolves this plotline? (Or perhaps the reason we've never received that final entry is because Del Toro would go for a downer ending where Hellboy actually destroys humanity as he is prophesised to do? Surely not!)
1. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Prior to Pan's Labyrinth, not least since most people had not seen the director's cut of "Hellboy", Guillermo Del Toro did not have the same reputation he has now. "Pan's Labyrinth" is what put Del Toro on the map and quite extravagantly so. Like "The Devil's Backbone" this is a Spanish-language movie set during the Spanish civil war. However, this time the horrors of that period are not set against ghosts, but against mythical fauns, fairies and magical books.
A girl obsessed with fairytales comes to believe that she is a fairy princess trapped in the human world and a faun of questionable trustworthiness proposes a number of trials to test her before she is accepted back into the fairy realm. In many ways this is like two films at once, subtly connected. The Spanish civil war story works fine by itself, but with the fairytale story added to it the story becomes even more special.
It's very easy for magical realism to feel disjointed. (I found the french movie "A Prophet" felt very dodgy whenever it brought in magical realism elements because I didn't find they sat well with the main storyline.) However, in "Pan's Labyrinth" the uncertain world of the fairtale creatures has a very interesting parallel with the uncertain world of facism in Spain and the tyranny of Captain Vidal. The girl is vying for the love of a fairytale father while she rejects her new father in the the mundane human world, a fascist captain who has fallen in love with her mother.