Pacific Rim (6/10)

From one Guillermo del Toro film to another. There seemed to be a theme last week.

This was one of my most anticipated films, and so of course it was going to let me down.

Let's start with what del Toro did right and did awesome. This was like a nod to the Japanese Ultra Man, battling giant monsters in the city of Tokyo. The Kaiju looked great. They didn't differ from one another in terms of looks and design too much, but still they looked fantastic. The Jaegers too looked good, not amazing but they did their job.

The battle I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, again, like Transformers, they had that nostalgic element going for them if you could remember Ultra Man and things like that from way back when. But on the other hand, they didn't have that wow factor. I was never rooting for the Jaegers deep inside. It was just watching the fights happen and after they were done, I was just waiting for the next one to begin.

Also, when they hyped up the level of the monsters in terms of size and threat using the 1 to 5 categories - just like hurricanes and tsunamis, the fifth one didn't look impressive at all. I would have expected more damage and carnage and struggles but didn't get what I already have gotten from the others.

In terms of the human relationships, all of it were sub-par with some just horrible. I'm talking about Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi's characters; their development was so thin and rushed that I couldn't care less for them. Kikuchi's horrible acting didn't help. And her first meeting with Hunnam was cringe-worthy all around. That was the first sign of an epic fail waiting to happen and it did. The dialogue could have helped but it was so bad that the whole scene was destroyed. She also didn't have chemistry with Hunnam nor Idris Elba, the two that she needed the most chemistry with. I just don't get it why was she cast for this role. From her first scene I already saw that she didn't look the part.

And the dialogue and script were just bad throughout the movie. So much so that when there was no action I had to fight to keep awake. The other major characters too were all uninteresting and some of them just down right childish and petty even when the world was about to end.

I would have liked to see more of the other Jaegers and their handlers. Del Toro should have put more focus on those characters too.

And what about Charlie Day and Burn Gorman's duo? Yes to chemistry, but plot wise was not strong enough. They became quite a nuisance from the focus that I was forced to wait for - action scenes.

Ron Perlman of course had to make an appearance, but again the script really failed him and his role was just pathetic.

Sad to say, Pacific Rim to me was one of del Toro's weaker movies when compared to Hellboy 2 and Pan's Labyrinth. I was let down.