Pacific Rim (2013)

Release Date: July 12, 2013


What's It About: On the brink of destruction from terrifying huge monsters deemed Kaiju, humanity built its final weapon the Jaegers, which are sent to do battle with them.


The Good: Finally, a Hollywood film about mecha and kaiju that meets our expectations! First and foremost, it ticks all the boxes for what you would expect to see from an anime, and this is no coincidence. The action is great, monsters and the mecha look inspired and creative and borrow more than a few references from Evangelion, Gundam and Godzilla, and the characters are developed just enough to give it emotional weight. There's also plenty of worldbuilding that is worth an hour of exploring online (I'm always partial to fictional timelines).


The Bad: Being focused on cgi and filled with shounen tropes, this film is likely to confuse or just outright annoy you if you don't know what you're getting into. If you're a big anime fan, particularly of Evangelion, there are numerous references to that show in many of Pacific Rim's elements (intentional or unintentional, it is not known), such as the pilots syncing with the Jaeger and accessing their subconscious to develop a bond with it, or the collective conscious nature of the Kaiju, which look and have similar behaviors to the Angels.


Best Performance: Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori. She plays an orphan whose parents were killed during a Kaiju attack, and who desires to one day become a Jaeger pilot. She forms an interesting hot and cold relationship with pilot Raleigh Becket, and eventually becomes his Jaeger partner. She's arguably the most interesting character and definitely the one on whom the character development is most defined. Where Becket is a textbook shounen hero, Mako has more character depth and her coming of age is one of the arcs of the film.


Should I Watch It: In a sense, this film is meant to be a love letter to mecha anime fans who have never really had any proper content in Hollywood. It's always been a dream of theirs to see their favorite mecha and their favorite storylines being depicted in live action, since it would look so damn sweet. If that's you, then this is a staple.


Post-Credits Scene: Mid-credits only


Similar Films: Any of the Godzilla films (Toho, Legendary, doesn't matter), Elysium (2013), Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)


Trailer: