Pacific Rim (2013)
Country: US
Technical: col 131m
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Synopsis:
Out of a breach in the Earth's crust come the Kaiju, ever larger primeval creatures bent on taking over our planet. To fight them, the world's leaders create vast, human-piloted robotic fighting machines, known as Jaegers. But after years of war the Kaiju are gaining the upper hand, and the last remaining Jaegers forge a standoff in Hong Kong bay.
Review:
The synopsis ignores the film's main gimmick, namely the 'drifting' procedure by which the twin pilots 'mesh' their neural faculties so as to be able to interface with a hugely powerful artificial intelligence. This leads to dramatics involving pilots who lose or save their co-pilots, and the lighter veined antics of a scientist determined to 'drift' with pieces of Kaiju brain. Otherwise, of course, this is Godzilla meets Mechagodzilla once again, souped up with state-of-the-art CGI packaging via the Transformers movies. Happily, the set pieces follow the good old rule of three, after an opening which lavishes the kind of spectacle normally reserved for a movie climax on its unsuspecting audience, and the characters are somewhat more fleshed out than in a Michael Bay film, though not a lot. In the end there is little to associate with the Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth here, except for the child-focused flashback involving the excellent Miss Kikuchi, an interest in monsters - and a cameo from Ron Perlman. Just another Independence Day really.
Country: US
Technical: col 131m
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Synopsis:
Out of a breach in the Earth's crust come the Kaiju, ever larger primeval creatures bent on taking over our planet. To fight them, the world's leaders create vast, human-piloted robotic fighting machines, known as Jaegers. But after years of war the Kaiju are gaining the upper hand, and the last remaining Jaegers forge a standoff in Hong Kong bay.
Review:
The synopsis ignores the film's main gimmick, namely the 'drifting' procedure by which the twin pilots 'mesh' their neural faculties so as to be able to interface with a hugely powerful artificial intelligence. This leads to dramatics involving pilots who lose or save their co-pilots, and the lighter veined antics of a scientist determined to 'drift' with pieces of Kaiju brain. Otherwise, of course, this is Godzilla meets Mechagodzilla once again, souped up with state-of-the-art CGI packaging via the Transformers movies. Happily, the set pieces follow the good old rule of three, after an opening which lavishes the kind of spectacle normally reserved for a movie climax on its unsuspecting audience, and the characters are somewhat more fleshed out than in a Michael Bay film, though not a lot. In the end there is little to associate with the Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth here, except for the child-focused flashback involving the excellent Miss Kikuchi, an interest in monsters - and a cameo from Ron Perlman. Just another Independence Day really.
Country: US
Technical: col 131m
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Synopsis:
Out of a breach in the Earth's crust come the Kaiju, ever larger primeval creatures bent on taking over our planet. To fight them, the world's leaders create vast, human-piloted robotic fighting machines, known as Jaegers. But after years of war the Kaiju are gaining the upper hand, and the last remaining Jaegers forge a standoff in Hong Kong bay.
Review:
The synopsis ignores the film's main gimmick, namely the 'drifting' procedure by which the twin pilots 'mesh' their neural faculties so as to be able to interface with a hugely powerful artificial intelligence. This leads to dramatics involving pilots who lose or save their co-pilots, and the lighter veined antics of a scientist determined to 'drift' with pieces of Kaiju brain. Otherwise, of course, this is Godzilla meets Mechagodzilla once again, souped up with state-of-the-art CGI packaging via the Transformers movies. Happily, the set pieces follow the good old rule of three, after an opening which lavishes the kind of spectacle normally reserved for a movie climax on its unsuspecting audience, and the characters are somewhat more fleshed out than in a Michael Bay film, though not a lot. In the end there is little to associate with the Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth here, except for the child-focused flashback involving the excellent Miss Kikuchi, an interest in monsters - and a cameo from Ron Perlman. Just another Independence Day really.