Pacific Rim

"Pacific Rim" the newest movie from fanboy fave director Guillermo Del Toro is 2+ hours of the longest, most expensive, most visually stimulating fanboy cream dream that has ever been seen. If the 13 year old version of myself could come out for a moment I can sum up the movie this way: "Pacific Rim" is FUCKING awesome!

The Setting for "Pacific Rim" is in the not too distance future when giant monsters start emerging from an alternative universe whose gateway portal to earth is discovered to be thousands of miles under the sea. The monsters are known as Kaiju and after lengthy traditional battles the world unites to undertake a project to build a series of man operated machines known as Jaegers. The Jaegers are operated by two co-pilots with "Avatar" like technology where their minds meld together as one brain, one controls the left side of the robot while the other controls the right.

Charlie Hunnam known by most from "Sons of Anarchy" but known by cool people for his work on "Undeclared" is the main character a once hot shot Jaeger pilot who due to the death of his co-pilot brother quits and becomes a construction worker. Fast forward a few years and the governments of the world have decided the Jaeger program is no longer working and have decided to build large walls around costal cities as a sort of blockade from the Kaiju, a very wall that Hunnam's character is working on! British badass and Julianne Gabert crush Idris Elba plays the leader of the newly underground Jaeger program and he seeks out Hunnam to re-enroll in the program as his old machine, aptly named "Gipsy Danger" has been put back into active duty.

Even if that above plot sypnosis did nothing for you or just made no sense "Pacific Rim" is for anyone who likes going to the movies to be wowed. We make fun of Michael Bay a lot here at "The AOM" and we will continue to do that here: "Pacific Rim" is just like "Transformers" if "Transformers" had any type of soul, humor and a director who wasn't in love with himself. Del Toro puts all of his geekdom passion in this effort, there are enough geek references and MechWarrior nods to keep the nerds happy and enough humor and originality to keep those with significant others interested. Even Hellboy himself Ron Pearlman stops by in a great role as a black market dealer known as "Hannibal Chau" (be sure to stay during the credits for a bonus scene involving Chau's fate). Japanese babe Rinko Kikuchi also stars joining a long list that includes Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich and Jennifer Lawrence as a hot babe who kicks ass.

Del Toro has proved with "Pans Labyrinth" and even the "Hellboy" movies that his prime objectives are visuals and story. The overall story of "Pacific Rim" has a few holes but is understandable and a given for a movie on this large of scale. the individual stories of the characters however are what really make the movie work. Most notably Kikuchi's character suffers a great loss as a child in the film that is told in flashbacks. Del Toro does have a pension for showing children in crisis and these scenes are heartbreaking to watch, massive shout-out to the child actor here who gives the best performance by a kid I've seen since the creepy little boy in "Looper". Idris Elba- who rocks in any role he takes but is especially great here, even delivering an "Independence Day" style speech towards the end that should evoke audience applause. Hunnam is more or less the star here, he definitely has the looks of a star but has to work on the American accent a little bit as there is a right way and a wrong way to deliver cheesy dialogue which he still hasn't figured out how to do. "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Charlie Day is also featured with a few funny scenes but overall teeters on the brink of annoyance.

Some of the Kaiju monsters look like rejected drawings from the new "Godzilla" reboot and 99.9% of the battles inexplicably take place during giant rain storms which since this takes place roughly 7 years from now could be the direct cause of global warming. The battle scenes between monster and robot are glorious, I saw it in standard 2D but this might have been the rare exception where the IMAX 3D expense would have been well worth it.

If you are like me and like your 200 million dollar budgeted popcorn summer blockbusters with a little bit of substance please seek out "Pacific Rim". On paper it might seem like a 12 year olds fanboy magna novel, which it is but it also is escapism to the very core. Look for end of the year awards consideration for the special effects, sound and sound editing, cinematography and if there is any justice at least a nomination for Ron Pearlman for "Best Supporting Actor".