Pacific Rim (2013, Guillermo Del Toro)

What if the aliens attacking us come from the ground not the sky ? That’s what happens in Pacific Rim. At first, a giant monster called kaiju emerged from a portal under the sea and attacked San Francisco. It took six days for military forces to bring it down. Realizing that unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a longtime war for our salvation, the humans created the jaegers, huge robots controlled by two pilots whose minds are connected to each other. The jaeger program was a success but later has been proved obsolete as the kaijus evolved. As world leaders stopped providing financial support in favour of other options, Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) has to rely on a former pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and a rookie, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) to save the world from extinction.

Jaeger pilots

Of course, there is a lot to say about a film but here are the most important subjects I have to point out.

• Charlie Hunnam

His performance as both a warrior and a man haunted by the memory of his brother’s death on a jaeger is believable. Being known for a long time as the main character in the famous FX’s show Sons of Anarchy, Hunnam proved that on screen, he can be anyone else than Jackson Teller.

• Spectacular visual effects

With an estimated budget of $180 000 000, our eyes are delighted with what we see. The monsters and the robots are well designed and I think it was a good idea to make them look different so that each one would be unique. For one second, I expected to see an adult version of Power Rangers (lol) but once again, ILM delivered an outstanding work making Pacific Rim a good blockbuster.

Gipsy Danger USA

• The story

We cannot expect much as far as the script is concerned, can we. However, the film manages to develop each character’s features and contains enough elements and interactions to support the plot. I particularly like the fact that most of the battle scenes take place in Hong Kong not in the US as in most films.

From left to right: Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba and Charlie Hunnam

Verdict: Pacific Rim is worth watching: simple, no surprise but entertaining.