Review -
What is it with human-kind’s technology that none of our missiles, which can sink steel warships or destroy whole cities ever seem to work on overgrown lizards? And how is it that despite the failure of Hadrian’s Wall, the Atlantic Wall (Normandy), the Maginot, Hindenburg, Gothic and Siegfried Lines, the world leaders here give it another crack? Ok, it’s a robot fantasy for teenage boys and they’re certainly not going to know their history but consider yourself warned that you’ll need to suspend belief at a pretty high level for Pacific Rim.
Essentially, some sort of crack in reality allows giant Godzilla type monsters to rise from the ocean and attack mankind’s ever vulnerable major cities. (Take a tip from Sci Fi invasion movies – DO NOT live near the Sydney Opera House - it attracts alien attackers like moths!) Standard weapons, which otherwise work well against everything else are suddenly useless. As is apparently the expensive training of air-force pilots, who suddenly forget all about their aircrafts advanced stealth technology and stand-off capacities like ‘fire and forget’ munitions and seek to ‘close’ with the monsters King Kong 1930s style. Anyway, the only answer obviously is to construct giant robots like Gigantor but with a better nose and paint job. The catch is though that they must be piloted by two very compatible pilots. This allows for all sorts of dinky human relationships. Beware there might be a cliché or fifty here! An additional ‘beware’ for Australian readers – apparently our accent sounds incredibly moronic. Try not to talk to anyone from overseas ever again. You will sound obnoxious and will quickly become expendable.
So, there are some credibility issues but the special effects are excellent before they become monotonous. There’s a couple of fun touches and some diverges from the obvious plot development - but not many. It’s solid enough if you’re a teenage boy or someone able to remember being one. Leave reason and logic at home and you will have a reasonable time. 3 Stars
