TOM TANGNEY

Action, special effects in ‘Pacific Rim’ justifies all of its cliches

Jul 12, 2013, 5:55 AM | Updated: Jul 16, 2013, 11:25 am

The latest summer blockbuster is “Pacific Rim,” a movie about giant monsters and giant robots.

I’ve long bemoaned what I call the “Transformers”-ization of summer blockbusters – big noisy movies that don’t bother much with story or character because they put all their energies into gigantic action sequences, usually climactic special-effects battle scenes between superheroes and supervillains. This summer’s “Man of Steel” suffered from just such mind-numbing excess.

And even a strong character-driven blockbuster like Robert Downey Junior’s “Iron Man 3” succumbed – in the end – to this clattering trend of overly long CGI battles.

It’s enough to make me want to banish all blockbusters for the summer.

Then a movie like “Pacific Rim” comes along and up-ends all my prejudices against the genre. Yes, its characters are all too broadly drawn, and yes the story is a crock. I mean, c’mon, it’s Monsters versus Robots. But oh, what monsters and oh, what robots! It turns out if you do a great special effects job creating those monsters and robots, just watching them fight over and over CAN be entertaining.

The basic plot of “Pacific Rim” is that there is some breach at the bottom of the ocean that allows monsters (or Kaiju) to break into our dimension and wreak havoc on Earth. To combat them, mankind has devised giant robots (or Jaegers) that are so big and complex it takes two human beings strapped inside each robot’s head to control its movements. And when I say giant, I mean giant. They are 250 feet tall, the same size as the Kaiju, and when two of them mix it up, you really feel it.

Director Guillermo del Toro has given his robots and monsters such texture and weight that they don’t feel like special effects toys but rather like crusading sentient beings.

Each Kaiju and each Jaeger is distinct and individualized.
One monster has a massive shark-like head, another can fly like an eagle, still another emits an electromagnetic pulse that can shut down circuits. The Jaegers are also one-of-a-kind: the Chernoalpha is a Russian robot with a power-plant for a head, the Crimson Typhoon looks like a medieval Chinese warrior, and Gipsy Danger is a retro cowboy robot with a John Wayne swagger and an Art Deco design. All these robots also have hidden weapons on them, everything from machine guns to swords.

These fantastical visions of both robots and monsters make each of their many fights feel unique and not repetitive. The fact that most of them take place in water also give them a look distinctive from most other Hollywood CGI fare.

“Pacific Rim,” mind you, is full of cliches – storylines and characters – but the somewhat mindless action is so good that in this rare case, the action alone is enough to justify the movie.

Tom Tangney

Belfast...

Tom Tangney

Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast’ is a crowd-pleaser that doesn’t quite hit the mark

"Belfast" has plenty to recommend itself but it's not nearly the moving testament to fraught times that Kenneth Branagh thinks it is or wants it to be.

2 years ago

Eternals, Marvel...

Tom Tangney

‘Eternals’ has to do a lot of heavy lifting for a single film

Imagine the daunting task Marvel sets for itself in "Eternals." It has to introduce 10 new superheroes, not to mention an entirely new cosmology.

2 years ago

French Dispatch...

Tom Tangney

‘The French Dispatch’ is unmistakably Andersonian

Wes Anderson is an acquired taste. But luckily, after 10 full-length movies, most critics and many movie-goers have acquired it.

2 years ago

Dune...

Tom Tangney

All set-up and no payoff: ‘Dune’ is world’s longest and most expensive trailer

It's hard to find the right metaphor for the new "Dune" movie. Whatever comparison you choose, it must reflect a sense of incompletion.

2 years ago

Last Duel...

Tom Tangney

Poor Marguerite’s story saves ‘The Last Duel’

Tom Tangney says, ultimately, The Last Duel is a proto-feminist take on the Middle Ages with Marguerite's take that brings the film into focus.

2 years ago

James Bond...

Tom Tangney

Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie comes full-circle

The 25th installment in the James Bond movie franchise may be titled "No Time to Die," but "Too Much Time to Die" may be more fitting.

2 years ago

Action, special effects in ‘Pacific Rim’ justifies all of its cliches