Pacific Rim
Year: 2013
Rating: PG-13
Length: 131 minutes / 2.18 hours

When I first saw the trailer for this film, I became really excited. One of the staples of anime is the “giant robot” subgenre, of which Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann are certainly the classics. And while Pacific Rim (2013) wasn’t an adaptation of an anime, it got my hopes up that it could be done well enough that we could see live action versions of these aforementioned anime. After all, adaptations to live-action from anything animated tend to be very difficult, so this would be a step in the right direction.

I do have to say that this movie delivered what it promised. Something like a mix between Godzilla (1999) and Real Steel (2011), the premise was a little bit closer to Independence Day (1996) than I initially thought it would be. The visuals were stunning and the fight sequences were both immense and intense, never letting up with the action as the world’s options for survival quickly dwindled down to practically nothing. So, the question of whether or not this could lead the way to other “giant robot” films still stands, but I think it did a good job of introduction. After all, the Mechanical Engineer in me really wants to see more “giant robot” films.

Always the master of his visual craft, Guillermo del Toro delivered the same type of spectacle that we’ve come to expect from such films as Hellboy (2004) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Of course, the perk of Pacific Rim was a few of the “lighter” characters, like Ron Perlman’s Hannibal Chau (which, given that this is a del Toro film, I practically expected Perlman to be in it) and Charlie Day’s Dr. Newton Geiszler. I also felt that the multi-cultural element of this film was really well presented, along with its strong female sub-protagonist.

A first giant step into potential future anime adaptations, I give Pacific Rim 4.0 stars out of 5.