Pacific Rim: Blu Ray Review

Pacific Rim: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Warner Home Ent

In this latest from the visionary Guillermo del Toro, an alien force known as the Kaiju have invaded from under the sea via a portal. In order to try and survive the onslaught, humans have created giant robots (aka Jaeger) to take the fight to the Kaiju. But seven years into this war, millions have been killed, cities destroyed and defeat stared right in the face. All that stands in their way is Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Becket, who's already lost his brother to the fight to the Kaiju when their robot got smashed to pieces. Leading the charge is Marshall Stacker Pentecost (!) aka Luther's Idris Elba - when the government decides to close down the Jaeger programme, he alone decides to fight on rather than to decommission the robots....

The movie Pacific Rim is simply giant robots vs giant sea monsters - a kind of Godzilla vs Transformers(and woe-betied any piece of masonry which gets in the way).

It's clearly a passion project of del Toro's and a lot of suitably impressive work's been put into the creature features and the battle sequences. So much so, that the semblance of any kind of in depth story or human character / development has gone by the wayside - although, cheesy dialogue a-plenty is there in spades.

And the characters are pretty predictable too - the wounded soldier on a path to redemption, the rookie scientist whose desire to satiate vengeance is her driving goal, the scientists who are a bit kooky and a comedy double act (with Charlie Day channeling Rick Moranis and Torchwood's Burn Gorman going all limpy as the theoretical yin to Day's practical yang) and a commander-in-chief who has the ability to deliver a killer speech when it matters most.

With throwbacks of B-movies and plenty of theGodzilla vs series, del Toro's crafted something which is immeasurably dumb but incredibly action-packed, which will satiate the appetite of those simply searching for a big serving of spectacle. Sure, Pacific Rim is big but not clever, but as blockbuster spectacle goes and for its genre as an FX fest, it's certainly nothing more than it says on the tin.

Extras: 14 featurettes, commentary - a good solid bunch

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