Pacific Rim 
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Clifton Collins Jr., Ron Perlman, Diego Klattenhoff
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Rated: PG-13
Run Time: 132 mins
Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Sci-Fi/ Fantasy
Opens July 12th
By Lisa Minzey of The Reel Critic.com
Hey Phoenix Film Fans! What could be considered a "true summer blockbuster" film in the traditional sense is opening this week, the Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim". Del Toro pulls triple duty on this film as he directed, co-wrote and executive produced. "Pacific Rim" stars Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff, Max Martini and Rinko Kikuchi.
Somewhere in the Pacific ridge, a rift between our universe and the home of the Kaiju monsters has opened a portal for the monsters to travel to Earth, causing mass chaos and destruction. Think of a modern day Godzilla meets Jurassic Park type of beast that tears down the Golden Gate Bridge or the Sydney Opera House. We humans finally put our petty differences aside and work together to build these massive robots called Jaegers (German for Hunter) to fight and defeat the monsters.
The program worked for a while, but in 2017, the costs were becoming astronomical due to pilot error. To man one of these "Jaegers", it was a 2 man effort, much to act like the left and right sides of the hemispheres of the human brain. The more a pilot could link or connect to the other pilot the better the fighting team. Brother pilots Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Yancy Becket (Diego Klattenhoff) find them in a fight for their lives when a Category 4 Kaiju attacks their Jaeger. Yancy perished in the battle leaving Raleigh to fend for himself. Shortly after that incident, the number of pilot errors rose, resulting in the dismantling of the Jaeger program. The solution to ending the robot program is to build a massive sea wall to keep the monsters out. Stacker Pentecost knows that is the wrong solution, so he goes rogue, starting his own black ops Jaeger program. He tracks down Raliegh to serve under him once more as the Kaiju attacks are happening more frequently. Can the Jaeger teams stop the dreaded Kaiju or will this be the end of the human race?
Having built a fan base of eccentric creatures featured in his films, Guillermo del Toro has a created a niche for fantastic looking films. "Pacific Rim" is no exception; the 3-D effects are phenomenal; the stunts, Kaiju creatures are terrifying and grotesque, giving the audience non stop action from start to finish. What works is the uniqueness of the concept- it's Godzilla meets the transformers for the apocalypse. The first 30 minutes of the film is just set up of the world with monsters and robots and how we arrived at this point. Then the title credits flash, which still bugs me to have such a late appearance; it was distracting. What this film lacks is any sense of congruent logic in the storyline. What is appeared to be was alive action anime film turned into a big-budget monster fest. It's as if a 12 year old boy got a hold of his toy chest, dumped out the contents and made a really cool looking movie. Bright spots in the film were Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, and Ron Perlman. Any scenes with these guys are worth paying attention to. Another thing to consider before you go to the theater is that this film runs over two hours, which in my opinion, they could have cut at least 25 minutes out, and it could have been just as entertaining, so bonus footage for the enthusiasts. "Pacific Rim" opens in theaters nationwide starting Friday July 12, 2013.
