Guilermo Del Toro is an amazing director. He has the mind of an indie storyteller with things unique to say and the heart of a true, blue fanboy. He loves the things of the imagination and desires to play with those toys on the cinematic stage.
When I was a lad, one of my favorite toys was a two foot tall Shogun Warrior. Mattel put these out and one Christmas, I and my brother both received one. Mine was Great Mazinga, while Chip got Raydeen. We had many a battle with them. I don't think my love for robots started there, as that goes further back. But giant fighting mecha, this is where that started. Mattel also released a Godzilla, and though I played with that one, never owned him. That's where it got started, and later, when shows came out featuring giant anthropomorphic fighting machines, like Robotech, or games like Battletech, I was, and still am, all over it.
Interestingly, giant monsters have long dominated cinema, but giant fighting robots have not. They have featured in Kaiju tales, but Mr. del Toro is the first filmmaker to give them the big budget film treatment alongside city demolishing monsters, unleashing them in his multi-million cinematic sandbox.
The scenario is this. In the present day or near future, Kaiju, giant monsters, emerge from the bottom of the Pacific ocean. A dimensional gateway has opened there and a monster came through. The first was stopped with conventional forces, planes, tanks, ships and troops, after much destruction. All was well after but the rebuilding, until another emerged. Humanity quickly realized this was not over. This was ongoing, and present weapons were not sufficient. So the Jaeger program was developed, giant humanoid combat machines, each piloted by at least two operators. These weapons pushed back and for awhile, held the line. But the monsters kept coming through. The powers that be had not figured out a way to shut the portal and they kept getting more powerful.
Our key figures in this tale include Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnan), a veteran Jaegar pilot who left the program after his mecha Jipsy Danger was critically damaged in combat that killed his brother, while they were mentally joined (that's how pilots control and carry the load of Jaeger maneuvering). His new partner, eventually, is the lovely, agile and formidable Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a couple of crazy scientists and Ron Pearlman rocking some awesome shoes. And there's Idris Alba, playing General Stacker Pentacost, commander of the Jaeger program, playing a character that reminds me a lot of Edward James Olmos' take on William Adama in Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica.
Those are our players, and the stage is the world. The pieces are in place and the finale awaits. And that is the thing about Mr. del Toro's vision. With Pacific Rim, he didn't just create a full fledged salute to cinema and sandboxes of old. He made a statement. A horror and Lovecraft fan, he came out and said, "I love HP Lovecraft's stories, but disagree with his conclusions. The end is not inevitable and the inbetween moments do matter." Yes, they do. And that is optimism for our age, optimism we really need.
Well put, Mr. del Toro.
I love this movie.
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