Pacific Rim Review Part Two

Edit: I wrote this some time ago. It's not quite finished but I hope that you enjoy it anyway. (published 9/27/2020

The Hype:

Growing up in the United States, any news of a live action giant robot movie that didn't involve the Transformers is alway greeted with nothing less than utter glee. I developed a taste for giant robots at at a young age, so it was safe to say that I was excited to hear the news about Pacific Rim on Gundamn!  I don't think that I had been that excited since the announcement of the Heavy Gear CGI animated show. Ok, ok so that didn't pan out exactly as I had hoped, but in the original announcement Heavy Gear was supposed to be done by Foundation Imaging. (the same company that did Roughneck Chronicles)

At any rate, more than likely there were alot of North American mecha-heads that checked the date to see if it was April fools. Guillermo del Torro... ok I can see that. Idris Elba... mm, not so sure. They're going to call the monsters Kaiju... ok you need to stop playing with my emotions before I hurt you.

So many trailers these days ruin movies. They try so hard to sell the movie that they end up showing too many of the good scenes. The result is that you end up seeing something that would have been better left as a nice surprise. I decided that I didn't want to take that chance with Pacific Rim. So I challenged myself to not see a single trailer until after I saw the movie. I have to say that there was a definitely a payoff.

My first thoughts about giant robots fighting giant monsters was that it was either going to be absolutely phenomenal or completely dreadful. Either way, I had every intention of seeing it in the theater. This is kind of a big deal for me as there are very few movies that I feel compelled to see in the theater. On a good year, I might see 3 movies in the theater. It was safe to say that come hell or high water... I was going to see Pacific Rim in the theater. 

The Story:

While the overall theme of Pacific Rim was fairly simple, there was a very rich and layered story that comprised of four parts. There was the Main Story Arc, Raleigh's Arc, Mako's Arc, and Dr. 

The Main Arc
When a portal to another dimension opens up somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Giant Monsters called Kaiju come through and reek havoc on humanity. Conventional forces are deemed inadequate to fight the Kaiju so giant robots called Jaegers are built to fight the Kaiju. Jaegers were able to stand up to the Kaiju until higher and higher levels of Kaiju start to appear and are able to defeat the Jaegers. It quickly gets to the point where Jaegers can't be built quickly enough. The Jaeger Program is shut down in lieu of a Wall Defense Program. The Wall Defense fails spectacularly in Australia, but as luck would have it the country's remaining Jaeger, Coyote Tango, was around and able to defeat the Kaiju. Unfortunately for humanity,  by then only 4 Jaegers remain to defend the Earth. Stacker Pentecost, the Commander of the Jaeger Program, comes up with a plan to shut down the portal.



Mako's Arc

Mako was a woman who was orphaned as a small child and raised by Stacker Pentecost. She looks to Pentecost as a Father and treats him as such. Her dream is to one day pilot a Jaeger and take a more active role in the Kaiju War.


Dr. Newton Geiszler Arc

A self-professed Kaiju groupie, Dr. Newton "Newt" Geiszler grew up during the Kaiju Wars. He dedicated his life to studying them
At the same time a daring scientist ("Newt") attempts a mind meld with a Kaiju brain.