Pacific Rim (4K Ultra HD BD)

Action-packed movie that’s entertaining from start to finish.

This movie broke even at the domestic box office (meaning no sequel) but did incredibly well overseas (hopefully meaning sequel). I was skeptical going in but as it starred my boy Jax from Sons of Anarchy (Charlie Hunnam), I gave it a shot. I was not disappointed. This movie is incredibly good. It features the best elements of what I liked about the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Godzilla franchises when I was a kid, then added in the badassness of Idris Elba and an action flick and blended it all together with the incredible visionary talents of Guillermo Del Toro. I mean, what did you expect? His name is Guillermo of the BULL. My wife hates sci-fi flicks, and she hates Godzilla as well as MMPR. I'm not really sure why I married her, now that I think about it. Anyways. She LOVED this movie as did I and everyone who saw it. I'm pretty sure the only people who hated this movie are the folks who showed up thinking Pacific Rim was a Jacques Cousteau underwater documentary. I won't give spoilers of any nature but the plot is essentially monsters rise from under the Pacific ocean. They kick our ass. The President of the US was a Power Rangers fan so he has a bunch of Megazords built. We put two pilots in each. Megazords then proceed to slug it out with Godzilla. Except Godzilla brought his friends Mechagodzilla, Mothra and Ghidorah. So the Megazord has to call in the Dragonzord and the UN of zords. Its robots slugging it out with giant monsters. It's SAMCRO piloting a robot slugging it out with monsters so bad that Godzilla has nightmares about them. What else do you need? And, honestly for you film critics who want plot, well it has a solid plot. I'm great at figuring out a plot before it's revealed. This one was too fun and too functional to do so. Very, very well written. The robots fighting monsters was just a perk of a well written, well directed, and incredibly visually stunning film. Give it a shot. Seriously, you won't be disappointed unless you're a fuddy dud.

I should say that I'm not a huge fan of science fiction (my experience is pretty limited to Firefly and a handful of other shows that don't quite count as science fiction), nor have I seen any del Toro films until Pacific Rim. I'm a film studies major though, so when a friend recommended it to me, I rented it. I watched it once and knew what I was going to get my dad for Christmas. I watched it again, and knew what I wanted for Christmas. Here's the gist: it's 2025 and the world (specifically the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean) has been ravaged by attacks from monsters, Kaijus, that are coming from a breach in the Pacific Ocean to inhabit Earth because we've "terraformed" it for them with our pollution (the film does NOT focus on that idea, though). People designed huge machines, Jaegers, to combat them and they were doing pretty well up until the monsters started adapting to their fight methods. The Jaeger program is on the fritz. Basically, all signs are pointing to everyone winding up Kaiju snacks. I usually try to avoid films that point towards apocalypse - I didn't watch Armageddon for years because of it - but Pacific Rim is different. It does exactly what a film is supposed to do. It establishes the world and the situation well, and there is tension in every scene - from Raleigh and Yancy vs. Knifehead to Herc and Chuck's argument in the Jaeger. Every character is established well just by their first appearance and the film doesn't stray from their characterization (I'm a big stickler for continuity, especially about characters, so I loved this). They aren't crude, either (save for maybe Chuck but he's the lovable jerk...right?), which is awesome. The sole female character (save for the female Kaidonovsky) is a badass and she's never looked at as a sexual object, she's viewed as a person. When Stacker won't let her pilot a Jaeger, it's not because she's a woman and she might not be able to handle it, or because she's weak, it's because she has a motive that could threaten the whole mission. Okay, I could write whole books about Mako, so I'll stop there, but she's amazing. In terms of plot, characters, and theme, it surprised me how well it did for a sci-fi film. I wouldn't say it's character-driven, but the characters are certainly a plus (did I mention Charlie Hunnam's shirtless? A lot? Charlie Hunnam's shirtless a lot.). As for how it's directed, it doesn't get distracting with any strange camera angles or Michael Bay-esque explosions. There are a few sequences that I had trouble focusing on, simply because it's dark and there are many things going on. The special effects are, of course, amazing. The Kaijus are intricately designed yet terrifying, and the Jaegers are awesome (wait till you find out how they work, it's cool and also curiously sentimental). The special effects give a look into the designing of the Jaegers and the Kaijus, and you can see just how devoted del Toro was to this project. There are only a handful of deleted scenes, which was somewhat disappointing to me. However, the other special insights in the interviews and features on the second disc are definitely worth it for anyone interested in the world of Pacific Rim. In a nutshell, this is probably one of the best films I've watched in a while. Had I known I would love it so much, I would have gone to see it in 3D.

I got Pacific Rim for the past holiday season in 2014 for my dad as a Christmas Present. For some reason, my dad loves Pacific Rim. I am still figuring out the reason why, but there is something about this particular movie that resonates with him, and he really enjoys watching it. There are a couple lines that he likes quoting, so that could be the start of it. Anyway, needless to say, he was pretty excited to receive this movie as a present, so I was happy with the purchase from there. As for the movie itself, personally, I think it is good, but not ground breaking in any way, or changing the face of movies for the future. It's a fun movie to sit back and watch with some popcorn, soda, etc. and just relax to. It's not something that you want to over-analyze and put through the wringer because you'll only be disappointed, I think, if you were to go that route. The movie is your standard fare giant monster (or known as Kaiju's) vs. giant robots, something you would find similar to Godzilla movies. Kaiju's are entering our world through a rift, and two pilots of each Jaeger (the general names of the giant robots) jump into their robots to defend cities, people, and country. There are some interesting twists here and there based upon the systems that are used in the confines of the movie, but again, it's just a fun movie to sit back and watch. Visuals are great, I think there is a good amount of color and character to each area that is visited. Acting is decent, although sometimes I can't really settle on whether the dialog is cheesy, or the actors' accents saying the lines. It's not that bad, but it's something that you might rolls your eyes to at points. Overall, should you consider getting it. It's certainly cheap enough, I think I got it for 7.99 when I got it for the holiday season. But if you like giant monsters, giant robots fighting giant robots, cool visuals, fun dialog, I'd say give this a shot. It's cheap enough at least, so that it's not that much to regret if you don't end up enjoying it.

One Of My Favorite Movies! It Never Gets Old!

Great movie ! Kept my attention.

The Film: The movie itself is absolutely fantastic. The characters and the narrative aren't earth-shattering, but they are well beyond the standard of typical summer blockbuster fare. There is a fair depth to the main protagonist that you don't typically see in an summer action flick, but the supporting characters are the ones that really steal the Show. Idris Elba's acting is phenomenal, as is the nature of his character. Rinko Kikuchi may as well be a second lead as once she arrives on screen she carries her performance near flawlessly. The action sequences are astounding, as are the visual effects. You can tell that Del Toro did not pull any stops, and the movie has that visual perfection of special effects that you can only get by blending top-quality digital effects and artfully crafted practical effects. The monsters and the jaegers both look and move with an authenticity that they may as well be real. The Blu Ray and DVD versions both look excellent. I have not tried the 3d version from this disk, but if it is anything like the 3d version from theaters, it's way better than most. The other content: The special content available on the discs is nice. The second bonus disc is content seems to take a wider view, a little more universe oriented and is great for fans looking for more information on the world of Pacific Rim. The special features on the movie disc itself are equally insightful, but generally focus more on the creative process of actually setting up and filming the movie, as well as generating the effects. Definitely worth a look. The packaging: The only element of this item that leaves a little bit to be desired is the case. Overall it's a pretty good idea, and unlike most similar collectors cases, it fits on a shelf and is about the same dimensions as a couple blu-ray disks together, so you don't need to find a special place for it. The only downside is the flip-back portion of the case that stores the disks. Its held up so far but I don't know if it will be durable enough to last a year from now, and perhaps more importantly, it's awkward getting disks out. I haven't dropped one but I've accidentally left a big ol' thumbprint on a disk more than once trying to switch out one for another or just even trying to take the movie out to play it.

Giant mechas versus colossal extradimensional monsters - what's not to love? Okay, so maybe the concept sounds a bit campy, and certainly could have come off that way if handled the same way as a Syfy movie of the week. But Pacific Rim delivers pure cinematic fun. The special effects were amazing and certainly one of the great attractions of this movie. The design of both the giant mechas, the Jaegers, and the monsters, the Kaijus, was spectacular with great attention to detail. The look and movement of both seemed realistic for machines and creatures of their size. I thought the acting was solid all the way around, with lots of interesting characters thrown into the mix. The need to have 2 pilots controlling a mecha, while a bit of a contrivance, does help lend itself to more character interaction and emotional interplay. These aren't just soldiers fighting together on a battlefield (which itself is a strong bond) - these are warriors who have their very minds linked in order to seamlessly control a 200 foot tall death machine. Now granted you can't too tangled up in logic if you are going to enjoy this movie. For instance, the Kaijus always emerge from the exact same spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so why not just have bombers on station ready to nuke the suckers as soon as they come through the portal while they are safely out in the middle of nowhere - well because then you wouldn't be able to make an awesome movie about giant robots fighting alien monsters. Also, the leaders of the world decide that instead of continuing to build more Jaegars, they should instead invest all their energy into building giant walls around civilization. Ignoring the fact that it takes your typical city traffic authority 5 years and 20 million dollars to fix a 5 mile stretch of road, why would anyone think a wall would be a better defense than giant robots. Clearly those in power didn't take the coolness factor into their calculations. Giant mechas always beat giant walls. Remember that if you ever find yourself on a city planning council. So as long as you can leave the critical analysis at the theater door (or save it for the internet chat rooms afterwards), and you are someone who enjoys an action movie full of epic monster battles, you are sure to enjoy Pacific Rim.