Okay, I'll just come right out and say that Pacific Rim is absolutely wonderful. Certainly it's a little light on plot and character development. One might even be tempted to say that it's cheesy or silly, and both of those accusations stand pretty solidly. But it was never made to be a serious film; it's an homage to the Kaiju and Mecha films and series of old, where over-acted cliches and lots of explosions held precedent over cinematic subtlety. It's basically just a fun movie, and it's endlessly fascinating to me that such universally appealing films and film genres were born out of Japan's recovery from nuclear devastation and suffering.

Complaints are basically that it's not meaty enough or doesn't give enough of its characters a comprehensive background, et cetera. It's not that sort of film, and if anything, it's better for it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with movies that are primarily just fun to watch and enjoyable to experience, even if you don't leave with a significantly different lease on life or new understanding of the human condition. It's giant robots fighting giant monsters, and that's awesome.

(Also really cool that Mako and Raleigh, despite being very close emotionally and physically, were just good friends. I'm glad, because it could have been very eye-roll inducing and kind of gross otherwise.)


Here are a few links of interest:

Gorgeous Alternate End Titles, and...

The Poster Posse Project for Pacific Rim