Synopsis:
When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)-who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse. (c) Warner Bros
Story:
It was pretty simple and it was straight-forward, sure there are some subplots that were thrown in but these were used to give the story a much deeper thought. However, even though the usage of subplots was critical to deepen the narrative of this movie, it did not make the movie of the story any better. I'm not saying that the story is bad, what I'm saying is that it could have been better.
Despite having a low-brow story, it does have it's advantage and that is it was easy to follow and it does not take itself too complicated or too convoluted, it just went on with it's goal and this movie accomplished that which was showing giant mechs vs. giant robots.
In addition, I like the tone that they went for in this movie, it was serious but it still managed to give out some few laughs especially the scenes with Charlie Day.
Acting:
The performance of the cast was pretty great especially Idris Elba. Whenever this guys just pops on the screen, he delivers and he also managed to "out-act" his costars because he is the type of character who you should follow, a character who you should root for and a character who you do not want to touch. Too bad he wasn't the lead male character.
My statement from above is not a way to say that Charlie Hunnam (the film's male lead) didn't do a good job in the role. In my opinion, he did a great job with it the only problem with him is that he lacked the charisma to be a good leading actor, there was something missing in his performance that most of leading characters have.
As for the others, they did a good job on their roles, Rinko Kikuichi was a delight and to actually hear her speak English is a sigh of relief. Charlie Day was funny and also did a good job on his role the guy from The Dark Knight Rises (Burn Gorman) also did a good job and his chemistry with Day was almost pure comedic gold. But there was one actor who really ignite the movie when he appeared, and that is Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau, a Kaiju organ dealer in the black market. He was incredible in this role despite a short screen time. To sum up his performance, he was a threatening wise-ass.
Action:
This aspect just delivers on so many levels, it was epic and delivered a good dosage of nostalgia. The movement of both the mechs and Kaijus were incredible and when they started fighting it was just jaw-dropping and a truly magnificent thing to see onscreen.
The action in this movie is the main reason we go to watch movies, and that is to have fun and be entertained with what the hell is happening on screen. This is how you make an action sequence for robot, slow yet powerful and bot quick and forgettable (yes I'm looking at you Transformers).
Music:
I really didn't mind the score in this movie but I will say that it comes off as triumphant and it gives hope to vanquish the Kaiju that is present.
What really caught my attention though is the sound-mixing. My God, it was incredible, hats off to those involved with the mixing, it was really good and it really took you in to the experience.
Cinematography/VFX:
If there is one thing that I love in the shows like 'Ultraman' and 'Power rangers', it is the grand battle between the giant robots and the giant version of the villains. Those scenes were able to show a big scope even with the use of miniatures. With this movie, I was able to experience that again, each action scene shown had great shots which showed how big the scope of the movie is. It made me relieve the old days again.
The VFX was also top-notch in this movie. You know that this are just CGI but at time and it came off as really believable. You can almost feel like it is happening in front of you. the design of the Jaegers and the Kaijus were also amazing, it makes you to want to buy an official art book of the movie.
Direction:
Del Toro's last film was Hellboy II: The Golden Army and it was one of the best comic book films ever in my opinion. It showed how complex he can be working behind the camera, and in this movie he also did the same. My issues with his direction is the pacing that he used for the film, the first act was fast and makes you delve in the movie but by the second act it gets a little boring although these scenes were pivotal to the movie and in the last act it picks up the pace again and manages to be one great movie. My second issue was that he wasn't able to let his cast live up to their full extent (except for Elba and Day) there was something missing to the performance of his cast.
Overall:
Even though the film suffers from story depth, charisma from the lead actor and that the film is clearly a style over substance type of movie, it still managed to entertain me and gives one hell of a ride to my inner child and that was one awesome experience that is truly unforgettable.
Favorite monologue/line:
Stacker Pentecost: Today at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time. We have chosen to believe in each other. Today we face the monsters that are at our door, today we are cancelling the apocalypse!
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