Let me start by saying that I had no idea what to think of Pacific Rim before seeing it. The information I did have was limited to the vague trailer, which is something I was fine with. The concept did not make a ton of sense to me and I was rather apathetic towards the idea of giant robotic figures fighting against huge creatures. But it did have Idris Elba, so I had a feeling it could not be too bad, even if his “today we are cancelling the apocalypse” speech in the previews looked a little bit dumb and overdramatic. On top of that, I recently spent the day visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore ogling at the marine life, so I felt that I was definitely prepared to see some Godzilla-like beings rise up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean and take the fight to arrogant humans, resting easy at the top of the food chain on their high horse. I was skeptical, but open to the idea that this movie could be good. Was I right to be skeptical? Absolutely. Was the movie still good? Let’s dig into that question…

Pacific Rim has a simple enough setup – aliens have launched an attack on humans, but instead of landing UFO’s or snatching bodies or using any other traditional form of assault, there have been monsters (referred to in the movie as Kaijus, which is Japanese for “giant monster”) rising out of the oceans on occasions to bring the fight to major cities spanning the entirety of Earth. In order to fight the Kaijus, humans developed a lot of tactics, with none working greater than the creation of multi-manned, super-large, weaponized robots (referred to as Jaeger) that do battle with the massive beasts whenever they rise from the water. The problem with the Jaeger, though, is that one person cannot handle the control of it independently due to the immense stress that such control puts on his or her brain. In most instances two people’s brains must join together (though the movie does show the appearance of more than two), bridging their minds, feelings, and memories so that their movements are completely synchronized while handling the Jaegers. The Jaegers were doing a fantastic job defending the cities around the globe. But eventually Kaijus started coming in more frequently, while growing more powerful and greater in mass. At this point the Jaegers have become less helpful, but there are a few that still cling to the idea that the fight with the Kaijus is winnable for mankind.

Enter the hero of Pacific Rim, Raleigh Becket, as played by Charlie Hunnam. Hunnam himself is well-known for his wonderful portrayal of Jax on the hit FX series Sons of Anarchy, and perhaps equally as well-known for his horrendous Cockney accent in Green Street Hooligans. His accent in Pacific Rim is a confusing one, making his origin sort of ambiguous; it seems like a standard American accent at times, but one that he struggles with, even though his Jax character sounds as American as possible. He is very muscular and sports a leading man’s body, as evidenced by the multiple times he is seen with his shirt off. He is solid in the lead, and has all of the physicality needed to play the part, but something about his performance did not sit right with me; I doubt it was entirely the accent, but I feel that he struggled to carry a feature film by himself (he needs to go back to being the heartthrob at the University of Northeastern California). Luckily for him, he has a solid supporting cast of other upper echelon television actors to help him bear the load.

Raleigh’s brother and Jaeger co-pilot Yancy is played by Diego Klattenhoff. If that name does not sound familiar, you may remember him macking it to Regina George as Shane Oman in Mean Girls, but if you are reading this than you should know him as Mike Faber on the Showtime phenomenon Homeland. He does very little in the movie and you will rack your brain to figure out who he is rather than watch his performance. The aforementioned star of Luther and The Wire, Idris Elba, provides another strong performance to pad his résumé, and an awesome name to go along with it. As Stacker Pentecost, Elba is the military official running the Jaeger program. Rinko Kikuchi is physically impressive and provides strong English as a young Japanese girl who finds herself entangled with all of the main characters. Max Martini of The Unit is strong in some of the film’s more dramatic points, interacting with his son and fellow Jaeger operator. Hunnam’s Sons of Anarchy co-star Ron “Hellboy” Perlman overplays a smug underground businessman. And last but certainly not least, the comedic edge of the Pacific Rim is provided by two squabbling scientists who are too intelligent to recognize common sense, and constantly bicker back and forth. Charlie Day, the best part of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (a show which I am not a fan of by the way), plays Dr. Newton Geiszler, a Kaiju fanatic and lover of all things neuroscience. His other half, Dr. Gottlieb is played by Burn Gorman, who was once fan-favorite Owen on Torchwood and recently had a small role in The Dark Knight Rises. Dr. Gottlieb differs from Dr. Newton in his fascination with numerology over all other forms of science and logic. The two clash every time they are on screen together, creating an odd chemistry that is sometimes funny and other times annoying. Both are good at what they do, but what they are doing in a comedic sense is always a little too excessive for geniuses. The acting overall was solid, but never great. The cast was jam-packed with television stars (Hell, I even saw Andy from According to Jim with a tiny role) but neglected to put any real movie stars into the fray. It is not a bad move, but television stars are not movie stars for a reason. It is kind of like the 2009 Indiana Pacers: Mike Dunleavy, Dahntey Jones, Josh McRoberts, Brandon Rush, T.J. Ford, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough, etc. That is one of the best groups of collegiate players you could ever ask for, but not the best group of NBA players (the Pacers finished tenth in the East that year by the way). What do you think happens when you assemble a large group of television actors for a movie? It will not be terrible, but it certainly can never be great.

Now, that is not to say that there was nothing redeeming about Pacific Rim. Something that I liked a lot was that it jumps right into the action. The first five minutes of the movie bring you up to speed on what you learn from the trailer and sets up the entire movie with brief backstory. Kaijus are already coming to Earth when the movie starts, so there is no boring, everyday life half-hour of on-screen boredom waiting for these beasts to arrive. Too often, movies go out of their way to let you know how normal their characters were before something cataclysmic took place. There is none of that garbage here.

In addition to the early take-off, it is plain to see that Pacific Rim was well made. The CGI (which everyone knows I have a serious disdain for) is very strong, and the crashing ocean waves provide a wonderful cover for the fact that it is all computer animated. The Kaijus and the Jaegers were all different from one another, which also provided the audience with a good variety of things to look at during the fight sequences. It kept me interested because I never knew what offensive or defensive tactics the Kaijus or the Jaegers would have at their disposal, so literally anything was possible during the fight sequences. That is enough to keep my mind from noticing how the menacing, towering sea monster was not real enough (that is sarcasm, I understand the need for CGI in this scenario and I am completely OK with it being used).

The storyline itself was not too complex. There were a lot of predictable points, and the characters were almost stock characters with how static they were for the most part. When a character tried to do something dynamic, it was clear and obvious that it would take place. In addition to that, the movie was a mixture of Godzilla and Voltron. Still, it seemed like a fresh take on alien movies in America, but in Japan I know that this is not a new idea and it has been done before. Still, this is America and I am not a connoisseur of Japanese monster films, so this was a new enough concept to keep me interested throughout the entirety of the film.

Pacific Rim was not a bad film by any means. It was fun and I found myself interested throughout its duration. However, there was nothing exceptional about it. The acting can tell the whole story; it was never bad, but never really good either. No one wanted to steal the show. Elba tried with a couple of over the top, leadership speeches, but he could only work with what he was given and those speeches fell short. There is really no blame to be placed anywhere because no one did a bad job. But no one did a fantastic job at anything either. Is Pacific Rim worth seeing? Most definitely. You do not need to run out to the local theatre right now though. If this is a movie that seemed like it would tickle your fancy then I suggest you see it soon. If you never really had any interest in it, then you can see it soon too as you will not be disappointed, but you can wait for it to come to you – there is no rush. In the meantime, go watch some movies from your Netflix Instant Queue so you can knock them off of your list and get your $7.99 worth.