Monday, July 29, 2013

Pacific Rim

This is a cool movie. Great effects, especially when you watch in 3D. It's directed by Guillermo del Toro and stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and others. Kaiju in Japanese means 'giant monster. Jaegers in German means 'hunter'. That's the opening of Pacific Rim.
The movie introduces Kaijus and Jaegers. Kaijus, instead of aliens coming from outer space, are actually coming through a tear in the Pacific floor, or Pacific Rim. It is like a wormhole, or the Breach, for the Kaiju to enter earth. After few attacks, the world came together to pull all resources to create the Jaeger Programme. Gigantic robots built to fight the Kaijus. Jaegers are controlled by humans. However, it must be piloted by two. Two humans that are link or compatible. Their brains are link or they go through a neuron handshake. When 2 becomes 1. Most of which are siblings, twins/triplets or father and son. The Kaijus are rated on 1 being easy and 4 being big and strong. Towards the end, we meet a level 5 Kaiju, bigger and stronger.
Stacker Pentecost deploys the Gipsy Danger on a mission. However, brothers, Raleigh and Yancy Becket, disobeyed orders in order to save a few fishermen. Yancy gets killed and Raleigh blames himself and leads his life by being a wielder at construction sites.
As the world faces more Kaiju attacks, governments build walls to protect them. However, in the news, Australia's wall or Anti-Kaiju walls gets destroyed but gets killed by Jaeger Striker Eureka, piloted by Australian dad and son, Herc and Chuck Hansen. Pentecost arrives at the construction site to recruit Raleigh back. He's the only one that can pilot the Mark 3 Jaeger, the Gipsy Danger, restored. They gather at the Shatterdome, the last stand, especially that the governments pull out the funding for the programme. Here, we meet the Crimson Typhoon (Mark 4), piloted by the Wei triplet, Chinese, with their signature move, the Thundercloud Formation. What is this formation? 3 arms! It has a Chinese touch, 'Thundercloud!' and with the triplet brothers that plays basketball. We also meet the Russian's Cherno Alpha, Mark 1. It has the 'Chernobyl' name to it. And to join the party, the Striker Eureka, Mark 5, fastest Jaeger still standing.
The plan? Go to the tear in the ocean where the Kaiju are appearing, place a nuclear bomb to collapse the bridge or wormhole. Striker will deliver the bomb while the rest providing protection. However, Raleigh has to partner with someone. He chooses Mako Mori, the one involved with the restoration of the Gipsy Danger, due to their compatibility. However, Pentecost rejects. They did a test run. Raleigh and Mako had their neuron handshake. Raleigh realises that Pentecost was the one that saved Mako during a Kaiju attack. And because Mako is emotionally unstable, Pentecost fears she can't control and drifts away into the neuron handshake. Enter the drift is when their brains are link. Raleigh learns that Pentecost piloted a Jaeger by himself before. Those who pilot a Jaeger alone will suffer side effects due to the mental load (left and right brain of the Jaeger). Only Pentecost and Raleigh have ever piloted the Jaeger alone and survived. Another run by Pentecost into a Jaeger would kill him.
Dr. Newton Geiszler and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb studies the Kaiju. As Dr. Hermann studies the occurrences and estimates how many Kaijus are entering and at what speed they will be appearing, Dr. Newton believes that he can link up his brain and one of the Kaiju's brain. He did. And he learned about the Kaiju and requires more information. He goes to Chau, black market dealer for Kaiju remains. Dr. Newt needs a fresh brain in order to drift again. However, two Kaijus appear in Hong Kong. Somehow they can sense where Dr. Newt is. So the Jaegers come to the rescue. Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon gets attack. The Kaiju evolves and defeats them. Especially Kaiju can now ooze acid-like substance, Both Jaegers are destroyed, including the pilot. Striker comes to the rescue but the Kaiju can emit some sort of disruption wave. All electronic devices shuts down. However, Gipsy Danger is nuclear-powered. Gipsy Danger kills the Kaijus. One scene was when we found out Kaiju can fly. It has evolved! However, Gipsy Danger, too, has evolved, with a sword in its arms, killing the Kaiju as it is lifted up to the atmosphere.
As Dr. Newt and Chau harvest the Kaiju parts, one of it is pregnant and a little Kaiju appears and kills those around. However, the funny part, the baby Kaiju died due to strangulation of the umbilical cord around the neck. But not before swallowing Chau up. Dr. Hermann and Dr. Newton link their brain to the Kaiju. They learned the Kaiju are harvested by another alien to take over earth. The aliens send in Kaiju to scout earth, destroy its inhabitants and rule or take over earth so that they can enter the Breach and inhabit it themselves. So this means, the plan to nuke the Breach will not cause the wormhole to collapse. It won't work.
Striker and Gipsy enter the sea heading to the Breach. Striker now is piloted by Chuck Hansen and Pentecost, due to Herc's injured hand from the previous battle at Hong Kong. The Breach is guarded by Kaijus. Kaijus attack the Jaegers.  At this point, a level 5 Kaiju appears. Biggest and strongest. Striker sacrifices itself by blowing up the nuke. We see Chuck humbled, he was previously all high and mighty. As Striker is blown up, it gives Gipsy a chance to enter the Breach. However, only a Kaiju can enter the Breach. Gipsy attacks one of the, still alive, Kaiju and goes through the Breach into the alien place. As oxygen is running out, Raleigh ejects Mako into the escape pod, he can't self destruct automatically, so he has to do it manually, and escapes on the pod. Gipsy Danger detonates, destroying the alien home world. Raleigh and Mako escapes the wormhole before it collapse completely. They are rescued.
This movie is said to be like Ultraman or Transformers. However, it isn't. Especially, given the fact that the Jaeger is way bigger than the Transformers and Jaegers are controlled by humans, instead of an alien being using human as host for Ultraman. Still, Ultraman and Transformers are great in their movies too.
This movie is cool in its effects and I've seen it twice, so far!

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