In Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, Will Smith plays a fighter pilot who, in a previous battle with aliens, lost his best friend, or "brother", if you will and must now exact revenge as part of saving planet Earth. Jeff Goldblum plays a quirky smart guy that no one will really listen to, but somehow figures out how to tap into the brain (virus-style) and learn the inner most secrets of the aliens in order to effectively defeat them. He is constantly right about most things and not listened to by, none other than Bill Pullman- a veteran fighter who is now in a position of leadership. He tries to prepare those around him for the inevitable while still trying to fight from his desk. But, once the shit hits the proverbial fan, he stands atop the machine he's about to fight in, gives a dramatic speech, hops in a fighter plane and personally engages in battle with the aliens. Randy Quaid plays a hot-headed drunk, whose relationship with his son is broken, and the only way he can save face is by sacrificing himself at the end by blowing up the ship and ending the alien wars.
Conversely, in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day, Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) plays the pilot of a large mechanical man dubbed a Jaeger who, in a previous battle with aliens, lost his brother, or "best friend", if you will, and must now exact revenge as part of saving planet Earth. Charlie Day (Always Sunny) plays the quirky smart guy that no one will really listen to, but somehow figures out how to tap into the brain (mindmeld-style) and learn the inner most secrets of the aliens in order to effectively defeat them. He is constantly right about most things and not listened to by, none other than Idris Elba - a veteran fighter who is now in a position of leadership. He tries to prepare those around him for the inevitable while still trying to fight from his desk. But, once the shit hits the proverbial fan, he stands atop the machine he's about to fight in, gives a dramatic speech, hops in the Jaeger and personally engages in battle with the aliens. Robert Kazinsky plays a hot-headed ego-drunk, whose relationship with his father is broken, and the only way he can save face is by [possibly] sacrificing himself at the end by [doing something] and [maybe] ending the alien wars.
Pacific Rim IS Independence Day. It is. It's the same film, but without great characters, without well-written dialogue, and without any of the heart. Sure, I'll admit Pacific Rim totally annihilates ID4 in visual effects. Pacific Rim is stunning to see. As you watch it, it honestly seems like the most expensive movie in existence. But, what ID4 does better is that it provided us with characters that we actually care about and want to see succeed. There are many intricate relationships between each character and we are deeply invested in each one. If even one of these people are put in harm's way, we worry. When it looks like Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum won't make it out, our hearts ache for them and their loved ones (especially Judd Hirsch). When the battle between fighter pilots and aliens seems doomed and Bill Pullman calls out "doesn't anyone have any missiles left?" and we hear that old familiar Russell Case voice "Sorry I'm late, Mr. President!" we know he's about to fly in and save that day! And when he flies into the ship, mocking the aliens the entire way, it's heartbreaking to know he finally made his children proud because HE'S the one that gets to save the world. There's none of that in Pacific Rim. There's not a single character you latch on to that you genuinely care if they live or die. By the first twenty minutes of the film, if you haven't already figured it out, who lives or who dies, then you haven't seen that many movies.
What's wrong with these big-budget alien/monster movies today is that filmmakers think that what the audience wants to see is an eye-candy hero. It's not true. The pretty boy hero is something that, I believe, keeps most people away. No one saw either Taylor Kitch disaster Battleship or John Carter. No one cared about the Clash or Wrath of the Titans with Sam Worthington. It's the reason the Taken movies have done so well. People want to see the everyman take matters into their own hands. I mean, the heroes in Independence Day are Will Smith (who, back then was nothing close to a sex symbol) and freaking Jeff Goldblum! Goldblum! Not once does anyone in the movie take their shirt off to expose ripped abs. When these stale, emotionless pretty boys engage in epic battles, I lose interest because I just do not care if they make it back or not. And, come on, if you're going to give your character a motivational speech, at least try not to draw parallels to the greatest motivational speech of all time!
Visually, however, it is certainly a sight to see. Guillermo Del Toro has a gift as a director and one I can recognize even through a film like this. He's a visionary that will always deliver on the action, the creativity of the creatures, and the awe-inspiring visual moments of his films. However, he's not much of a writer, especially when it comes to character development and dialogue. He's a lot like George Lucas in that way. Put him behind the camera and gold will come out. Allow him to write his stories and the film will suffer (obviously we're not speaking of Pan's Labyrinth). But, he's always had a way with the visual. In his Hellboy films, the most interesting parts were when we saw creatures and monsters that we'd never seen before. Not so much the story or the characters or what they were saying, but we wanted to watch what happened next. Much like Pacific Rim. I was visually engaged and when there was a battle sequence I was on the edge of my seat. I studied the monsters that rose out of the sea, noticing the detail of how different each one was and how much thought and commitment Del Toro put into each one. The Jaegers however... are a different story. They are supposed to have all of these different fighting techniques and weapons hidden among them, yet each one began a battle punching the monsters. Why waste time doing that if you have a hidden sword that can easily slice them in half or a plasma blaster that YOU KNOW is going to take them down the quickest and cause minimal damage. It's like in Power Rangers when they all came together with the mega-zord and fought whatever strange large creature, then when it looked bleak, they pulled out the magical sword of justice (or whatever the hell it was) and in one fell swoop ended the battle. It's like: why didn't you do that in the first place?!
I feel like I'm being overly harsh on Pacific Rim, and maybe I am. But, my expectations were higher on this one. This was supposed to be the monster movie to end all monster movies. It was supposed to be bigger in scale, and smarter in brain. But, it's not. While it might be the most stunning monster movie ever to see (and I HIGHLY recommend seeing this in theaters, do not wait for blu-ray), it just didn't have the smarts to go with it. It was done by a George Lucas. Not a Spielberg. Had it been handled by a Spielberg, it would've had everything and you can damn sure assume more time would've been spent so that we gave at least one shit about one character. Pacific Rim is its own entity. It's not as bad as Battleship or Transformers, but it's not as good as Independence Day or Armageddon. Even in Armageddon (a film directed by Michael Bay, mind you), when Bruce Willis sacrifices himself so that Affleck can be with his daughter, there isn't a dry eye in the house. Notice too who the hero is in that film... not a pretty boy. Pacific Rim is at the heart of Summer moviedom. It is incredibly entertaining, and while you care about HOW the characters are going to stop these things from ending life on Earth as we know it... you just don't care WHO is going to do it.
Pacific Rim: C
Independence Day: A+
As an added bonus for making it this far... here is the greatest speech in the history of film:
Gameover Man, Gameover!
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