Success in the world of Pacific Rim doesn't come from brawn, intelligence, or strategy. It's about one's ability to "drift," or connect with the experiences and vibe of another being. I leaned back in my cushioned stadium seat, had the surround sound scorch my eardrums, and let the impressive visuals wash over me. Despite the lavish images and multiplex accoutrements, I was never able to fully embrace this summer blockbuster. It might have been the fact that the script felt like it was written by a fourteen year-old or it might have been my lack of a kaiju (Japanese for "knockoff Godzilla")/anime-fanboy background, but the film never allowed me to fully "initiate a neural handshake."
The crew of the Jaeger (German for "giant robots that fight Godzilla knockoffs") program are - for the most part - stock characters without much personality of their own. Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), ostensibly the main character, begins the film by stating that he was never the strongest or smartest before spending the remainder of the film being superbly devoid of any real characteristics. Perhaps the writers were attempting to make him a relatable everyman, but he betrays little in the way of depth and says things like "there are things you can't fight - acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you get out of the way. But when you're in a Jaeger, you can finally fight the hurricane. You can win." The closest he comes to emotion is his reaction to the death of his copilot brother, but that seems to be more of a device to have him leave the Jaeger force before a triumphant return with a new partner than something we feel. He is a thoroughly reliable narrator, but the combination of a script that doesn't provide him with any distinctive traits and Hunnam's bland performance make us wonder why it's him we're following.
In addition to the simple stock characters, the film suffers from a fair amount of unnecessary (and poorly written) exposition and its borrowing from the cliche junkyard. The repetitive exposition occurs both in explaining the Kaiju-Jaeger world and the relationships of some of the characters (because apparently the actions and dialogue weren't enough of a tip-off). Many of the plot points are well-worn: the new world order shutting down the old school (though hilariously more productive than their plan to build a wall) Jaeger program, the maverick nature of Raleigh's fighting style (some say reckless, some say effective), Raleigh's disgraceful exit from the Jaeger program and glorious return to it (after being brought back by Stacker), his rivalry with arrogant Australian pilot Chuck Hansen, and Hansen's daddy issues. As a matter of fact, most of them were parodied more than twenty years ago in Hot Shots. The dialogue is laughably bad and - at moments when they try desperately could us some gravitas - the best they can do is "Today, we face the monsters that are at our door, today we are canceling the apocalypse!" It typically feels like the screenwriters (Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro) just went through a checklist of what this sort of film needed and then included those elements without adding any sort of twist on them.
Del Toro handles the mediocre script relatively well: the battles are well-staged and sometimes enjoyably campy (the most fun comes when Del Toro embraces the ridiculousness of the premise) while the Kaiju are well-designed menaces. But, perhaps I'm not appropriately accounting for the film's "visual intelligence," as Sam Keeper suggests that the imagery is what's important here, Pacific Rim is not "dumb," and that the critics who "tend to fall into a linguistic mode of criticism" are reading it wrong. Based upon the details highlighted (Mako's blue hair later in the film matching the blue of her childhood jacket and Stacker Pentecost's "heroic gold" appearance), it seems as though they're equating re-enforcement of established character traits (and a debatable reading of a very quick moment with the Russian Jaeger pilots) with character development and "visual intelligence." Mako's blue hair reminds us that she's doing this for her dead family, but shouldn't we already know that? Stacker Pentecost's golden aura suggests he's a sort of savior figure, but his last name is Pentecost and he's constantly making sacrifices for the Jaeger pilots throughout the film. Additionally, are the vengeance/savior figures that these symbols suggest really that complex or novel? Perhaps the film would be visually intelligent if it had only relied on these images and not other elements of dialogue and plot to flesh out these characters, but that's not the Pacific Rim that I watched. True visual intelligence should come from the director hinting at something beyond the textual level of the film, something that dialogue or plot doesn't already tell us. Here, the little details are nice cues for the characters, but they do not add anything new or fundamentally change the way we think about the characters. The reason I bring this up is that - while I can accept fans of kaiju pictures/anime appreciating it or people enjoying it on a "stupid but fun popcorn flick"/camp level - I think that given the amount of cliches, poor dialogue, mediocre characters, and entertaining but not thought-provoking images, it would be misguided to think of Pacific Rim as something more than dumb.
Side Notes
In addition to not agreeing with the Pacific Rim-specific "visual intelligence" conclusions of the aforementioned review/essay, I would also disagree with Keeper's generalizations about film analysis. Good film criticism should not be (and is not usually) based solely on just a verbal or visual interpretation, so perhaps Keeper is reading the wrong works of film criticism (in which case, might I recommend Roger Ebert's heartwarming E.T. review?) or creating a straw man by implying that film criticism is "highly linguistic." Relying on a selective visual reading of Pacific Rim (which Keeper admits that he's doing: "You can totally watch the film and say 'There's not a lot going on here as far as witty reparte is concerned, and the plot is pretty simple, so on that level, it's kind of a simplistic movie.') leaves out the various verbal hints that this is a dumb movie. Just as it's important not to downplay the visual elements of a film, it's also important to not minimize the dialogue and plot.
* Regarding the other pilots: The Chinese Jaeger, despite being the coolest design is provided possibly the least screen time. Keeper suggests that the pilots of the Russian Jaeger have a loving relationship and eschew traditional gender roles, but I feel as though there's not really enough there to support that. The Australians suffer through a forced rivalry and daddy issues.
** What I mean by this is - if the Jaeger program has been decided to be too expensive/old school - has humanity given up hope and does chaos rule or is the capitalist system still in place? Additionally, what exactly is the makeup of this world government, what is the chain of command, why would they think that a wall is their best option over the proven Jaegers, should cost really be a factor in deciding to stop the Jaeger program, shouldn't humanity devote all of its time and resources to building more Jaegers if that was successful, shouldn't they punish/reprimand Stacker for his continuation of the Jaeger program in blatant disregard of their orders, and is this an allegory for the military industrial complex?
Watching this film made me feel like it attempted to assemble the most Japanese-as-seen-through-American-eyes items: Kaiju, Fighting Robots, A Fighting Robot With a Sword..... It's basically like the Simpsons' "30 Minutes Over Tokyo" episode.
The idea that the kaiju first tried to populate the Earth as dinosaurs is just..... Wow. I'm unsure whether that was an quickly-thought up idea or del Toro's attempt to wring a few more laughs from the premise, but Wow.
Whoever came up with the names of the Jaegers and characters should be credited with upping the camp factor about 50% and probably offered a job with Rolling Stone.
Crew & Cast
Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Cronos, Pan's Labyrinth)
Written by Travis Beacham (Dog Days of Summer, Clash of the Titans) and Guillermo del Toro, based on a story by Travis Beacham
Cast
Charlie Hunnam - Raleigh Becket
Idris Elba - Stacker Pentecost
Rinko Kikuchi - Mako Mori
Charlie Day - Dr. Newton Geiszler
Burn Gorman - Gottlieb
Max Martini - Herc Hansen
Robert Kazinsky - Chuck Hansen
Ron Perlman - Hannibal Chau