On the occasion of the release of Pacific Rim Uprising this Wednesday, back on the first opus of the saga directed by Guillermo Del Toro. While the latter has just won his Oscar with The Shape of Water, he has, in 2013, played with Kaïjus and giant robots. Back on this XXL blockbuster.
A very precise dosage of action
Faced with its monstrous special effects/visuals, titanic fights, and faint story, Pacific Rim had everything of a brainless and totally stupid summer blockbuster. This was without counting on the Mexican filmmaker. Guillermo Del Toro managed to perfectly balance the action. It thus avoids the consequent asphyxiation of grueling Hollywood machines. Unlike the huge blockbusters, which by their desire to make everything fart lose their spectator at the turn of a pyrotechnic explosion. Guillermo Del Toro doesn't want to lose his viewer along the way. And the best way to keep attention is to dose the action.
Let's be clear, Pacific Rim is packed with action. But the filmmaker avoids overdose. By staging confrontations with varied tones and directing different fights, the filmmaker creates a renewal within his very lack of renewal. Because the scheme of Pacific Rim is very classic, stopping at a succession of fights. But the tones are different from one to the other which always renews the interest of the spectator, even if the latter is interested in fights of giant robots and Kaïjus.
And the rest?
Thankfully, Pacific Rim isn't just a silly blockbuster. Guillermo Del Toro also has things to say here and knows how to handle monsters like no one else. Water is still an omnipresent element in Del Toro's filmography and is no exception here. By choosing Kaïjus, Del Toro connects his film to this element. These Kaïjus are in fact a representation of global warming whose first symptoms appear in the water: warming, rising levels, melting ice, tsunamis. The ocean is the heart of our planet and is reacting to global warming.
Despite relatively clichéd characters, the charisma of Charlie Hunnam and Iris Elba are enough to capture the viewer's attention. Strong male figures but also with a predictable background but enough to create the minimum of empathy. Guillermo Del Toro does not hesitate to work again with his favorite actor: Ron Perlman, fantastic, here in an offbeat supporting role. The aesthetic is stunning, offering great action sequences that relegate Transformers to the status of children's toys.
Guillermo Del Toro signs a visually stunning film, of a delirious aesthetic quality! The fights between these gigantic robots and monsters are superb, filmed with great mastery, supported by stunning visual effects. The slightly edited introductory scene allows the situation to be quickly contextualized by avoiding the usual long explanations of the genre. The scheme is simple: a series of fights between monsters and robots, each with a different style and tone. Heroic, dramatic, violent battles, etc. then appear in turn. These different aspects of confrontations avoid the usual redundancies of blockbusters. Finally, Pacific Rim remains a high-end entertainment that we never tire of seeing again.
