Unfortunately, there’s not much good that I can say about Pacific Rim, because its flaws are not only glaring, but stupefying. On one hand it drops plot points like they were M&Ms spilling from a tipped-over candy dish.
On the other it is paint-by-numbers predictable, to the point that it’s almost impossible to fully engage with the goings-on, since you already see what’s coming.
The characters are all one-dimensional archetypes who, for the most part, fail to resonate. And that is an absolute NO-NO for a major motion picture, especially one that – at least in word – is supposed to connect with the general audience. Only Elba and the five year old girl manage to infuse any life into their characters, the other actors don’t even seem to try. Or, as is the case of the two researchers and second-in-command, they try too hard and thereby made their characters come across as buffoons. And that buffoonery had the aggravating effect of striping their scenes of any urgency, threat, or even meaning. (By the way, it’s bad enough when a movie has one character that takes you out of the moment. This movie has three. THREE! Not a good thing, GDT. Not a good thing.)
I wish I could say the special effects were tremendous, but since most of the fights scenes occurred at night, it was difficult to spot details consistently. So I’ll just say that they weren’t bad. And I often didn’t know something “cool” had happened until after it happened.
If the powers that be had a better handle on how to execute it, this could have been two and maybe even three very good movies. Instead it’s one terrible mess of a film.