Guillermo Del Toro returns with a bang – Pacific Rim is
essentially the movie that the 10-year-old child inside of me has been waiting to
see for years; the film harkens back to the old school Kaiju films featuring
the likes of Godzilla, Gamera, and Mothra etc. The story is pretty simple, a wormhole
opens a pathway between 2 worlds in the ocean that allows giant sea creatures
to invade the Earth, in an attempt to battle off the threat; Mankind creates
monsters of their own in the form of Jaegers (massive weaponised robots).
Pacific Rim won’t be winning any awards for outstanding performances or well
written and developed characters, but that really doesn’t matter with a film
like this, as all your required to do is switch your brain off for 2 hours and
experience all out war between the Kaiju and Jaegers; and unlike Michael Bay
with his Transformers movies, Del Toro lets his creations do all the talking on
screen with a distinct lack of fast camera movement and a more subtle and
steady editing style, you can see all the battles unfold in all their glory
that has you on the edge of your seat, fist pumped and feeling every blow
that’s landed on screen; the soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones)
certainly helps to get the adrenaline pumping through your veins, keeping the
tempo of the film bursting along at a pretty fast pace throughout. The only
real disappointment of Pacific Rim comes from the two Scientist characters, who
are a little too immaturely written for my taste, but taking into account that
the film is written for those of all ages then you can’t help but forgive the
film for their silly childish actions; as it hardly tarnishes the overall
experience. Of course you can’t have a Del Toro film without his trusty stead
Ron Perlman; who again is absolutely fantastic – Pacific Rim is the film that
I’ve been dreaming about for so many years and to finally see it realised on
the big screen as successfully as this is why it’s one of my favourite films of
2013.
No. 8 Worst - The Place Beyond the Pines dir Derek Cianfrance
It seems that Ryan Gosling fever is in full bloom at this
moment in time and while he might have an ever growing fan base, I for one am
starting to question his ability to perform believable characters outside his
comfort zone, as for too long now he seems to be playing the same character
over and over again. The Place Beyond the Pines ends up making into the Top 10
worst films list of 2013 mainly due to it’s failed potential; the films opening
third actually starts off quite strong and the story of a stunt biker rider
turning to bank robbery to financial support his broken family is quite
intriguing, but unfortunately the film loses it’s way in the second third of
the film, with the introduction of Bradley Cooper – who delivers a performance
that reminds us all too well of what Ben Affleck has been renowned and slated
for over the years. And after losing much of the films key interests during the
second third, the films final act relies so much on convenient crossing of
paths of certain characters that just feel contrived and do nothing more than
infuriate you the viewer and leaves you really despising the film as it ruins
the strong ground work laid in the opening third. You could really argue that The Place Beyond
the Pines isn’t the worst film you’ll ever see, but taking into account the
rate in which this film drops off the cliff in terms of quality and overall enjoyment
and believability, I feel compelled to pick The Place Beyond the Pines for it’s
complete and utter waste of a strong opening to only end up delivering a very
generic and contrived feeling of melodramatic drivel.
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