Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
“The deeper you bond, the better you fight,” Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) tells two co-warriors. Syncing emotion with action with more action, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim is a warmer Transformers – or Real Steel writ extra-large, complete with dad issues and hardware that’s a bit lumbering but gets the job done. Something that could be said of the movie itself.
It shares a key niggle with Michael Bay’s metal-on-metal orgies: some of the scraps, you just don’t have the foggiest what you’re looking at. Otherwise, though, we’re dealing with a different model of FX-engorged blockbusting. One that’s steeped in affection and sincerity and doesn’t go in for jarringly crass stereotypes, slapstick or sex gags.
The pre-title sequence nails a balance between exposition, character development and mass destruction, as Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh Becket voiceovers the state of the play (invading aliens from an under-sea portal are combated by robots steered by two pilots sharing a mind-link called ‘The Drift’), before tragedy hits and he’s out of the game… Until, of course, soldier-boss Pentecost pulls him back in.
After the opening rumble, it’s a good hour before the Kaiju (them) and the Jaegars (us) have a rematch. No problem: GdT uses the downtime to get our heads around Drift-ing, which boils down to a not-too-mawkish metaphor for human connection.
