Movie Review - Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim ** (PG-13) It’s clearly summer by at least two measures other than Cardinal baseball - the outside temp, and the onslaught of aspiring epic-scale action blockbusters. Here comes the latest big-budget offering, with Earth battling a parade of aliens from another dimension that rise through a rift in the Pacific Ocean. These attackers are like oversized Godzillas, amped up with ‘roid rage and the ability to develop new traits and skills. They’ve been held at bay for over a decade by supersoldiers in giant robot suits. But now we’re losing, and making our last stand in Hong Kong.

When the framework for this movie arrived in 1997 as Starship Troopers, I loved it. This one follows the formulaic story arcs of young heroes who overcome losses, feud with each other until they bond against the common foe, defy authority, etc. but falls far short on character development, comic relief, and plot cohesiveness. Director Guillermo del Toro, who has done some impressive work in sci-fi and fantasy before (notably including Hellboy and the classier Pan’s Labyrinth), gets good mileage from current 3-D technology. But the big battles are poorly edited, making what should have been the most exciting sequences more confusing than thrilling. At 131 minutes, there’s far more running time than the material (especially the periodically laughable dialog) warrants. If you’re looking for a no-brainer adrenaline rush, this one delivers better on the former criterion than the latter. (7/12/13)