Giant Monsters versus Giant Mecha for roughly two hours. If 8 year old me knew that a live action Vultron and Gundam Wing was in the future, I would have probably had a joy induced aneurysm.
It was really refreshing to see an original movie this summer, what with most either being remakes of books or sequels, some fresh plot was needed. Science fiction is a wonderful universe like fantasy that allows for all types of actions and characters to pop up. Mecha especially, which is a more prominent sub genre of science fiction in Japan that centers around humanoid robots and machines. The closets thing to that for Americans would be the Iron Man trilogy. But they are the perfect weapons for a summer action movie.
The plot is centered around Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh, a former pilot of the large Mechas called Jaegers. A Jaeger is controlled by forming a neural rift between two pilots, one to control the left hemisphere and the other to control the right. Both pilots must have a strong bond in order to sync and fight, typically with a family member or someone mentally compatible. Raleighs quit being a pilot after the death of his brother and co pilot after a brutal fight with a Kaiju. The Kaiju’s are the monstrous aliens entering Earth through a portal connecting the two worlds. The Kaijus goal is to exterminate Humans and take Earth as their own. Nothing brings the strained relationships of the world together as much as mass extermination.
Reluctant at first, but with Earths government’s unanimously deciding to shut down the Jaegers in place of construction walls for security, their last chance of showing their effectiveness is moved to Hong Kong, the closets city to the Portal connecting the worlds. It’s here we see the multi national Pilots and Jaegers, some of which aren’t too fond of Raleigh and his mentally compatible rookie pilot, Mako Mori. Charlie Day steals the sub plot of figuring out the Kaijus motives and strategies by playing basically himself, but as a scientist.
The action and CGI is amazing, I paid to see a robot hit a horrible monster with a charter boat and I was not disappointed. Graphics and cinematography were very busy, but with a fast action based flick, it’s expected and used very well. The lighting had a very Akira like Neo Tokyo feel, and with the plot set in the 2020’s, Japanese Mecha anime vibes were felt the whole time. It suited the plot very well, those familiar with Neon Genesis Evangelion will have a blast connecting the similarities. But unlike the anime, it’s surprisingly not an incredibly dark and brooding movie. There’s some corny laughs here and there, and Charlie Day’s antics are light hearted amidst the chaos. It wasn’t a movie based around War and the glorification of violence and the military. It was about Earth fighting some nasty baddies.
The dialog was a little corny in some aspects,but no more or less worse than what you usually see in the Sci fi/adventure genre. I felt that the main characters acting was a little off putting, especially Charlie Hunnams. I don’t know why, but it felt he was over acting trying to be a G.I Joe or something. With Idris Elba having to carry the scenes when it involved their two characters together. It took a good while for me to get used to Rinko Kikuchi’s I’m-a-quiet-but-deadly-figher-but-mentally-damaged-but-totally-qualified character. Both improved later on, but their general awkwardness was off putting until mid way through the movie. To my surprise, Ron Perlman did not have as many cheesy one liners as the black market smuggler Hannibal Chau. Who didn’t appear too often in the movie, but had enjoyable scenes none the less.
It’s just a fun movie, I highly suggest it to anyone who wants to actually get their money’s worth in a film. Because when it comes down to it, we all want to see some Monsters and Robots fighting to bring back some childhood nostalgia.