Director:
Guillermo del ToroKC's Rating: ***
Summertime. For Hollywood that means releasing blockbuster movies. And blockbuster movies means nothing more than action films. Pacific Rim is not different then most in the genre. Civilization rather than being threatened by space invaders, is threatened by monsters who appear from within the depths of the sea called Kaiju. To fight these gigantic Godzilla-like monsters are giant mecha-like machines called Jaegers (hunter in German).
An unifying theme this summer is the post-apocalyptic science-fiction action films such as Oblivion, After Earth and the soon-to-be-released Elysium (not to mention Star Trek). Once again, Hollywood taps into our fears. The way we are conducting ourselves in this planet will result in a technologically advanced society that has destroyed so much of earth that it no longer can sustain the current political structures or, at times, even human life. Pacific Rim actually is set in the apocalypse itself. Civilization is fighting for its survival. Barely.
What makes this a better film that it could have been is Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro in fact created a retro-futuristic film. It is a homage to all the Japanese Godzilla-like films and TV series that were created in the late sixties and seventies. I, for one, grew up watching the tokusatzsu tv series such as Ultra-Man and Ultra-Seven. In fact the Kaiju, is a direct reference to such films. The stories are basically that monster appear, destroy cities, hero appears, monster kicks hero's ass but his courage and skill overcomes his limitations and he destroys the monster.
The interesting fact about these monsters is that they are always produced by pollution or radioactivity. Pacific Rim is no different. The monsters appear because the sea is so polluted that they now can now find a way into earth. Apparently clean water is unacceptable for monsters. The Kaiju was a creation of a post-war Japan. With the H-bomb destroying cities and creating "monsters" of their own, these films and TV series were a way to deal with those horrible event. The Kaiju film message was clear: we created the monsters but we can still defeat them. Del Toro continues with this tradition except now its all of humanity that must deal with it, not just Japan (and not just Tokyo!).
Some Del Toro touches elevates the film from the fray: the "symbolic" significance of the shoe,the bleeding noses, Ron Pearlman's character, the comedy of the mad scientists, the Mech's being driven by "families" and representing all regions of the earth: Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania (though poor Africa did not receive its Mech).
Regretfully, in the end, Hollywood formula wins the day and the audience goes home satisfied with the endurable moral message that will last until the last drop of consumed soda.
No comments:
Post a Comment