A Decade Later, Pacific Rim Remains a Worthy Delight

You can always count on tentpole blockbusters to give bombastic spectacle and massive action. During the 2010s, audiences watched plenty of CG armies fall, crossovers happen, and superheroes rise to the challenge. But one niche that wasn’t exactly being filled at the time (at least in the West) was the giant robot niche. The closest thing to scratch that itch was Paramount’s Transformers movies, but those didn’t quite hit the same.

Because of how underserved we were in that department, it was the perfect opportunity for Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 movie Pacific Rim to swoop in. Now 10 years old, the sci-fi film is one of those movies (see also Dredd and Chronicle, both from the previous year) that managed to hit at just the right time to really stand out amid the larger franchise noise. It’s a movie that helped catapult del Toro and several of its stars—namely Idris Elba and Charlies Day and Hunnam—to the mainstream success they all currently enjoy. Moreover, the movie serves as an example of Hollywood not fully knowing how to handle a hit movie after release, an issue that wasn’t isolated to this one movie during the 2010s.

For those with an affection for Japanese media—namely the mecha and kaiju genres, and projects in those spaces like Godzilla or Neon Genesis Evangelion—Pacific Rim’s bombastic opening is basically the pilot episode for a brand new anime. Watching Raleigh Becket (Hunnam) and his brother Yancy gear up before going off to pilot their massive Jaegar mech Gipsy Danger and fight kaiju cannot help but feel kickass. Even if you weren’t an anime fan back then, the movie’s personality is so strong from the start that it can’t be forgotten.

So much of this movie is just extremely cool: the mechs look great, as do the pilots suiting up into their armor. The mental link where both pilots share the workload to pilot these things (dubbed “Drifting”) is also cool, and a great way to facilitate interpersonal relationships between the cast. Ramin Djawadi’s main theme for this movie exists as one of his best works next to Game of Thrones and Westworld. There’s a real weight and sense of scale to everything that stood out from Transformers at the time, further helped by del Toro choosing to set so much of the movie during the thundering rain. And pretty much every fight scene has a moment (or two, or more) that feels like it exists because del Toro had a feeling in his head it would look awesome, or at least memorable. A pair of Australian pilots stepping out of their disabled Jaegar to fire flare guns at a kaiju? Perfect. Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) and Raleigh summoning a sword to slice up a kaiju as it drags Gipsy Danger into the atmosphere? It rules.

If all of that is your jam, you’re likely someone who adored Pacific Rim when it came out and was annoyed when it basically fizzled in North America. It’s one of those movies where you can understand why others would be really into it or really not, and the movie admittedly feels like it’s got a tone problem. Scenes of the pilots reliving their past trauma or just fighting each other because tensions are high can sometimes clash with the comedy that comes from Charlie Day either bickering with Burn Gorman or being kidnapped by Ron Perlman as a black market dealer who feels like he was brought over from a Robert Rodriguez movie. But there is a charm that ultimately wins out, and it’s likely why it avoided fate as just another cult classic that becomes one of those movies you watch on TNT during an incredibly lazy weekend.

International markets, particularly China, took to the first Pacific Rim, extremely well. Five years later, we got 2018’s Pacific Rim: Uprising, which was already dinged from the start for lacking del Toro or Beacham in any sizable capacity beyond a producer credit for the former. Like 2016’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War or a Bourne movie post-2007, Uprising is one of those movies that’s competent enough, but still a misfire that can’t help but feel unnecessary. On its own, it would’ve been fine that it focused on rising pilots Jake Pentecost (son of Idris’ Stacker, played by John Boyega), Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny), and Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood). But the movie did itself no real favors by either not acknowledging what happened to several of the first film’s surviving characters like Raleigh, or killing Mako for no real reason at all.

Uprising’s biggest problem is that it’s a legacy sequel to something that doesn’t really have a legacy in the first place, and was basically perfect as a one-and-done. The movie is its best self when it gets fully weird, with Day as a delightfully mad scientist and alien brains fusing with Jaegar drones to wreck everything. But by that point, it’s clear the movie isn’t really cooking with the same ingredients as its predecessor, and may have been actually better off as its own thing where any real expectations wouldn’t have been attached to it—aka, the Solo: A Star Wars Story problem. And if there were any hopes for the franchise to go on post-Uprising (and maybe have the Jaegars punch Legendary’s versions of Godzilla and/or King Kong in the face), those may have quietly died with Netflix’s Pacific Rim: The Black series.

As a whole, the Pacific Rim franchise is one of many properties hit with diminishing returns. But isolated to its original movie, it’s purehearted spectacle that serves as a good reminder of what makes the summer movie season such a good time. Sometimes, you just need to see a giant robot deck a monster in the face with an oil tanker.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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