Pacific Rim (2013) Movie Review

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Travis Beacham, Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi

In the future, a wormhole opens between our world and that of an alien species. They begin sending an armada of massive Godzilla-like monsters dubbed Kaiju. The reaction to these monsters is to build an immediate defence against these threats to humanity. What is this defence the human race has thought up? Punching them right in the face!

This movie aims to provide an adrenaline pumped adventure that looks amazing. The movie really does succeed at doing these things. Every single fight scene is neon fantastic action. The movie’s biggest advantage is its visual style.  The fights are as grandiose as the movie’s premise. Unfortunately, the action lacks variation and depth. It really boils down to; ‘PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE’ and ‘SHOOT HIM WITH A ROCKET’. Furthermore, the final battle of the movie is extremely underwhelming. Throughout the entire movie, category 4 Kaiju (whatever that means) and finally at the end a category 5 shows up. What does it do? The exact same as any other, even lesser Kaiju.

Adding onto the problems in the movie is the massive plot holes. It is completely unclear as to why the aliens are even attacking earth. A plot hole seems like the most unlikely thing to appear in a movie that is so predictable. It was pretty obvious the general was that veteran character who eventually had to go back one last time. You could also tell from the start that Mori would end up in the same Jaeger as Raleigh.

Pacific Rim provides the audience with eye-catching yet slightly slow action. Annoyingly, the movie also provides the audience with a story that is more holed than Swiss cheese. It also provides the audience with clairvoyant powers with its limitless predictability. If you are able to look past an underwhelming plot, this movie could possibly warrant your time.

Cloverfield (2008) Movie Review

Robert Hawkins is about to leave for Japan and is having a leaving a party. BOOM. All the lights shut off in our favourite destruction prone city, New York and come back on. Confusion ensues. It turns out; a massive Kaiju like monster turns the city into his own personal destruction sandbox. We have ourselves a movie.

I’ll be honest; my favourite thing in movies ever is city destruction by way of giant monster. This obviously makes me enjoy this movie a lot. After watching the movie, I am extremely excited for the new Godzilla movie that is coming out soon. Not only do I love this genre but also the execution of this movie is just… mmm sublime.

The found footage nature of the film works so well in this movie because you know some random guy is going to be filming this. I’ve heard a lot of criticism about the constant shaky cam. I feel that the shakiness really added to the sporadic and intense mood of the film.

The most important thing in this type of movie (other than having New York be destroyed) is a cool and original monster. The monster is freakily terrifying. Not only does it simply wreck everything itself, it also spawns thousands of spider-like creatures whose bites cause people to literally explode. The outrageous power the monster possesses makes the efforts of the characters and the U.S military seem utterly futile.

The depth of the movie is really shown by the Easter eggs that can be found throughout the film. As the story is being recorded another home-film, it has some secret hidden images. These include: King Kong and Godzilla. Most importantly is in the final scene recorded a month before the crisis, an unidentified object falls into the sea.

This movie is relentlessly action packed with moments that literally take your breath away. Not only this but it also provides a fantastic and original monster. The easter eggs somehow add to an absolutely amazing movie. This movie’s only downfall is the lack of visibility due to the shaky cam. I give Cloverfield a 9/10 - Unmissable

Have you seen ‘Cloverfield’? If you have, let me know what you thought of it by leaving a comment on this review. Perhaps even suggest a movie for me to review next.