At the beginning of the story, even before the first fight, Del Toro takes care to show how much Raleigh’s brother Yancy means to him. He dies relatively quickly, but the impact of that loss carries deep consequences which resonate throughout the film. Raleigh loses faith in humanity as a result of his personal loss, and resigns himself, like most of the scattered population, to hiding from the Kaiju by building a wall that no one really thinks has a chance of stopping the beasts, but a wall that allows enough escape from life to be a welcome project for many who no doubt have suffered similar loses as Raleigh did. Del Toro quietly studies the cynicism which has corroded humanity, but never shines a spotlight on it like he does on the action. It exists just beyond the edges of the frame, making it much more powerful and understated. But it is there, and it lends an emotional weight to the action lacking in many movies. When Raleigh fights the Kaiju, we get a feeling that he’s fighting to restore humanity from its current, broken state.
There are so many great character moments in this film that it astounds me that it was simply brushed off as another massive, meaningless action film. Almost every character is given someone to care about, someone to fight for, and Del Toro provides plenty of scenes with several different pairs of characters to deepen their bonds and show us why the battle against the Kaiju is worth the trouble. A particular favorite scene of mine features Marshall Pentecost, the resistance leader, quietly chatting with Mako, his adoptive daughter, before he goes to his death. He reassures her, and lets her know he's proud of her, but before he goes on to give his "cancel the apocalypse" speech to the troops, he looks her in the eye and straightens his posture, something that makes Mako snap up from her slumped position. It is like a little private joke to which the audience is only partly privy. These characters have a shared history, a life that extends beyond the film, and possibly into an unknown future. That’s the reason they fight the Kaiju. They make the action matter.
Pacific Rim (2013) 2h 12min. PG-13
- “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out,” said Martin Scorsese. I thought about the quote a lot while watching Pacific Rim this time.
- Hannibal Chau, “you like the name? I took it from my favorite historical character and my second-favorite Szechuan restaurant in Brooklyn.”
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