Pacific Rim (2013) Review | Godzilla Island Archive

Note: This review was from July 2013 when Pacific Rim had just come out in theaters! The thoughts and wording are obviously dated but take a trip down memory lane to see what it felt like being a kaiju fan witnessing Pacific Rim for the first time!

My Thoughts:

As you can tell, this review’s arrangement is a little different from my usual ones. Normally, I give a detailed plot summary, but since this is a new movie, I don’t want to spoil it for everyone—so the spoilers are after the break.

So my thoughts on this movie… it was DAMN AMAZING! Easily the best movie I’ve seen in a long time. The last time I felt this way coming out of a theater was after The Dark Knight Rises. I wanted to run back in and watch it again immediately—it was that good!

The fight scenes were incredible. The 3D was the nicest I’ve seen in a movie. Normally, I think 3D is unnecessary and gimmicky, but here, it actually added to the experience. I was lucky to have an IMAX theater nearby, so I could enjoy the explosions and see the Jaegers and Kaijus at the massive size they were meant to be seen.

The story was cool and engaging, especially since it takes place in the very near future (the 2020s). The characters were great—Charlie Day from Always Sunny was hysterical. I also loved that the movie paid tribute to Ishiro Honda and included a little Easter egg: naming the Kaiju rating system the "Serizawa Scale" as a nod to Godzilla.

The movie ends with a small after-credits Easter egg—a “rumble.” Some say it’s a roar; I’d call it more of a growl or rumble. It’s not really worth sitting through the entire credits. I got lucky and caught the end of the credits from a previous showing. If you’re going to wait for anything, watch the short scene in the middle of the credits and leave afterward.

So, if you haven’t seen this movie—go see it!

The Plot:

The movie opens with a montage narrated by the main character, Raleigh. He explains that the Kaiju first appeared when he was 15—alien creatures emerging from below the Pacific through a portal called the Breach. The first Kaiju took six days to defeat using tanks, bombs, and aircraft. When a second and third Kaiju appeared, it became clear that modern weapons alone wouldn’t suffice.

To combat them, the Jaegers were created—giant robots controlled via a neural link between human pilots and the machines. Single pilots proved unable to handle the strain, often fatally, so two pilots had to share the neural connection, syncing their minds to operate a Jaeger. Humanity started winning battles and rebuilding, but the war was far from over.

The story then cuts to an alarm at an army base. Raleigh is woken by his older brother and co-pilot, Yancy Becket. The two gear up to face a Kaiju heading toward Alaska. They enter their Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, drift to sync their minds, and take off.

When a fishing boat is discovered above the Breach, they defy orders to save it first, putting it out of harm’s way. Knifehead, the Kaiju, attacks, and the Becket brothers fight. Yancy is tragically killed when Knifehead tears him from the cockpit, leaving Raleigh alone to defeat the Kaiju.

Fast forward five years—Raleigh is retired, working on a massive wall in Alaska meant to keep Kaiju away from land. Stacker Pentecost, head of the Jaeger program, urges Raleigh to come out of retirement for a final push against the Kaiju, revealing a plan to close the Breach permanently. Raleigh meets Mako Mori, his potential co-pilot, and undergoes trials to determine compatibility. After training and convincing Pentecost, Mako becomes his co-pilot.

During test runs and battles, the pilots encounter multiple Kaiju—Otachi, Leatherback, Raiju, Scunner, and the first-ever Category 5 Kaiju, Slattern. Battles are intense, with Jaegers damaged, EMPs disabling electronics, and pilots forced to improvise. Gipsy Danger proves critical, with Mako and Raleigh using its weapons creatively to overcome Kaiju threats.

Dr. Newton discovers Kaiju are being cloned and controlled by aliens to invade Earth, prompting him to drift with Kaiju brain fragments to gain intelligence. Hannibal Chau assists in acquiring intact Kaiju brains, revealing new dangers.

In the climactic finale, Raleigh and Mako take Gipsy Danger into the Breach to stop the alien invasion. Sacrifices are made, Jaegers are destroyed, and the Breach is sealed. The credits roll and in the middle of the credits a short clips shows Hannibal Chau cutting his way out of the baby Kaiju. After the credits end you hear a rumble, other claim it is a roar but to me it is a rumble, if anything I will call it a growl barely that. So I guess that means we can expect a Pacific Room 2 or maybe an Atlantic Rim?