Pacific Rim

Guillermo Del Toro is a kid again and this summer he’s invited us into his room. Digging deep within 20th century pop-geek culture while exploring his beasty imagination (“Hellboy 2: the Golden Army”), Del Toro has turned out one of the most unlikely and eery films I’ve seen in a while. It had to be done, in a way, and he’s done just that. And who better than him for the task of convincing us that a crack in the space-time continuum exists in the Pacific from which giant monsters (faraway cousins of Godzilla’s) will emerge? On the basis of that ballsy screenplay, Del Toro and his team throw everything and the kitchen sink at us turning “Pacific Rim” into an often extraordinary ideas and concepts laboratory, all the while playing up our emotions.

Rarely has a casting been so impeccable.

The acting is excellent, which only adds to the film’s coherence and credibility (Idris Elba delivers an outstanding performance as Stacker Pentecost). Action scenes–unlike those of other big productions which are hedged on boastfulness and massiveness and blow up at the beginning of a film in order to grab audiences–are hypnotizingly good, the work around the Jaegers/Kaijus fights are something to behold. With this film Del Toro has crossed a new threshold, all the while remaining true to himself.

“Pacific Rim” is not exempt from flaws. Even though the film does not belong in the simple-ass high-concept category, some problems do occur. The heavy-handed humor, the logistical explanations which are often not very credible and the epic/serious aspect which could’ve been better developed. But besides this, the movie-watching pleasure is complete, one having to admit that, where entertainment is concerned, “Pacific Rim” might just be the best game in town.

"ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL" (1974)