"Pacific Rim" Super Sizes Monster Movies

By Luis Monteagudo Jr.

Remember fun Saturday mornings as a kid watching Japanese monster movies? “Godzilla.” “Mothra.” “Gamera.”

Director Guillermo Del Toro obviously does. “Pacific Rim” is the director’s love letter to the genre of giant monster movies and it’s a fun, incredible homage that propels the genre to dizzying new heights.

Del Toro jumps right into the action, setting the story in a new future where a fissure in the sea floor has unleashed massive creatures known as kaiju. These aren’t cute, funny creatures that you can root for, as was seen in some of those Japanese monster movies. No, these are giant, snarling beasts that tear cities and coastlines apart, creating a real threat, a real sense of menace.

To save the planet, world leaders decide to create monsters of their own – giant, weaponized robots known as jaegers that must be operated by two, highly-trained pilots. That creates for some drama as we get to meet some of the young pilots and learn about their personal struggles.

But the film doesn’t stray from what it does best -- humanity’s struggle to fight an ever, growing number of kaiju that are increasingly rising from the sea and threatening earth.

The result is a number of incredible battles, both on land and sea, between the kaiju and the earth’s last hope, the jaegers.  In this summer of blockbusters filled with incredible special effects and action scenes, “Pacific Rim” tops them all for its sheer epic scale and jaw-dropping battles.

“Pacific Rim” will leave you watching wide-eyed in wonder as the kaiju and jaeger’s take massive swings at each other, destroying buildings and whole city blocks in their wake. There is one particular battle that begins on earth and ends in space and leads to a moment that had the preview audience cheering, clapping and giddy with joy.

It’s that kind of movie. It’s that much fun.

Giants monster movies don’t get better than this.