Pacific Rim

I would've enjoyed Pacific Rim more if it weren't for some weird logic issues, but it was still fun. You pretty much know what you're getting into – it's mecha fighting Godzilla monsters. The characters are engaging, the plot kept me interested, and it's Guillermo del Toro, so you know it's going to look good.

I wasn't interested in Pacific Rim when it came out, but somehow two years later, I decided I should see it. I was expecting Josh Duhamel for some reason. I guess he's in Transformers, which some of the fights in Pacific Rim actually did remind me of. Raleigh looked a lot like Chuck, who naturally looked a lot like Herc. I didn't get them confused or anything, but it seemed weird that they would have so many characters were so similar. I didn't figure out that Chuck was Herc's son until near the end of the movie. I did actually have a bit of trouble figuring out who was who and what was going on with Chuck and Herc.

It looked great. It would've been cool to see in the theater. I hadn't seen anything yet that Idris Elba really stood out in, but he was good here. It's convenient that Stacker was about to die anyway, so we don't really feel bad when he gets killed. Charlie Day was a surprise. I had no idea he was going to be in the movie, but Newt was a lot of fun. It was good seeing Burn Gorman in something other than Torchwood, too.

Mako Mori is a cool name. It reminds me of memento mori, which I just heard about on a TV show or movie, but I can't remember which one. It didn't make a lot of sense in the context of whatever it was; maybe that's why I can't remember it. I liked the character of Mako as a whole. She was super cute. I loved the little nonverbal shorthand she had with Stacker. It was a cool reveal that he raised her. I had no idea Rinko was the same actress from Kumiko.

Ron Pearlman was also a surprise. I guess he works with Guillermo a lot. Hannibal's glasses were cool. And it was pretty satisfying watching him get eaten. It was weird that the Kaiju were "coming for" Newt just because he drifted with one, though. I thought the problem was going to be that now the Kaiju would have all this intel on what the humans were doing, but that didn't seem to be a factor.

I don't think closing the breach was that big of a success. The Kaiju masters seem pretty with it. They can probably just re-open it. And I don't know why Raleigh and Mako didn't just use the sword in that fight to begin with. They were swinging this huge useless boat around, and they had not one but two swords they could've ended the fight with right then and there. The Jaegers were actually really slow and had a lot of weaknesses.

I haven't seen any Godzilla movies, but I feel like Pacific Rim was probably like one of those. It had kind of an Asian/anime feel to it that was interesting. The destruction of all the buildings was impressive. It cost $190 million to make, which is really weird if you think about it. It's normal for a big movie these days, but it's still weird. It made $411 million (worldwide), though, so it did alright.

I always like it when characters aren't arbitrarily in a relationship, so I liked that Raleigh and Mako didn't kiss at the end. You can tell they have a connection, and that's good enough. Two people each controlling half of a mecha is a pretty cool idea.