Pacific Rim

Plenty of people have rubbished Pacific Rim as silly non-sense. I'm not one of them; despite the fact that the film is silly and it is non-sense.

I like it because it is completely up-front about the silliness and nonsensicality. Right at the beginning the film tells you this is a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters. There is no pretence. It doesn't try and be anything else; monsters and robots; that's it.

So we can forget about plots and characters and just enjoy the robots slugging it out with the monsters.

And then the film plays a trick on you. Because there are some good performances in here. They stand out even more because you are expecting the acting to be awful (and some of it is). The brilliant Idris Elba is very believable as the wise battle-hardened general commander guy. Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi make a good paring for the sentimental stuff. And good old Ron Perlman is a nice focus for the comedy capers with the limping less-mad scientist and the normal looking but bonkers self-experimenting scientist.

There is obvious influence from The Power Rangers which strikes a cord with those of us of a certain age. And the tone also reminded me of Starship Troupers; another film where big aliens are fought hand-to-hand rather than using the more obvious tactic of heavy artillery!

At the end of the day though, this is monsters versus robots and the battles are brilliant.