'Pacific Rim' Reviews Are Showing Up... And A Plea To Movie Pirates

I started seeing movie reviews for Pacific Rim, show up online, the movie opening this Friday in theaters.  This movie is a giant robot, giant monster fight-fest from Guillermo del Toro and I'm worried about its success at the box office.  Word was it was tracking worse than the Adam Sandler movie that's opening on the same weekend. 

I'm going to see it, regardless.  So I thought I'd just take the leap and dive in and take whatever the critics had to say about this flick.  {On the bright side, it should beat The Lone Ranger soundly!  Kind of like that short film, when Bambi meets Godzilla.}

Over on Variety, there's a well written review by Justin Chang that takes into account all fans of movies... genre fans and general movie fans.  His review teaser starts out,

" "Pacific Rim" is the one pushing itself most aggressively as guilt-free entertainment, offering up an apocalyptic spectacle in a spirit of unpretentious, unapologetic fun. Which it will be, at least for those who measure fun primarily in terms of noise, chaos and bombast, or who can find continual novelty in the sight of giant monsters and robots doing battle for the better part of two hours."

Which to me, means it will bode very well for del Toro / Kaiju fans.  But are there enough of us to help the movie stay afloat at the box office beyond opening weekend?  At least there's no Depp Tonto in the film!

Chang touches on the flatness of the characters and other aspects of the story that seem to bank on assuming things that moviegoers will know, rather than explain.  For instance, lack of depth of explanation on the process requiring two pilots to operate a Jaeger. (The giant robots in the film)

Rather than outright bashing the film, (which I would not fault anyone for, considering the subject matter), he says incredibly complimentary things like, "Here and there, "Pacific Rim" reveals hints of a potentially rich but underdeveloped science-fiction mythology, full of satirical and speculative touches that are ultimately overwhelmed by the fight sequences that represent the film's raison d'etre."

Meaning to me, there could have been a good story there, (he says this a few times about a few aspects of the film) but then he presents the truth of the matter.

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Since I discovered this review, I started looking around to see if there are other reviews out there.

Begrudgingly, I went to Rotten Tomatoes.  This site will bash it for sure...  I've know this site to be critical of fare I like.  But I was a bit shocked to see Pacific Rim at 75% on their review meter.  Wha...?  Really?

But this score does not include "top critics," and I suspect those guys will call it like they see it. (And as of 7-8-13)

On the other hand, 98% of the forty-three thousand site visitors who chimed in, say they're looking forward to catching this movie.

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So it's light on explanation, heavy on the monster pounding.  Yea... I'm buying lots of popcorn for this one!

Pacific Rim opens Friday, July 12th, 2013.

Starring: Charlie Day, Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Ron Perlman, it's rated PG-13 with a runtime of 131 minutes.  It's directed by Guillermo del Toro.

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Dear Movie Pirates:

This is one of those times where you need to put down those false slight-of-hand morals of a thief about "previewing before seeing" a movie, and actually just get out there and help the movie succeed by going to it.  The genre fans need to show up in force, drop the bucks and help the movie do something good for the creative team behind the film.

We need to reward the studio (Warner Bros) for taking the chance, and the creator (del Toro) for putting it together.  And the cast for stepping up and taking a chance with their careers with this effort.