Hello again, everyone. Oona Otaku here. Now, we've all heard of Kaiju, and if you haven't I'll call you a liar right now. I think Godzilla is a household name, and he's the most famous Kaiju of them all. Kaiju is a Japanese word that literally translates to "strange creature". Other notable Kaiju include Gamera, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, Daimajin, Gappa, and Guilala. Now I think we can the Kaiju from the film Pacific Rim to that list. I saw that movie recently and felt the need to write a review about it.
Before diving right into the movie, let's dicuss the growing popularity of the Kaiju franshice. For most of us, or at least me; our first experience with Kaiju was all thanks to a wonderful film company called Toho, founded in 1932. The first ever Godzilla came out in 1954 under the name 'Godzilla'. The plot tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation who ravages Japan, bringing back the horrors of nuclear devastation to a country that experienced it first hand. It was the first of many Kaiju films released in Japan, paving the way and setting the standard for the genre and future Kaiju films, many of which feature Godzilla.
Now, there have been a great many variations on the Kaiju. Godzilla is a mutated lizard, Mothra is a giant Lunar Moth, Rodan is a mutated pterosaurs, Gamera is a titanic prehistoric species of tortoise, however in this movie they are interdimensional beings. Not only that, but humans fight back! With robots known as Jaegers: gigantic humanoid mecha, each controlled by two pilots whose minds are joined by a neural bridge. Now for some, that is a pretty interesting twist, but when you take into account the man who directed this epic piece of awesome, it's not difficult to see why. Okay, enough about the history! Let's dish!
It was directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the director of Blade II, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and various other movies. Del Toro wanted to "honor" the kaiju and mecha genres while creating an original stand-alone film, something "conscious of the heritage, but not a pastiche or an homage or a greatest hits of everything" a task which was tried once already by the 1998 re-visioning of the legendary monster directed by Roland Emmerich; the same guy who brought us the Stargate movie and Independence Day (both of which had a TON of build-up but very little pay-off), but I think he accomplished.
Before diving right into the movie, let's dicuss the growing popularity of the Kaiju franshice. For most of us, or at least me; our first experience with Kaiju was all thanks to a wonderful film company called Toho, founded in 1932. The first ever Godzilla came out in 1954 under the name 'Godzilla'. The plot tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation who ravages Japan, bringing back the horrors of nuclear devastation to a country that experienced it first hand. It was the first of many Kaiju films released in Japan, paving the way and setting the standard for the genre and future Kaiju films, many of which feature Godzilla.
Now, there have been a great many variations on the Kaiju. Godzilla is a mutated lizard, Mothra is a giant Lunar Moth, Rodan is a mutated pterosaurs, Gamera is a titanic prehistoric species of tortoise, however in this movie they are interdimensional beings. Not only that, but humans fight back! With robots known as Jaegers: gigantic humanoid mecha, each controlled by two pilots whose minds are joined by a neural bridge. Now for some, that is a pretty interesting twist, but when you take into account the man who directed this epic piece of awesome, it's not difficult to see why. Okay, enough about the history! Let's dish!
It was directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the director of Blade II, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and various other movies. Del Toro wanted to "honor" the kaiju and mecha genres while creating an original stand-alone film, something "conscious of the heritage, but not a pastiche or an homage or a greatest hits of everything" a task which was tried once already by the 1998 re-visioning of the legendary monster directed by Roland Emmerich; the same guy who brought us the Stargate movie and Independence Day (both of which had a TON of build-up but very little pay-off), but I think he accomplished.
The scenery was great. Filmed in Toronto Canada in about three months (Give or take), the storyline was amazing, the visual effects were phenomenal. I had the chance to see it in RPX 3D, and if you get the opprotunity for it, I suggest seeing that way.
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