Where to begin with this one. Problems are numerous, including spotty acting, effects, and cinematography. I'm going to focus on the script for this review as it really looks like the writers wrote up a bunch of plot points, characters and trailer-ready fight sequences, and then tried to write a movie around them. The result is nothing short of disastrous.
For a movie that is supposed to give the origins of Wolverine, they did a good job of telling us exactly nothing about WHO Wolverine is. It's like they assume we know everything about the characters already, so there's no need to develop anyone's character. A movie should stand on its own. Origins: Wolverine is a one-legged dog.
Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman both do well in their roles, but the first 10 minutes of the movie are rushed and underdeveloped. It's too fast-paced, and the result is painfully uninvolving. They spend about 3 minutes as kids, in which we find out practically nothing about them. Then it literally cuts from them being kids running through the woods to them shooting people in the Civil War. The opening credits montage takes us through 150 years in about 3 minutes, and suggests that Logan is tired of being in wars and Victor loves it. This is all the information we get about who they are. By the time they're recruited by Stryker, they have interacted with each other approximately twice. Why do they join every single American war? Do they just like getting shot a lot? Why is Victor so bloodthirsty and Logan good? How did Logan and Kayla meet? How did Logan find out he was invincible? Does he feel anything about the fact that he killed his father? The filmmakers didn't care. This movie has all the depth of a piece of cardboard.
Victor's motivations are beyond murky throughout the whole film. He basically goes around killing characters for no real reason at all. Logan's relationship with his girlfriend starts out very poorly developed and actually becomes less believable by the end of the movie. In the one scene that is supposed to develop Logan and Kayla's relationship, she starts talking about some weird symbolic moon myths... its unintentionally hilarious. Oh, and it turns out she's a mutant and is hypnotizing Logan in order to watch him for Stryker, and fakes her death in order to make Logan to want revenge on Victor to force him into the Weapon X program so they could test the adamantium on him for the Deadpool project and then erase his memory in order to rescue her sister from Stryker. Seriously. But she really loves him! Uh-huh. They conveniently leave out how Logan and Kayla met, which at first seems like just lousy character development, but then you realizethat they skipped over this so that they wouldn't have to explain the exact circumstances of their meeting with her secretly spying on him. I suppose it was just too darn hard to for these guys to write. Lynn Collins is completely wooden, and I didn't care one iota for her character.
The lack of any believable characters leaves the movie plot-driven. But there's so many holes in the story that it's not even worth trying to find them all. This movie is basically a series of scenes, with very little connecting each one except Hugh Jackman's best efforts. Wolverine gets his jacket. Check. Wolverine gets his dog-tags. Check. Wolverines bone spikes somehow become giant knives when he gets his adamantium. The plot is not only convoluted and full of holes, but it completely negates itself in the last 10 minutes. Since Kayla ends up being alive, any tension created by the revenge scenario is totally wasted, and suddenly Victor is a good guy!? Everything was apparently done to create the super-mutant Deadpool (who doesn't have one single element of the comics Deadpool, except the name) who lasts about 10 minutes before dying by Logan's claws. That's the plot. Even though I know hardly anything about the comics, this is awful storytelling.
Pacific Rim takes inspiration from the elements of any material that involves giant creatures and robots. It shows a simple concept about piloted robots, Jaegers, fighting against sea aliens, Kaijus. This idea alone would already make a fantastic blockbuster. The surprise we get is it features more than just endless explosions. There are plenty of innovations to root for which it can almost be a new popular classic. The only less intriguing parts however are the clichés that are too known in many big sci-fi action movies. Despite of that, it kept the promise of being gigantically awesome. It's not completely groundbreaking, but it's still quite an experience.
Aside from the large scale battles, the film amazingly creates an innovating futuristic alternate universe. It tells the origins of the Kaijus and how the Jaegers work, shows what society and the media have become, and throw some satires of the genre. The exploration of the vision is so absorbing, it feels like you went to it as a trip. But what somewhat halts this from being larger than life is when it takes the generic elements of any typical blockbuster, like the hero's motivations, the main robot is somehow an underdog in one scene, there's an arrogant team member, sacrifices, and so on. It's hard to not notice them since they are the central points of the story. The intriguing stuff about the Jaegers and Kaijus still took over the experience. At least it embraces its own fantasy tastes without being "dark" and emo like today's blockbuster trend.
Charlie Hunnam's performance is fitting to a graphic novel based movie, which is kind of appropriate as his role. In the battle scenes, he gives genuine human emotions as he punches and fall. Idris Elba remarkably brings heart to the picture while being awesome at the same time. Rinko Kikuchi makes her character more than just a partner of Raleigh. Charlie Day and Burn Gorman delightfully serves more energy to the story, while Ron Perlman appears in a short screen time but satisfying enough.
Now the real highlight of the picture, the visuals are overall shiny and snazzy. The designs of the creatures and robots are palpably marvelous. As the special effects move these heavy giants, the action did something better than just blowing up stuff. Although explosions and loud noises are not actually flaws(It's about giant robots, c'mon!), but a real good set piece needs a decent and genuine fortitude. In the midst of the noises, you will always get the sense of danger to the Jaegers, mostly because there are human pilots beneath the ravaging machines. It effectively made those sequences electrifying and the monsters terrifying than you would expect.
Pacific Rim will have its own fans. It feels like a self-indulged blockbuster that people will end up loving. Besides, this film is said to be Guillermo del Toro's dream come true coming from his childhood. And seeing all that, there's plenty of things to explore and to be intrigued. If only the plot can break some points from the mainstream storytelling, it would have been less predictable and much extraordinary. But physically, it is extraordinary. It's both big and eye candy which is the snazziest merit you will see. Also in the action scenes where it's more into the thrills than the fireworks, because it's all about iron fists hitting on monsters' face. Again, the story may be familiar, but the setting and the action keeps everything looks fresh and amazing.