A loud and proud ‘Pacific Rim’

MONSTERS from the deep attack famous landmarks all over the world, including the Sydney Opera House. INQSnap this page to watch the trailer and a special interview with director Guillermo del Toro.

Unforgettable, powerful moments are guaranteed when visionary directors get the funding they require to bring their full cinematic vision to the screen.

That is what happened when Peter Jackson unleashed the “Lord of the Rings” films, when Christopher Nolan thought up “Inception” and when James Cameron gave flight to “Avatar.”

This is what has happened now with Guillermo del Toro and his newest film, “Pacific Rim”: Critically acclaimed Spanish director makes a Japanese monster movie with American blockbuster money. It’s amazing.

Giant monsters

Giant monsters called Kaiju emerge from a rift deep in the Pacific Ocean in 2014 and begin destroying human cities. (Manila is attacked early on and figures tangentially in the rest of the film.)

To combat them, humans develop similarly gigantic robots called Jaegers (German for “hunter”), well-armed mechanical creations piloted by the merging of the minds of two human pilots. Built by different countries, the Jaegers are initially successful, but the Kaiju soon become smarter and stronger.

The Jaeger program is about to be decommissioned; humans will instead rely on coastal walls for protection against the creatures. The plan doesn’t sit well with Jaeger program leader Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba from “Thor”), who has devised one final strike against the Kaiju. To carry out his plan, Pentecost brings back a mothballed Jaeger, the United States’ Gipsy Danger, and recruits an unlikely pair of pilots—battle-scarred Raleigh Becket (“Sons of Anarchy” star Charlie Hunnam), who walked away from the program five years ago, and rookie Mako Mori (“Babel’s” Rinko Kikuchi) who has personal reasons for fighting the Kaiju.

But the Kaiju have become fiercer than ever and PPDC is called upon to make a stand despite their limited resources.

“Pacific Rim” is essentially a futuristic war movie, so the film furiously launches itself almost without letup for over two full hours.

Groundbreaking

Though the Jaeger tech is fiction, the world in “Pacific Rim” is not very different from what we have now. Credit the film’s smarts to writer Travis Beacham (“Clash of the Titans”) and the outstanding visual effects to John Knoll and James

GUILLERMO del Toro’s eclectic visual style is very much at work here— this time, on a titanic scale. In photo, monsters approach Golden Gate bridge in California.

E. Price. If you want to see robots trading blows with monsters on the biggest screen with the best CGI effects possible, you got it. The launch scenes alone are well worth the price of admission. Hold your breath when three Jaegers engage the Kaiju just off the coast of the PPDC Hong Kong base, the wonderfully named Shatterdome.

The action scenes are breathtaking and groundbreaking, some of the best ever seen on screen.

Hunnam and Kikuchi are believable as a pair of copilots dedicated to each other and put together by destiny. Stealing the scene is Del Toro favorite Ron Perlman, who plays colorful Kaiju scavenger Hannibal Chau. But the best performance in “Pacific Rim” is the fiery turn by Elba as Pentecost, who gives what will soon become a classic speech: “Today, at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we’ve chosen to believe in each other,” he yells. “Today, we face the monsters that are at our door. Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!”

While “Pacific Rim” will best be remembered for its menacing monsters and steel soldiers, Del Toro (the “Hellboy” movies and the Oscar-nominated menagerie “Pan’s Labyrinth”) manages to give the film a heart. It is, after all, as much about sacrifice and courage as it is about robots.

Two conventions

The movie actually merges two Japanese storytelling conventions: the Kaiju movies (featuring giant monsters with “Godzilla” being the most famous) and the Japanese robot sagas. Del Toro approaches the traditions respectfully, then comes up with something of his own. When you look at the Jaegers and the Kaiju up close, you see Del Toro’s eclectic visual style very much at work—this time, on a titanic scale. The resulting product, the loud and proud “Pacific Rim,” is a singular achievement in steel and scale, a fully loaded fulfillment of Guillermo del Toro’s vision and his best movie to date.

(Warner Bros.’ “Pacific Rim” opens in theaters tomorrow.)