Japanese popular culture has done a lot to impact Western action media over the decades, such as toys that inspired hit franchises like The Transformers. Anime like Dragon Ball Z also served as the backbone of action scenes in movies like Creed III. However, the biggest impact came from the genres of Mecha and Kaiju, which created iconic franchises like Mobile Suit Gundam and Godzilla. While these properties thrived on their own, seeing the two together were few and far between to the point that it took visionary director Guillermo del Toro to capitalize on the concept. As a result, Pacific Rim was born and ushered in a new era of action movies that are still felt today.
Pacific Rim was released in 2013 and introduced a world where a dimensional rift in the Pacific Ocean introduced massive kaiju that devastated major cities. When conventional weapons failed to work, world governments invented Jaegers, massive mecha designed solely to combat these creatures. But as more rifts opened, a new pair of pilots were introduced to lead the charge against these creatures with impressive battles that pushed special effects to the limit. Even still, the most impressive part of the movie was how, a decade later, the concepts introduced in the film changed the face of action movies in a way only being understood now.
Pacific Rim Proved the Potential of a Gundam Movie
In Pacific Rim, Jaegers required two pilots to carry the strain of controlling such a massive mech. By “drifting,” their minds became one, and when compatible, they controlled their Jaeger with ease. The imagery of seeing a Jaeger in action proved, for fans of Mobile Suit Gundam, that the same could one day be possible for the most famous Mecha franchise. Like Pacific Rim, many shows in the Gundam franchise dealt with relationships and political turmoil on top of massive robot battles. It created the perfect template for dramatic stories that culminated in emotional battles.
While Pacific Rim‘s battles were against giant kaiju, the idea of two pilots working together served as the emotional weight of the movie and proved that a Gundam film could work with the right script. The Jaegers showed, even in 2013, that the technology was there as well, meaning the only thing that was lacking was a talented cast and crew and the green light. Furthermore, the critical and financial success of the movie also showed that Gundam had a place in Western cinemas as the Japanese property had reached worldwide acclaim already. Pacific Rim also showed that while monsters and robots were a delight to see fight on screen, for a Gundam movie to work, it would require a perfect storm of elements to guarantee success, which was more than possible to achieve.
Pacific Rim Was a Perfect Storm of Success
Pacific Rim was a movie that went against all odds, as it came out only five years after the Marvel Cinematic Universe during a time when fans wanted big action but mainly for superheroes. Being that Pacific Rim was an original idea, del Toro didn’t try to adhere to whatever standard superhero movies established. Instead, it forged an identity all its own that allowed it to stand out, earning well over half of its budget at the box office. This was partly due to the special effects used to bring the kaiju and Jaegers to life. To showcase the level of detail, the audience could distinctly understand these massive battles as they watched the moving parts of the Jaegers punch the organic tissue of the kaiju. It also showed how each little detail helped with scale as a Jaeger’s punch gently tapped a Newton’s cradle during a huge fight. These moments offered scale, humor and an impressive look at how hard the VFX artists worked to bring it to life.
While the cinematography and battles were praised by critics, there was also a lot of credit given to the cast who brought the outrageous world to life. A huge focus of the movie was on Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh Becket and Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako Mori, who had to work together in the Jaeger but had their own personal struggles as well. This allowed for tension in the battles but a moment of clarity when the two successfully drifted and took the fight to the kaiju. At its core, Pacific Rim was always about its relationships and accepting a person’s faults and all because it’s what separated them from the monsters they fought daily.
Unlike similar movies, like the Transformers franchise, Pacific Rim had a distinct style that, even a decade later, has helped it stand out from more current action movies. This was largely thanks to the gritty and epic score Ramin Djawadi and Tom Morello created that served as an earworm for the audience and a battle cry for the movie’s heroes. The Pacific Rim theme alone captured the power of the Jaegers and the stakes behind their many battles while also giving those same battles weight. A great example of this was how the theme played each time a Jaeger gained the upper hand on the kaiju, booming over the destruction to show that Earth was never going to be their home. But all of these elements served to introduce a whole new franchise while setting a new foundation for future action movies.
Pacific Rim Paved the Way for Modern Kaiju Movies
Before Pacific Rim, the West’s biggest claims to fame were the Kaiju movies Cloverfield and 1998’s Godzilla. While both had their highs and lows, they failed to reach the heights of suspense and excitement that Pacific Rim had. Ironically, only a year later, Gareth Edward’s Godzilla would hit theaters and piggyback off the concept of what Pacific Rim‘s idea of kaiju could be with a movie that embraced the scale of its monster. From there, the MonsterVerse never shied away from going big and giving audiences massive battles with huge stakes and destruction among creatures that audiences couldn’t get enough of.
While going big wasn’t something that consistently guaranteed success in the movie industry, Pacific Rim sent a message that its creators shouldn’t be afraid to take that chance if they have the means. As a result, the MCU gave fans a climactic end to its Infinity Saga, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts gave Unicron a proper live-action introduction. Even still, none of this could’ve been possible without Pacific Rim‘s release a decade ago, proving even now that del Toro’s vision for cinematic spectacle still has a place in modern cinema.