Pacific rim review

Time travel is not possible but every so often a movie or book does come along that does mimic the unattainable and transports you back to a time long forgotten. “Pacific rim” is such a film that (for me) transports the viewer back to the world of old 80s Saturday morning cartoons; in fact it can be said that this is a live action mix of those cartoons. Directed and partly written by Guillermo del Toro: this time around he is given a whole new tool box to play with and boy does he make full use of what he is given and like most people do NOT fmistake this for a serious movie but rather a throwback to old programs made for entertainment (remember those?). As I sat watching this film I was reminded of my youthful days and if I were to compile a list of similar animations then I would say Godzilla, Voltron, Transformers and Patlabour among others. Also this movie was a throwback to the Japanese KAIJU (strange beast) movies. Yes it is rare that I would praise a movie which is laden so heavily by CGI (as anyone who has spent time with me or even read any of my reviews knows) but occasionally a movie does come along that just clicks (casshern anyone?). Furthermore, this movie has been a hit or miss with most people...maybe they can’t recall being a kid or maybe they start making comparisons with other similar movies (cough…BATTLESHIP...cough). Needless to say, I really enjoyed this one as it didn’t try hard to be something it’s not (cough...TRANSFORMERS...cough) and just had fun being a live action anime\monster hybrid. Do I think this is is worth seeing? I would grin and say a big yes but only if you are prepared to go back to the days of wacky and cheesy Saturday morning cartoons that you grew up with. For the rest of you...stick with your Michael Bay films.