I think for most English-speaking daikaiju fans in the early 2010s, our first exposure and introduction to the genre was with Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim (2013) - the most underrated and unappreciated movie in his entire filmography. Many of del Toro's doting critics who fell in love with his earlier directorial works, like Hellboy (2004) and Pan's Labyrinth (2006), might've felt that this visionary's involvement in doing a big dumb monster spectacle such as this really held his career down as they only see it as being one of his "lesser movies". But let's be fair now, western critics have never truly understood the kaiju genre or even grasped its appeal anyway (they often tend to look down on this type of thing, as if to say it's something shameful for a high-profile filmmaker to do).
To put things plainly and simply in a sort of "short/sweet/to-the-point" perspective, this movie's premise is just an adrenaline-fuelled joyride rush for those who wanna see a great quantity of rockin' robo action along with some pretty sick creature carnage (plenty of fun stuff!). Just sprinkle in a little bit of story & character development, and you're all set to go! But if you're looking for a more meaningful (potentially "eye-opening & life-changing") viewing experience set in the reality of our own world, then instead you should try finding one of those deeply-profound introspective dramas where it's presented as a real in-depth think-piece for a complex character study concerning mental psychosis (some pretty artsy and experimental stuff, yet somewhat dare I say occasionally "pretentious" depending on subject matter). Before I forget to mention, there's also this underlying theme of entire nations around the globe having finally put aside their centuries worth of argumentative differences for a chance at achieving a victory over their alien opponents, and to further benefit the greater good in the long run (may sound kinda preachy with its subliminal message surrounding politics, but it's not shoved in your face at all).
Obviously, this whole entire movie acts as one great big tribute to not just kaiju films, but all manner of creature features in general (not to mention, the mecha genre as well). There's some pretty nice neon colour-palettes with the cinematography having many great set-ups throughout the establishing shots of each scene, all with that distinctively vibrant visual flair which only a director of del Toro's calibre could pull off. That being said, its story is pretty standard monster-action fare and its plot isn't anything too spectacularly insightful. The overarching narrative has to do with the thematic bridging between survivor's guilt and learning how to live with that guilt after inadvertently losing someone you were so close to. Charlie Hunnam as a mentally-scarred Jaeger pilot gets a lot of flack for not being all that much of a well-developed character but to be honest, I don't get the complaints. He's clearly doing the best he could've done in the main archetypal role of the "tragic hero protagonist" with the semi-serious tone the movie was idealistically going for, despite how inherently goofy in nature the inspirational source material is, which was pretty much a given (we always strive to do our best in these trying situations by forcefully putting on a brave "tough guy" sort of face and hiding our true anguish behind it).
The rest of the supporting cast and side characters do good jobs bringing their respective personas to life, as I'm sure they were translated adequately from the working script to the big-screen. Idris Elba was just as great as he always is, this time in a more somber role portraying a tired war-torn marshal who's at the end of his tether with this seemingly never-ending kaiju conundrum to sustain humanity's chances for survival in a bleak and grim world (putting it mildly, he doesn't strike you as the type of person who's got a positive outlook at this stage of the game). Charlie Day and Burn Gorman made for a quite entertaining "comedic relief duo", playing off each other surprisingly well in the scenes they shared together. But of course, the standout performance would have to be Rinko Kikuchi (no question about it). Her story-arc of harbouring strong feelings of deep-seated revenge against the behemoth beasties for wiping-out her loved ones in a rampaging assault when she was just a little girl was conveyed excellently, setting up her understandable character motivations in a concisive yet coherent way via a traumatic memory flashback triggered by intensive emotional stress during her first neural linkup testing (powering up the gargantuan robot). Heck, even Ron Perlman's awesome cameo as a kaiju black market dealer was an amusing incorporation of del Toro's favourite actor buddy (yep, he's sure come along way since his Quest for Fire days).
As to be expected, the individual giant robots and monsters are all outstandingly designed with a shockingly impressive amount of painstakingly detailed work being put into making them as fully-realised things as the talented production team could've done (their aesthetic efforts greatly paid-off). All the high-tech Jaegers were given their complex structural designs with practicality in mind, NOT strictly for the coolness factor of "we're just showing off an ace looking robotic giant". When you see them on a big crystal-clear screen in the best high-definition quality possible, you'll quickly be able to pickup on the fact that each and every single piece of these massive moving machines felt like it served a purpose and had an important reason for being there in terms of robotic functionality (noticing fairly soon it's not all just flaps of metal for the sake of having it there). The giant monster segments provided the satisfactory visual stimulation of catastrophic creature chaos, along with a good dose of magnificently monstrous mayhem. And these sea-dwelling Kaiju designs are honestly exceptional when it comes to originality in recent years, bearing strong amphibious features and way more biological advantages than in any other past movie before their appearance (unless you take into account the utter weirdness of the Gamera franchise).
Ramin Djawadi's unique soundtrack is the icing on the cake, for me personally (love this man's discography). His epic-sounding score is the absolute perfect example of what happens when awe-inspiring and butt-kicking action music is played during various scenes of intense buildup and somber drama, and somehow still manages to fit in really well, sometimes by having the tracks precisely synced up to the earthshaking fights of what's going on between and around the larger-than-life robot/monster stuff (a good enough setting goes a long way). Although, that's not to say the film is without some of its more tender, emotional moments (all of which feels organic to the different situations and helps the story's natural progression flow along at a much better pace). Without spoiling anything, one of my favourite moments is actually something that happens earlier on during the course of the movie, wherein a helicopter descends down onto a landing platform as Rinko Kikuchi's character walks to it upon its arrival in the pouring rain and you can quite clearly hear this gentle, very Japanese-inspired track playing in the background of this well-put-together visually-stunning scene (a brilliant touch that compliments the scenery, I thought!).
So yeah, I think that pretty much about sums up my feelings as a whole. Once again, if this really isn't the right type of genre movie for you or if it's something you genuinely can't see yourself enjoying, then just don't watch it.
To put things plainly and simply in a sort of "short/sweet/to-the-point" perspective, this movie's premise is just an adrenaline-fuelled joyride rush for those who wanna see a great quantity of rockin' robo action along with some pretty sick creature carnage (plenty of fun stuff!). Just sprinkle in a little bit of story & character development, and you're all set to go! But if you're looking for a more meaningful (potentially "eye-opening & life-changing") viewing experience set in the reality of our own world, then instead you should try finding one of those deeply-profound introspective dramas where it's presented as a real in-depth think-piece for a complex character study concerning mental psychosis (some pretty artsy and experimental stuff, yet somewhat dare I say occasionally "pretentious" depending on subject matter). Before I forget to mention, there's also this underlying theme of entire nations around the globe having finally put aside their centuries worth of argumentative differences for a chance at achieving a victory over their alien opponents, and to further benefit the greater good in the long run (may sound kinda preachy with its subliminal message surrounding politics, but it's not shoved in your face at all).
Obviously, this whole entire movie acts as one great big tribute to not just kaiju films, but all manner of creature features in general (not to mention, the mecha genre as well). There's some pretty nice neon colour-palettes with the cinematography having many great set-ups throughout the establishing shots of each scene, all with that distinctively vibrant visual flair which only a director of del Toro's calibre could pull off. That being said, its story is pretty standard monster-action fare and its plot isn't anything too spectacularly insightful. The overarching narrative has to do with the thematic bridging between survivor's guilt and learning how to live with that guilt after inadvertently losing someone you were so close to. Charlie Hunnam as a mentally-scarred Jaeger pilot gets a lot of flack for not being all that much of a well-developed character but to be honest, I don't get the complaints. He's clearly doing the best he could've done in the main archetypal role of the "tragic hero protagonist" with the semi-serious tone the movie was idealistically going for, despite how inherently goofy in nature the inspirational source material is, which was pretty much a given (we always strive to do our best in these trying situations by forcefully putting on a brave "tough guy" sort of face and hiding our true anguish behind it).
The rest of the supporting cast and side characters do good jobs bringing their respective personas to life, as I'm sure they were translated adequately from the working script to the big-screen. Idris Elba was just as great as he always is, this time in a more somber role portraying a tired war-torn marshal who's at the end of his tether with this seemingly never-ending kaiju conundrum to sustain humanity's chances for survival in a bleak and grim world (putting it mildly, he doesn't strike you as the type of person who's got a positive outlook at this stage of the game). Charlie Day and Burn Gorman made for a quite entertaining "comedic relief duo", playing off each other surprisingly well in the scenes they shared together. But of course, the standout performance would have to be Rinko Kikuchi (no question about it). Her story-arc of harbouring strong feelings of deep-seated revenge against the behemoth beasties for wiping-out her loved ones in a rampaging assault when she was just a little girl was conveyed excellently, setting up her understandable character motivations in a concisive yet coherent way via a traumatic memory flashback triggered by intensive emotional stress during her first neural linkup testing (powering up the gargantuan robot). Heck, even Ron Perlman's awesome cameo as a kaiju black market dealer was an amusing incorporation of del Toro's favourite actor buddy (yep, he's sure come along way since his Quest for Fire days).
As to be expected, the individual giant robots and monsters are all outstandingly designed with a shockingly impressive amount of painstakingly detailed work being put into making them as fully-realised things as the talented production team could've done (their aesthetic efforts greatly paid-off). All the high-tech Jaegers were given their complex structural designs with practicality in mind, NOT strictly for the coolness factor of "we're just showing off an ace looking robotic giant". When you see them on a big crystal-clear screen in the best high-definition quality possible, you'll quickly be able to pickup on the fact that each and every single piece of these massive moving machines felt like it served a purpose and had an important reason for being there in terms of robotic functionality (noticing fairly soon it's not all just flaps of metal for the sake of having it there). The giant monster segments provided the satisfactory visual stimulation of catastrophic creature chaos, along with a good dose of magnificently monstrous mayhem. And these sea-dwelling Kaiju designs are honestly exceptional when it comes to originality in recent years, bearing strong amphibious features and way more biological advantages than in any other past movie before their appearance (unless you take into account the utter weirdness of the Gamera franchise).
Ramin Djawadi's unique soundtrack is the icing on the cake, for me personally (love this man's discography). His epic-sounding score is the absolute perfect example of what happens when awe-inspiring and butt-kicking action music is played during various scenes of intense buildup and somber drama, and somehow still manages to fit in really well, sometimes by having the tracks precisely synced up to the earthshaking fights of what's going on between and around the larger-than-life robot/monster stuff (a good enough setting goes a long way). Although, that's not to say the film is without some of its more tender, emotional moments (all of which feels organic to the different situations and helps the story's natural progression flow along at a much better pace). Without spoiling anything, one of my favourite moments is actually something that happens earlier on during the course of the movie, wherein a helicopter descends down onto a landing platform as Rinko Kikuchi's character walks to it upon its arrival in the pouring rain and you can quite clearly hear this gentle, very Japanese-inspired track playing in the background of this well-put-together visually-stunning scene (a brilliant touch that compliments the scenery, I thought!).
So yeah, I think that pretty much about sums up my feelings as a whole. Once again, if this really isn't the right type of genre movie for you or if it's something you genuinely can't see yourself enjoying, then just don't watch it.