The West struggled to contribute to the Kaiju movie craze, but Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim demonstrates our potential. The first Hollywood Godzilla spoiled future efforts for 15 years. Legendary’s Monsterverse finds some success in its ongoing cinematic universe, but no official offering rivals del Toro’s epic. Pacific Rim is a masterful example of blockbuster cinema, but its streaming home has changed several times. The film will leave Netflix on April 1st, 2024.
Pacific Rim Travels into the Breach and Away from Netflix Next Month
Modern blockbusters struggle to balance scale and substance. Guillermo del Toro doesn’t have that problem. The magic of Pacific Rim is its simplicity. It blends kaiju movies with mecha anime through the lens of colossal Hollywood filmmaking. It’s a bit of a meme these days to say something captures the “feel” of its intended subject, but del Toro succeeds in straightforward ways. The film follows trained warriors who pilot towering robots to fight monsters from another dimension. Del Toro’s secret weapon is that his Kaiju and Jaeger mechs feel appropriately massive. CGI-driven films fail when the spectacle ceases to mean anything. Pacific Rim sells every movement with a perfect blend of practical and digital effects. It came out a decade ago, but its action set pieces feel pulled from the distant future. Del Toro projected his kaiju movie dreams onto the big screen, and we got to enjoy them.
Every kaiju movie fields complaints about their human characters. They’re often dull, disposable fodder standing around and blurting out necessary dialogue. Pacific Rim doesn’t have that problem. Its heroes, the Rangers who pilot Jaeger mechs, are classic archetypes. While they’re far from deep, Raleigh Beckett and Mako Mori enjoy a narratively brilliant plot device. You see, the Jaegers are too big and complicated for any one person to operate. Two pilots share the load through a neural link. The Drift system requires a complete bond between both participants. Any emotional crossed wires could doom them both. Del Toro and co-writer Travis Beacham created a flawless narrative explanation for character growth. The keys to your giant robot won’t turn until you process your grief, learn to believe in yourself, and trust the other pilot with your life. It’s one of the brightest narrative conceits in blockbuster cinema.
Pacific Rim sat on HBO Max for some time. It feels comfortable next to Warner Bros.’s other kaiju movies. Much of Max’s content slipped over to Netflix recently, but their rental period might be ending. The DCEU, Dune, and the Monsterverse may find their way back to Max in the coming months. Netflix is the only free streaming service boasting del Toro’s 2013 classic, but it will almost certainly find a new home. Get into the Drift with Pacific Rim before it leaves Netflix on April 1st.
