"Pacific Rim": The Official Movie Novelization and Film Review

- by Steve Garcia, 21 July 2013

Once in a while, when a film gets to be pretty huge, the movie studio will release a novelization for the fanatics. While I was undoubtedly excited to see this film since its first announcement, I absolutely jumped on the chance to go ahead and read the film’s official novelization first, because (believe it or not, righteous readers) I like to take a breather and read a good book.

“When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot  and an untested trainee—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.”

Written by Alex Irvine, this is a satisfyingly-long 339 pages of the highly anticipated film, whose screenplay was cowritten by director Guillermo Del Toro himself. So was the story all what it was cracked up to be? Is it the be-all end-all of giant robot vs. monster movies? As always, I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, my loyal followers: I did not enjoy this story. Of course it wasn’t the fault of Alex Irvine (as the novelization was very well-written), but the actual story was tough.

I suppose we should start with the concept itself: giant robots battling it out with giant monsters. That right there was the main selling point for this story, and it’s the only reason why I read this book and watched this film. As with many action films, it follows the unofficial rule of three major fight sequences, and right out the gate it throws us into one to really set the stage of what’s to come. Even with Irvine’s excellent descriptions, reading about a fight and actually watching the fight itself are two totally different experiences. All three of the major fight scenes in the book were very strong, and painted a beautiful picture in the head of the reader. When actually watching the scenes in the film, however, I personally found them overall unimpressive, with the exception of the second one, where a robot actually uses a giant ship as a weapon. 

Perhaps I was spoiled by the over-the-top action in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, but if the main selling point of this story turns out to be “just ok,” then the rest of the storytelling better be enough cushion to land on… right?

As far as the characters go, there were only about two or three that I thoroughly enjoyed, and none of them were the main characters. Raleigh, the character that this story is supposed to revolve around, is essentially unnecessary dead weight, as the real center of attention should have been between Mako Mori, his inexperienced co-pilot, and Stacker Pentecost (played by the always excellent Idris Elba in the film). If I can’t care about the film’s main character, why should I bother to care about the movie at all? There were many missed opportunities in regards to how these characters could have interacted with each other, but instead, the story provides us with a shoe-horned “love” story and an unsatisfying conclusion towards the story’s end. I don’t want to spoil what ultimately happens, but basically, these robots are fueled by the relationship that the two pilots share—the stronger the bond, the better the robot fights. Two characters in this story had an incredible bond, which was apparent in the story’s entirety, but they never ended up teaming together, which would have made for a much more emotionally invested third act than the one that was already provided.

But my biggest problem with this film, and not so much the book, is the fact that it took itself so seriously. This film’s premise was dumb fun—nothing more, and nothing less. Aside from Dr. Newton Geiszler (played by the hysterical Charlie Day), not one character ever felt fun to watch, which certainly hurt my overall enjoyment of the film.  While that problem may have been apparent in Man of Steel as well, Pacific Rim was the biggest culprit of this problem since Zack Snyder "blessed" us with Sucker Punch. But at least in Sucker Punch, however, there were insanely attractive women kicking ass the entire time, instead of giving us a random, rushed, unneeded love story featuring a totally unnecessary main character and some random actress who had absolutely nothing to offer in terms to everything from acting ability to actual dialogue. Of course, the film’s main selling point was the action, but even that fell flat after other films such as Man of Steel and The Avengers set the bar so high.


Unfortunately, this film’s story was a huge letdown to me, personally, but I would still recommend reading the novelization because Alex Irvine does an amazing job of describing a fight scene better than the movie presented. Cheaper than the average movie ticket, this book is well-worth the buy, but see this film at your own risk (if you already haven’t, of course).



Seen "Pacific Rim"? Read "Pacific Rim"? Tell us all about your thoughts, in the comments section below!

Tagged: movies & TV, books, Reviews.

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