His status as a genius filmmaker, however,
While Pentecost is trying to stretch his limited resources and manpower against an impending apocalypse, a pair of researchers ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"'s Charlie Day and Burn Gorman) with opposite personalities and theories look for vulnerabilities in this potent alien race.ĭel Toro's status as an active director is certainly renewed with this ambitious production. Raleigh's search for a co-pilot leads to Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a gifted mind who has to overcome the reservations of her protective, father-like mentor Pentecost.
He is reunited with his old vessel, Gipsy Danger, an old mission controller (Clifton Collins, Jr.), and a one-time colleague, Australian hero Herc Hansen (Max Martini), while also being introduced to a new wave of pilots and researchers. Though reluctant, Raleigh is swayed to return to his important, high-pressure calling. Five years after their deadly last mission, Raleigh's old supervisor, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), tracks him down and invites him to join Pentecost's resurrected Jaeger program in Hong Kong. The United Nations shuts down the Jaeger program not too long after our protagonist, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), gets out of the piloting game and into construction, working on building giant walls that are soon found to be obviously susceptible to Kaiju destruction. The Kaiju, however, are constantly evolving and the human technology is struggling to keep up. Jaegers, equally massive robot warriors piloted by two human individuals connected by a "neural handshake", have fought back against the invaders, protecting the planet from destruction as needed. The Kaiju, giant alien creatures, emerged from the depths of the Pacific Ocean at the edges of Earth's largest tectonic plate to wreak havoc on coastlines. In the near-future it depicts, these opposing forces have a drastic effect on the state of the world. Pacific Rim opens by defining the two terms that drive this film: Kaiju, a Japanese term for monster and Jaeger, a German word for hunter. That the movie looked like a Transformers spin-off suggested its commercial impact and technical achievement might be greater than its artistic value and critical appeal. At last, here was a chance to justify the substantial weight of his name. Pacific Rim was his biggest directing gig to date, with a production budget of $190 million, a theater count of nearly 3,300, and a release date in the middle of July. Over the summer, Del Toro added the first directing credit to his resume since 2008. And yet, the movies he touches as an executive producer, like this year's Mama, emphasize his input by mentioning his name in trailers and on posters. His most significant creative credit over a recent period of four years was the screenplay for the horror dud Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Since that 2006 fantasy won three technical Oscars, del Toro has served as a consultant and producer on number of DreamWorks animated films been and attached to a number of big projects his involvement failed to materialize on, most notably, The Hobbit trilogy, which still assigns him a screenplay credit.
Since then, there's been Blade II, the two Hellboy movies, and, in between them, the aforementioned Pan's.
It doesn't seem to be his Criterion-inducted feature debut Cronos or his ill-regarded Hollywood start Mimic. I'm often left wondering where this Mexican writer, director, and producer's clout comes from. As one of the few critics who would express a dislike of that film, Most agree that Pan's Labyrinth has been the high point of his 25-year career. There has always been a disconnect between the amount of respect Guillermo del Toro commands and his body of work.