Blu-Ray Review - Pacific Rim

The Film:

Released back in July of this year, Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, his personal love letter to the Japanese Monster and Robot movies of his youth concerns the human race at War with the Kaiju (Japanese term for Monster) and their main weapon being the Jaegers (German for Hunter), gigantic robots piloted by two humans but humanity is losing and one last gamble to take out the Rift between the two worlds may be the last chance humanity has to survive.

I adored Pacific Rim when I saw it cinemas back in July, I sat there in my chair smiling, cheering, feeling tense in my chair and watching in awe as these gigantic creatures duked it out, it was a fantastic experience that sadly I was never able to repeat before it left cinemas.

And sadly there were two key reasons this film failed in cinemas:

The first is simply the concept behind the film, Big Monsters vs. Big Robots, a tradition steeped in Japanese cinemas but has rarely if ever caught on in a big way in the West even when Japanese anime shows like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z developed big fan bases in the West in the late 90's and early 2000's but shows along the Big Monsters and Big Robots tradition have not caught on and as a result, the film had difficulty finding an audience.

The other big reason was simply the timing of its release, the film opened in cinemas in mid July and here in Australia that meant right in the middle of the School Holidays where you had films like Man of Steel, The Heat, The Lone Ranger, Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Epic and I'm sure for most cinemas they probably thought "I've got more than enough films to show and with it being the holidays the kids films have to take precedence."

And that was something I saw for myself waiting in line to see this movie, almost everyone else behind me was waiting for Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University to start, frankly I kept thinking to myself afterwards "If only it had been delayed to the 25th of July" then it's only real competition would've been "The Wolverine" and it may have done much better at the local box office.

But that's all hypothetical as it did not happen and like John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China in 1986/87, it may have failed to find an audience in cinemas but it certainly found one on Video and I have no doubt Pacific Rim will find its audience on disc.

The Video:

To sum it up: Spectacular.

And that is no joke dear readers, the video quality on this disc is truly some of the best I've ever seen on Blu-Ray and there have been a few I've liked quite a bit but this may well take the cake from those titles.

The clarity, the colors, the detail all pop here and there isn't as much as a speck out of line here, especially during the many night scenes where it's raining and big fights are going on, all of those scenes are clear as crystal and it also highlights the many details Guillermo put into the film with his mechanized sets and corrugated iron of the Jaegers to the cartoonish look of the Kaiju and even then you don't think to yourself your watching a digital creation, truly terrific stuff.

The Audio:

Presented in both 5.1 and 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (each is its own track) I pretty much have to echo my own comments about the video quality and say the same thing here.

Unlike a lot of Blu-Ray sound mixes where you have to adjust the volume every 5 minutes, the 5.1 mix finds a very even balance between the fight scenes and the quieter moments where you can keep it at a consistent volume, sit back and enjoy yourself.

And boy oh boy will these mixes do that for you, every sound has been recreated perfectly and is really nicely spaced so that you can close your eyes and focus on the sound of the rain at night or the gears of the Jaegers or the sound of the weapons firing or even the sound of the monsters screaming, it's a terrific sound mix.

As for the 7.1 mix well to my mind it's a little quieter and not as good as the 5.1 mix but you shouldn't be too disappointed with it if you decide to go with that mix (the 5.1 mix is the default mix on the disc so you'll have to select the 7.1 mix manually)

The Extras:

Guillermo Del Toro has long created extensive special edition discs for his movies and had a big hand in their creation and that is the case here as while there isn't a lot of extras, what is here is of a very high quality and more than deserving of a high rating.

With that out of the way, let's dive in shall we:

Audio Commentary by Guillermo Del Toro: Talking almost nonstop and in considerable detail, this is a fantastic commentary track that takes you through almost everything you could ever want to know about the making of the film and the creation of both the monsters and robots, if you're a fan of this film make the time to give this track a listen.

Focus Point Featurettes: 13 Focus Point Featurettes round out the extras on this first disc and combined run just over an hour, they delve into a wide range of topics from the creation of the sets (large sets were created to give you the feeling of being inside the head of the Jaegers), the casting of the Rangers (which includes a very cool clip of Idris Elba saying his famous line at the table read), some Set Visits as well as a look at the creation of the musical score (Russian lyrics were written for the reveal of their Jaeger) and more.

Unlike a lot of these Focus Point featurettes that Warner Home Video make, these ones are actually of a pretty high quality and you get a sense while watching them that your really seeing Guillermo's thought process as he's planning the film and as he's shooting it, a very cool feeling that sadly is becoming more and more rare on Blu-Ray releases these days as big special edition releases are cast aside in favor of streaming extras and retailer exclusives that just end up pleasing no one.

That's all for the first disc but before I tell you about the second disc I have to make mention that anytime you stop the film and take the disc out, the next time you put it back in your machine an option will come up allowing you to resume where you left off, a very nice touch.

Now then, onto disc 2.

The second disc (with Striker Eureka on the disc art, Gypsy Danger is on the feature disc) is full of high quality extras that delve deeper into the experience and combined with the commentary and featurettes on the first disc, help to make for a very nice package.

The first extra here is "The Director's Notebook": An interactive feature containing a reproduction of Guillermo Del Toro's notebook during his planning stage for the film.

Inside you will find sketches and text notes as well as icons that will translate part of the Spanish text as well as give you access to some very cool art galleries (one of which contains propaganda posters) as well as some further video featurettes that are extremely cool (my favorite of which concerns a temple carved out of the remains of a Kaiju head the interior of which couldn't be shot due to budget constraints).

Again what was cool about this feature was taking you inside Guillermo's planning process and how he went about creating the world the film exists in, this kind of detail is just remarkable I think and it makes this feature absolutely worth checking out.

Next comes a couple of featurettes:

The first of these is called "The Drift Space", a 5 and a half minute featurette that breaks down the film's drift sequences so more back-story about the characters can be told, a very cool feature that reveals some neat stuff about the history but it's doubtful you will watch this featurette more than once but hey I'm glad it's here.

The other is easily the better of the two and that is "The Digital Artistry of Pacific Rim", a 17 minute featurette about the creation of the film's digital effects of which there were many and the way in which Guillermo helped supervise their creation.

This was a really cool featurette as it shows Guillermo hard at work directing the effects supervisors as if he was directing his actors on the sets, the fight sequences and overall digital effects work in this film was nothing short of amazing, arguably the best CGI I've ever seen created for a feature film and Guillermo's eye for detail is a large part of that and it was very nice to see how it was created here.

From there we go to what could arguably be my favorite extra on this entire set and that is "The Shatterdome."

What is inside the Shatterdome, well what is here is a big collection of art galleries ranging from the Kaiju, the Jaegers and down to the costumes and environments as well as housing a few animatic sequences for some of the big scenes in the film.

The artwork that Guillermo and his team created for the film is nothing short of amazing and it really shows you not only the scope and size of the film that he had in mind for it but also in the case of the Jaegers it shows you the various details of just how these big machines work, all the various nooks and crannies that connect it together and it really makes you believe that these robots have a functionality to them and aren't just a walking talking scrap heap like in the recent Transformers movies.

I loved going through this section and it is absolutely worth the time to do so.

Next comes a small selection of deleted scenes which total about 4 minutes, these are primarily character based moments and are of nice value but I can see why Guillermo cut them.

And sadly this is the only area of the disc set where I have any real gripe to make as Guillermo was quoted in interviews saying that he had cut about 30 minutes in total out of the film and that all of it would be on the Blu-Ray release, sadly that hasn't happened here and it's a real shame as without that, the set feels incomplete.

And lastly we get a small blooper reel containing the standard stuff blooper reel extras have so there's not much to see here and it's doubtful you'll watch this extra more than once.

The Verdict:

Pacific Rim gets first class treatment on Blu-Ray and for me it's one of my favorite releases on the format so far for the film is terrific, the Audio and Visual quality is of the highest grade and the extras are genuinely insightful despite the disappointment about the deleted scenes.

If you are a fan of this film, do not hesitate to pick it up when you get the chance, you won't be disappointed.