Earth is under attack. Cities across the coastline of the Pacific are falling one by one to a new threat, something humans have never seen before — aliens. Guillermo Del Toro’s latest sci-fi movie Pacific Rim stars Charlie Hunman as Raleigh Becket, Diego Klattenhoff  as Yancy Becket, Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori and Charlie Day as Dr. Newton Geiszler Gorman. Del Toro’s creativity is apparent in Pacific Rim from every small effect to large scale fights between robots and aliens. Del Toro (Hellboy, Pans Labyrinth and Cronos) lives up to his reputation of being a visual effects master in this movie as well as bringing a rich blend of creative style and character personalities to his stories.

One thing that could have improved the movie would have been better acting, although the actors delivered good performances. They didn’t seem to rise up to the roles and imaginative personalities and backgrounds Del Toro gave them.

The first detail that stood out for me was the new take on the concept of robots versus aliens. Del Toro twisted what was a popular Japanese manga to mankind’s last defense against these monsters.

There was one huge inconsistency that I noticed as soon as the plot was introduced. Humanities’ only and last weapon-of-choice was a giant robot. How was the idea of a giant robot the best that earth’s minds had to offer? Although a lame excuse was made by the narrator that normal weapons didn’t work against these aliens, how would a huge robot punching the alien with brute force affect the monster? There are countless bombs and weapons that could pack as much, or far more, of a punch than that of a giant robot. I think the writers could have made a better attempt to justify why giant robots were the best option.

The second inconsistency that stood out to me was that every country on earth  joined together to fight this apocalyptic menace. Imagine that United Nations meeting. I could never see that happening. If anything, this world-ending threat would tear apart countries that already had no reason to work together. (In my opinion) earth would be decimated due to humans’ inability to get past differences to work together and massive aliens would walk the lands — but sadly that’s not how it goes down.

Overall Pacific Rim was lacking in plot and the acting could be improved, but the movie itself seemed to be hinging upon epic fights between robots and monsters. My recommendation to see the movie is only for those who like little plot, mostly action and a bittersweet ending. The movie wasn’t bad, but if you prefer an Academy Award winner, this movie isn’t for you. Pacific Rim was a fun movie to see just for the visual action, but it could have been presented and established in a much better fashion. I give it two and a half stars out of four.