I wanted to hate this movie for so long. At first it seemed cool in the trailers, but closer to the release date I wasn't impressed. I put off seeing it since its premiere, but I wound up taking my 10 year old nephew to see it after another movie wasn't so great (check my review on The Wolverine); we both ended up liking it alot.
If you mesh "Battleship" with "Godzilla" you get the plot of this movie: Aliens have a portal hidden in the Pacific Ocean for millions of years to travel from their world into ours. In this incarnation of the Aliens' plan almost all the countries on Earth band together creating Jaegers (2 person piloted robots) built to fight Kaiju (the alien monsters). Their plan today is to destroy the portal with the help of Jaegar pilots Charlie Hunnam and his brother. Mission goes horribly wrong and Charlie's brother is killed. The countries disband the Jaegar project head by Idris Elba's character making the Jaeger project now a rogue team. The countries decide to build walls that are easily broke by Kaiju. Idris once again enlists Charlie for Jaegar project whom has taken refugee in the wall buildings after his brother dies. Back in the game he meets Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi, Idris' eager assistant who wants to do nothing more than co-pilot a Jaeger.
This movie has quirky characters like Kaiju enthusiast Charlie Day and cocky "True Blood" star Robert Kazinsky as well. Even though the story is nothing new the execution is! I loved this movie! It's dialogue was sharp; the fighting scenes were breathtaking; and the acting was spot on. del Toro fave Ron Perlman made a funny cameo as a Kaiju body parts black market dealer.
4 out of 5 stars. Trust me you will like this one.