Pacific Rim – A Jaeger Bomb

Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro's homage to the Kaiju movies that fascinated him in his youth. To that end, it is a lovingly crafted and often beautiful film that delivers on the promise of its premise.

What is the conceit? Well, in short, Jaegers—giant Earth-protecting mechs—fight invading Kaiju who emerge from a rift within the Pacific Ocean. And for all the movie's foibles—the plot has many—it does nail it's most defining element.

The fights, in fact, are so visually dazzling that it makes the laborious human moments with wooden Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) all the more painful. Speaking of those foibles, the humans—not just poor Raleigh—encompass a host of them.

They are unbearably bland caricatures of archetypes we've seen dozens of times over. And considering the movie makes you spend an enormous chunk of its two plus hours with them in its middle section, that can grow tiresome.

But, if you make it through the slog of machismo-fueled, bro-tastic platitudes, the fights do return; and you will have one hell of a time; because if not for Pacific Rim, we would never know the glory of watching a giant mech swing a ship like a baseball bat right into a Kaiju's face.

So sit back, use your sword to slice open a La Fin Du Monde from Unibroue Brewery, and lay off the Kaiju bone powder! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK), Capt. Cash, Chumpzilla, and Mayor McCheese are prepping our Jaegers for an ocean brawl with Knifehead!

This Week’s Segments:

• Introduction/Plot Breakdown – Giant robots versus giant monsters. Let the fights commence! (00:00) 
• Lingering Questions – After a word from our pals at Hop Nation USA, we assess what kept this from being a huge hit. (1:10:20)
• The "Are You Funnin' Me, Son?" Trivia Challenge – Capt. Cash challenges the field to a series of trivia questions about the movie. (1:14:36)
• Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week, and next up: It's the second entry of "Hops and Our Favorite Flops," Fight Club. (1:23:44)

And, as always, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids—the deeper Pacific Rim lore and more—from this week’s episode!

You can find this episode of Hops and Box Office Flops on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Acast, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, and Amazon Music!