Nerd in the 'Noke

Pacific Rim (2013), PG-13, 131 minutes - Giant monsters. Giant Mechs.  Guillermo del Toro's imagination and direction.  For these reasons, Pacific Rim was at the very top of my Most Anticipated Films of 2013 list and I'll tell you right now, it was spectacular.  As far as I'm concerned, it didn't disappoint on any level, which, considering how long I've been looking forward to this film and how excited I was for it, is pretty impressive. The film takes place in Earth's not-to-distant future (the prologue actually places the initial events in the present).  A rift has opened on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, creating a portal to another universe inhabited by giant monsters called Kaiju (Japanese meaning 'giant beast').  Kaiju begin to periodically make their way through the rift and in order to combat their devastation, the world's nations unite to construct giant humanoid mechs that come to be known as Jaegers (German for hunter).  The Jaegers...

Mechs!  Monsters!  Guillermo del Toro!  Idris Elba!  Ron Perlman!  Can it get any better?  Seriously though, this has been a greatly anticipated and discussed project from Guillermo del Toro for the last year or two.  And to finally see footage, gorgeous footage at that, really is exciting. The trailer gives us the basic premise: giant monsters rise up from within the Earth and mankind takes to piloting giant mechs to fight off the threat.  It may be a very basic and nerdy plot, but with previous films like Blade II, the Hellboy movies, and Pan's Labyrinth under his belt, Guillermo del Toro has proven to have an unbelievable creative mind, both story and design-wise.  I love that his cast is littered with great character actors such as Idris Elba and Ron Perlman (even Charlie Hunnam, Burn Gorman and Clifton Collins, Jr for that matter). There are already quite a few movies on the slate for next year to get excited about, but after seein...