The idea is that a rift has opened on the ocean floor in the Pacific rim. A series of evil creatures, ever bigger and stronger come through that rift at decreasing intervals to demolish port cities in their own Godzilla way. At first, the humans only had planes and tanks to hurt them, but then they built giant mechs to battle the beasts hand to hand. these mechs could only be piloted by two people who were compatible with an artificial "drift" where their memories and consciousness are merged.
Our hero (Charlie Hunnam, Jax from Sons of Anarchy) and his brother piloted a mech until they ran into a big beast that killed his brother. Since there was no one else who might be compatible with him, and he was damaged goods, they retire him - he spends the next five years in construction. Then they pull him back into the program.
What changed? The program got mothballed, but there is no viable alternative in place, so it's really hard to understand what the thought process was involved. It gets glossed over as a political decision, but none of it makes any sense. It doesn't have to. Time for giant robots to beat on giant aliens!
I'm not going to go into all the greatness that is the fights, the odd things like forgetting that there are backup weapons, the aliens developing devastating weapons that they only use once, the fact that these machines could probably be better piloted by someone remotely who isn't mentally joined with the machine, or any of the obvious stuff. This movie is just jump-into-the-ball-pit fun.
The story is outlandish and adequate.
The acting is actually really good.
Effects are spectacular.
Directing is spot on (thank you, Guillermo del Toro)
4.5/5