Does Pacific Rim successfully bring the Godzilla scenario into the 21st Century? At first glance, perhaps not. The next generation of creature feature fans may find their loyalties tested as director Guillermo Del Toro starts his film with a tour de force, then the plot takes hold. During this time, a number of characters appear and some irrelevant back-stories clog up the machinery. However, the end result provides a worthy alternative to Michael Bay's string of robotic misfires.

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, monstrous sea creatures known as the Kaiju emerge to wreak havoc on a global scale. Mankind's survival depends on the success of giant Jaeger robots -- machines operated by two human pilots. With the apocalypse looming, can the human race reset the balance in time?
 
On paper, the film sounds like a second rate Godzilla/Transformers knockoff. With a script by Del Toro and Travis Beacham, there's very little in the way of high concept storytelling. Instead the filmmakers take a genre clearly inspired by Japanese monster movies of the 1950s and they elaborate on a bare-bones sketch, with room for special effects to do the heavy lifting.
 
Casting director Margery Simkin narrowly misses perfection with her choice of leading players. Charlie Hunnam portrays Raleigh Becket as an all-round virtuous warrior, completely devoid of character flaws or human interest. He's a cipher in a helmet, while notable Oscar-nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) allows herself to get bogged down in long-winded character flashbacks.
 
By contrast, Idris Elba uses his screen time to excellent effect here, pulling off a speech which will surely ignite the passions of even the most sedate audience member. Likewise, Ron Perlman lends sufficient gravitas in order to steal every second of the film from his co-stars.
 
I'm not exactly a fan of composer Ramin Djawadi, yet he surprised me with his electric guitar themes. By shaking the dust off the film's old-fashioned surfaces, he lends a modern twist to a timeless battle for supremacy.
 
Overall, Pacific Rim works when the dialogue takes a back seat to the spectacle.

(Released by Warner Bros. and rated "PG-13" by MPAA.)