If “Transformers” is the Pokemon of the robot world, where humans have personal fighting companions to duke out their animalistic urges and/or save the world, then “Pacific Rim” is its underrated Digimon cousin, in which we operate the droids that would otherwise do the work for us. Everything is amplified and hands-on, from the action to the consequences.

Also, forget any established movie tropes of terror coming from above: “Pacific Rim”’s dinosaur-like antagonists, Kaiju, come from beneath us, rising from the sea to wreak terror on the world. It’s up to military-operated Jaegers, aka fancy German-named robots, to stop them. Jaeger operators/co-pilots come in pairs and have a shared neural bridge, a process called “drifting.”

Adding to the film’s overarching theme of unification is a diverse cast (although the film surprisingly doesn’t fixate on their cultural differences). After losing his brother five years earlier in a Jaeger operation gone wrong, tortured rebel and half of the leading dynamic duo, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), is sought out again by Jaeger forces head, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), to ascertain how to eliminate the Kaiju before the war escalates.

Although Becket appears your typical alpha male, the movie refreshingly fleshes out his eventual companion, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), as an un-sexualized female lead with an equal determination to prove herself. Interesting supporting characters embarking along on their quest include eccentric Kaiju researchers Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), and Australian father-son co-pilot rivals Hercules (Max Martini) and Chuck Hansen (Rob Kazinsky). No scene is wasted as plot twists and pacing alternate neatly; each character also plays a well-fitted part in defeating the threat.

If you can get past its usage of complicated terms and metaphors (apparently “chasing the rabbit” while co-piloting means to get lost in one’s memories), you’ll find “Pacific Rim” preachy about camaraderie and cooperation, but simultaneously surface-level entertaining.

Or, at the very least, you won’t find it too similar to “Transformers.”

_MOVE gives “Pacific Rim” 4 out of 5 stars._