Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Atlantic Rim'

Written by Scott Edwards

The ocean is still one of the most fascinating things on the planet, mostly because we still do not know everything about it. Being deeper than we can explore, it would be fascinating to see what creatures would be able to live in such an environment.  While the topside of the water looks beautiful and most of the time peaceful, what lurks under the waves is what truly piques our curiosity. Next to space, this is the exploration that we should follow through on, especially since it is our planet and we should know everything about it before it is too late.

Oil rigs are going missing off of the gulf coast and there does not seem to be any obvious reason as to why this is happening. As Admiral Hadley is being asked to investigate this, he calls in his M Bots that have been designed to search and rescue, but this is deeper than they have ever been before. Falling to the bottom of the ocean, the team of Red, Tracey and Jim stumble upon a ship graveyard like none ever seen before.  With images being sent back to the command center, the three detect something else on their radar, something big. Searching through the depths of the ocean, they see a large creature swimming around them and choose to pursue, but the Admiral orders their suits to be turned off so they can find out what they are up against. 

Getting out of signal range, Red chases the beast onto the main land, but he is too late. As the creature is much faster than him and normal firearms have no effect on it, Red is able to come up with a way to defeat it in his slower suit. Red is seen as a hero and now the suits have a new purpose, monster killing, but not everyone is happy with the outcome. Disobeying orders, Red gets reprimanded, but also earns a medal for saving the city. Still, nobody knows what exactly is going on in the depths of the ocean. While scanning the ocean bed where they located the first creature, a team of scientists find that there are eggs ready to hatch and unleash hell on earth once again. Attacking the Navy base, another creature is driven back into the water by a bombing run, but that only makes it angry and it moves up the coast line to a quieter place, Manhattan. 

With some calling for a nuclear strike to take place on this monster before it kills many more people, the Admiral wants to wait and see what happens with his group in the M Bots. With a new interface that will make the suits move faster and more efficient, the group is ready to go into battle once again. Red is fully prepared to lead his friends into what should be an incredible fight but knows that if something goes wrong, innocent people will lose their lives. With their weapons depleted and their suits running low on fuel, the group knows that time is running out and with word that a nuclear missile is being deployed their way, it is only a few minutes before they could all be killed. Calling upon their training to take the beast down is simply not enough as the group has found a nasty side effect of the interface that causes them pain as their suits get hit. With only minutes to spare, someone will have to step up and be the hero to not only save themselves, but the world from the beast that has decided it likes to tear down cities. 

At first glance, this movie really seems to be all about the battles between the M Bots and the sea monsters that have decided that now is a good time to surface and destroy things, but it does go a little deeper than that. With the battle for command between the Admiral and Geise who is wanting to end the fight no matter the cost, it seems like maturity might be a big side note when all is said and done. Then you have Red who never wants to have anyone tell him what to do, especially when it comes to celebrating his own victories. Even when he says that it is for everyone, it is really all about him and his needs. I must admit that I really liked Jim’s character throughout the movie, especially because he is the voice of reason that tries to keep the group grounded, even when he has bad news to pass on. Teamwork, Trust, Maturity, Monsters, Big Ass Robots, I don’t know what else to say, it is a fun little story.

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