I’m going to confess it. I am not a fan of most of the recent horror or monster movies (with the exception of Cabin in the Woods). There’s just too much splat and gore for me. But in this house there’s no escaping kaiju movies (for the uninitiated, that’s Godzilla and friends). My husband has loved them since he was a kid and he has loved sharing them with our kids. As scary movies go, they’re not too terrifying. I mean, how scary can a guy in a rubber suit really be, especially when you’re sitting in Daddy’s lap?

Movies today are a different story. CGI effects allow moviemakers to make truly frightening creatures that actually look like they could be real. There aren’t many kaiju books, and really, with kaiju, the moving picture is worth a thousand words. And movies today have a lot more foul language, sexual content, and graphic violence. With Daddy desperate to see Pacific Rim, the brand new kaiju movie, on opening weekend, the question became, with two kaiju loving kids who also dart from the room anytime they sense potential violence onscreen, should we take them to see Pacific Rim? The reviewer at Dread Central said, “This is a movie for everyone! Bring your kids”! (see the entire review here) Geek parents on Facebook told me it was a great movie for geek kids, depending on the kid. Movie Mom loved it but brought up that there was intense violence and mild profanity (see her review here). Common Sense Media also mentioned the intense violence and suggested it for ages 12 and older (review here). And it is a movie rated PG-13. My kids are 6 and 7. Would the “intense violence” overwhelm their excitement about seeing a brand-new kaiju movie with their dad? We decided to risk it. Was it worth it? Absolutely. They were swept away by the battles between the giant robots and giant monsters. In fact, on reflection, my daughter(who kept her eyes tightly closed during the bear scene in Brave) said she loved the “cool” glowing monster tongues. Frankly, I was more concerned about what they saw in the trailers that preceded the movie than what was in the movie itself.

I loved it too, and that’s really saying something. While I deeply admire the original Godzilla movie, I have a big problem with the representation of women as mainly love interests or passive victims in most of the early science fiction and horror movies. But while this movie failed the Bechdel test. it did have one of the most awesome female characters I have seen in a long time. It is true that I don’t get out to the movies much, but Mako Mori is my new favorite character in monster movies. In spite of an overprotective father figure and her own traumatic memories, Mako Mori is one of a very few pilots, the best in the world, who save humanity from extinction by giant monster. And she does it without ever getting romantically involved with her opposite-sex partner. While it’s implied at the end of the movie that a romance may devleop, she and her partner make it through the entire movie, working together and sharing memories and feelings, without even a kiss. I’m in love with Mako Mori, and my daughter saw a hero, a capable woman, who helped to save the world.

When you are considering taking your kids out to a movie that has monsters or extreme violence, I think it’s really important to consult multiple sources (I wouldn’t have used any of the three reviews I cited above on its own to make the decision), and to know your kids well enough to make the decision about whether to take them. You can’t depend on movie ratings for much, anymore. Had this movie had extreme gore or “adult situations” we would never have considered taking the kids. But it is worth the time to research it, if you have a monster-loving family.