4. Pacific Rim
An homage to both the kaiju and mecha movie genres, Pacific Rim is a movie that intends to appeal to each of our inner 10-year-olds; after all, what kid wouldn't want to watch gigantic sea monsters getting smacked down by huge-ass robots? Another of del Toro's evident passion projects, Pacific Rim may not quite be the masterpiece many of us had been hoping for - the script is at times woeful and there's too much downtime between action sequences - but it does (eventually) deliver on its promise of outrageous action and B-movie silliness. More so than even his Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim is a big, bold, beautiful adventure; the various fights between the monsters certainly linger in the mind longer than the characters, but then that's sort of the point. Thankfully, del Toro embraces the silly tone throughout - in fact, often a little too much - and smartly brings frequent collaborator Ron Perlman in for a fun - if disappointingly brief - appearance as well. While it doesn't reach the zenith of the monster movie genre, it is certainly a crowd-pleasing, albeit slightly excessive effort.