Guillermo del Toro’s monsters versus robots epic "Pacific Rim" is awesome. Not the kind of awesome as adapted by Jeff Spicoli and the rest of the ’80s to simply a longer version of "cool."

No, "Pacific Rim" is the kind of awesome that actually inspires awe and turns grown adults into giddy 12-year-olds, and not merely because the massively scaled monster-on-robot boxing matches deliver on the promise of their concept. It’s blockbuster entertainment at its most enthusiastic, passionate and contagiously joyful.

An opening montage and voiceover (these are never going away, are they?) from Raleigh Becket, played by the not-quite-magnetic but sufficiently heroic Charlie Hunnam, explains the situation. In the future, a dimensional rift in the Pacific Ocean opened and out popped massive malformed, neon-detailed dinosaurs-on-steroids called Kaiju.

They decimated a few cities before the human race fought back with massive robots called Jaegers, controlled by a duo of pilots joined together in a neural link.

The neural link, a "handshake" that forces the pilots to share memories, is actually one of the most interesting story components I’ve seen this year. If "Pacific Rim" gets a sequel (which, considering its disappointing tracking numbers, is not looking good, but I’ve been proven wrong before), I’d love to see this aspect of the story get more attention.

As it stands, it’s a fascinating concept that gives context to one of the film’s best sequences: a beautiful, horrifying trip into a pilot’s childhood memory.

Anyways, back to the story: Becket used to be a Jaeger pilot, but after his brother died right next to him on a mission (thanks to the mental connection, he felt all of his brother’s desperation), he’s resigned himself to helping build one of the government-mandated walls that are taking the place of the Jaegers.

With funding gone and the fate of the globe at risk, Jaeger commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba, with an on-screen presence big and powerful enough to rival his giant mechanical co-stars) recruits Becket to help the last remaining Jaegers on a final mission to collapse the dimensional rift.

Before they head out, however, he must learn to mentally bond with his newbie Jaeger partner Mako (Rinko Kikuchi, Oscar-nominated for "Babel"), who has her own dark memories to fight through.

A secondary comic relief plot involving two nerds (Burn Gorman at full ham, Charlie Day at full squawk) and a one-eyed black market monster organ dealer named Hannibal Chau (these names are really too great) played by Ron Perlman makes for an amusing dumping ground for del Toro’s bizarre, creature-obsessed and kitschy imagination.

No one could ever say this isn’t del Toro’s film. However, the comedy is hit-and-miss, and the final result of their Hong Kong underworld hunt doesn’t contribute all that much to the main story besides a slight wrinkle.

The simple story and characters, from del Toro and co-writer Travis Beacham, are the film’s big glowing weak spots. The story and arcs are pretty standard, and there’s not a whole lot of momentum for the main goal of the film.

None of this is lethal to enjoying "Pacific Rim." While the characters and story are simple, they are functional, and there’s enough of a trace of humanity. Hunnam isn’t a captivating actor, but he and the far more interesting Kikuchi (let’s just take a moment and try to think of the last major movie to have an Asian actress in one of the lead roles … ) have a decent partner chemistry together.

As previously mentioned, Elba instantly captures the audience’s attention whenever he hits the screen. When somebody grabs his arm to get his attention, his reaction is tough-guy perfection.

All of these characters exist in a near-future universe that, as dreamt up and created by del Toro, manages to feel unique and colorful, while also lived-in. You get the impression that life in "Pacific Rim" – whether it’s at the wall or inside the Jaegers’ Hong Kong base, called the Shatterdome, the second-manliest title behind the Testosterdome – doesn’t stop when the director yells cut. It may be a live-action cartoon, but it’s a cartoon made with a distinctly human touch.

But let’s get to the main event: the giant monster-on-giant robot deathmatches, which are nothing short of incredible. The scale is mesmerizing, and seeing these gigantic creations slosh through the water and stomp through cities is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Then they start fighting in a tense, swirling flurry of majestic, colorful and detail-filled action, gorgeously and thrillingly captured by del Toro and his cinematographer Guillermo Navarro. Punches get extra power through rockets tucked in their elbows. Robo-swords get unsheathed. It’s both a visual and visceral wonder.

And unlike this summer’s previous epic punch-up in "Man of Steel," there’s still a sense of vulnerability to these giant creations that gives each hit some real ferocious force. Zack Snyder’s film could also take some lessons from the treatment of destruction. A few moments to at least acknowledge evacuations, emergency shelters and attempts to stop city-wide carnage go a long way.

On a few occasions, del Toro gets a bit too close to the action, but these moments are few and far between. Otherwise, "Pacific Rim" delivers some of the most spectacular action sequences of the summer, including a fight in a rainy Hong Kong centerpiece that had me in gleeful fits of excited, childish giggles.

And really, that’s what del Toro is going for with "Pacific Rim." Though he’s flirted with dark content ("Pan’s Labyrinth"), the director has never lost his youthful imagination and sensibilities, and that’s not a negative. He’s gone on record to say his goal is to introduce elements like Kaiju and mecha robots to a younger generation, and I think it certainly achieves that goal (it’s the complete opposite of last weekend’s "The Lone Ranger" in that parents should have no qualms taking kids).

At the same time, it’s a well-crafted reintroduction for older audiences to that same sense of amazement that may be childlike, but as presented in "Pacific Rim," never juvenile. It recaptures the wonder I had watching "Power Rangers" or "Star Wars" as a kid before I became old enough to realize it was fake. A time before every hero had to be conflicted and brooding because audiences became too cynical for pure heroism. A time before audiences demanded more realism in our escapism.

I’m not saying these things are always bad. "The Dark Knight," the modern poster child for the dark, realistic blockbuster, is one of my favorite movies of all time. Cinema can’t help but reflect the times, and we currently live in a new world of seemingly constant threat, moral complications and the knowledge that being a superpower isn’t as simple or easy as we’d like to think.

I’ll stop prattling on now because I think I’m getting dangerously close to saying "Pacific Rim" is a perfect film and possibly the cure to cancer (it is neither). I will say that my inner 12-year-old and my outer 23-year-old both happily got lost in del Toro’s exuberant imagination and came to the same conclusion: That was awesome.