Pacific Rim: Uprising - Movie Review
After one of the best Hollywood films about giant fricking monsters against giant fricking robots came out in 2013, Pacific Rim finally gets its much-awaited sequel — Pacific Rim: Uprising. The core attraction remains the same with more big, fricking robots and even bigger monsters bashing it out and decimating cityscapes in their wake, but everything else is pretty much new.
We follow the story from the point of view of Jake Pentecost (John Boyega from the new Star Wars films) who is the son of the first instalment's badass, Stacker Pentecost (played by Idris Elba). It's a typical kid-under-the-shadow-of-his-dad's-legacy, one who saved the world at that. Ten years after the bridge was closed and the war was won, most of the destroyed coastal cities are still wastelands. Settlements of looters with barter exchange in place of a monetary system in order to acquire resources like food and shelter. Scavenging Jaegers (name of the giant frickin robots) for parts was the best way to find something quite valuable, especially with plenty of nutjobs itching to build their own monster-fighting robots. Something the main organization that builds the biggest bots with the best pilots, does not approve of. That's how Jake meets young Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) who built a single-person mini- Jaeger. They get caught by the authorities and to avoid prison time, Jake takes help of his sister Mako (Rinko Kikuchi from the first film who was the main female character) and they both get into the Jaeger program, Jake as a coach and the kid as a cadet. Amara faces a bit of young-talent-from-the-streets-among-those-who-have-worked-hard-to-get-there kind of friction in the background while Jake deals with his own troubles like why he wasn't an active Jaeger pilot anyway. Introduce his friend and colleague Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) for some good banter and a fabulously sharp jawline on the screen. Returning characters included Newton (Charlie Day) and Herman (Burn Gorman), so there was a good cast of actors to work with.
But with Guillermo del Toro taking a producer role to his hit's sequel, the entire movie falls to pieces in terms of plotlines, cuts, dialogue and general cringiness with director Steven S. DeKnight at the helm. Yes, the robot bashing scenes are as epic as expected though a bit overcrowded and not fully utilised in my opinion. Everything in between is difficult to sit through, something that was definitely done way better in the first instalment. I watched it in IMAX to make the most of the action scenes and metal bashing sound effects with heavy dubstep music, but the close-ups for all the cringey dialogues and even more painfully corny dramatic one-liners was a harrowing experience. Oh, and there is little to no explanation for the absence of Raleigh, the guy who actually delivered the finishing blow to the alien monster species. Or why the Kaiju didn't use the tactics they did last time to gain an advantage, like EMPs to neutralize the Jaeger tech. Or why the new lead Jaeger was called the Gypsy Avenger? There were just....*deep breath* so many things that just ground my gears as a fan of the first Pacific Rim film.
There are plenty of new faces too, of course, namely the big Chinese investor in Jaeger automation Liwen Shao (Tian Jing) and the new Jaeger cadets - Suresh (Karan Brar), Jinhai (Wesley Wong), Viktoria (Ivanna Sakhno), Ryoichi (Mackenyu), Meilin (Lily Ji), Renata (Shyrley Rodriguez), Tahima (Rahrat Adams) and Ilya (Levi Maeden). A diverse group of characters indeed.
Guillermo del Toro is what this movie needed, as more than a producer, and that is why this film is quite a disappointing sequel. Even with John Boyega, epic robot bashing fight scenes and cool weapons... Pacific Rim Uprising is not worth the ticket price. Watch it on a streaming service online when available so you can fast forward all the worst bits. There will be a third part to this series if they can get the money for it, which I believe they won't make from the box office but rather from the merchandise. I know I'd love to get my hands on some Jaeger and Kaiju stuff, as would millions of others worldwide. The movie, however, gets a rating of 3 scoops of ice cream out of 11.
We follow the story from the point of view of Jake Pentecost (John Boyega from the new Star Wars films) who is the son of the first instalment's badass, Stacker Pentecost (played by Idris Elba). It's a typical kid-under-the-shadow-of-his-dad's-legacy, one who saved the world at that. Ten years after the bridge was closed and the war was won, most of the destroyed coastal cities are still wastelands. Settlements of looters with barter exchange in place of a monetary system in order to acquire resources like food and shelter. Scavenging Jaegers (name of the giant frickin robots) for parts was the best way to find something quite valuable, especially with plenty of nutjobs itching to build their own monster-fighting robots. Something the main organization that builds the biggest bots with the best pilots, does not approve of. That's how Jake meets young Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) who built a single-person mini- Jaeger. They get caught by the authorities and to avoid prison time, Jake takes help of his sister Mako (Rinko Kikuchi from the first film who was the main female character) and they both get into the Jaeger program, Jake as a coach and the kid as a cadet. Amara faces a bit of young-talent-from-the-streets-among-those-who-have-worked-hard-to-get-there kind of friction in the background while Jake deals with his own troubles like why he wasn't an active Jaeger pilot anyway. Introduce his friend and colleague Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) for some good banter and a fabulously sharp jawline on the screen. Returning characters included Newton (Charlie Day) and Herman (Burn Gorman), so there was a good cast of actors to work with.
But with Guillermo del Toro taking a producer role to his hit's sequel, the entire movie falls to pieces in terms of plotlines, cuts, dialogue and general cringiness with director Steven S. DeKnight at the helm. Yes, the robot bashing scenes are as epic as expected though a bit overcrowded and not fully utilised in my opinion. Everything in between is difficult to sit through, something that was definitely done way better in the first instalment. I watched it in IMAX to make the most of the action scenes and metal bashing sound effects with heavy dubstep music, but the close-ups for all the cringey dialogues and even more painfully corny dramatic one-liners was a harrowing experience. Oh, and there is little to no explanation for the absence of Raleigh, the guy who actually delivered the finishing blow to the alien monster species. Or why the Kaiju didn't use the tactics they did last time to gain an advantage, like EMPs to neutralize the Jaeger tech. Or why the new lead Jaeger was called the Gypsy Avenger? There were just....*deep breath* so many things that just ground my gears as a fan of the first Pacific Rim film.
There are plenty of new faces too, of course, namely the big Chinese investor in Jaeger automation Liwen Shao (Tian Jing) and the new Jaeger cadets - Suresh (Karan Brar), Jinhai (Wesley Wong), Viktoria (Ivanna Sakhno), Ryoichi (Mackenyu), Meilin (Lily Ji), Renata (Shyrley Rodriguez), Tahima (Rahrat Adams) and Ilya (Levi Maeden). A diverse group of characters indeed.
Guillermo del Toro is what this movie needed, as more than a producer, and that is why this film is quite a disappointing sequel. Even with John Boyega, epic robot bashing fight scenes and cool weapons... Pacific Rim Uprising is not worth the ticket price. Watch it on a streaming service online when available so you can fast forward all the worst bits. There will be a third part to this series if they can get the money for it, which I believe they won't make from the box office but rather from the merchandise. I know I'd love to get my hands on some Jaeger and Kaiju stuff, as would millions of others worldwide. The movie, however, gets a rating of 3 scoops of ice cream out of 11.
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