The original Pacific Rim (directed by Oscar Winner Guillermo Del Toro) was first released nearly five years ago. Based on the exhaustion of giant robot action flicks and the busy schedule of its director, I thought we’d never see a sequel to my favorite guilty pleasure of 2013. Yet, here we are.
Steven DeKnight (Netflix’s Daredevil, Spartacus) takes on directing reins in this sequel that picks up the original’s story after 10 years. The world has been free of Kaiju attacks for a decade, but the military keeps a limited focus on training Jaeger pilots. Meanwhile, Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) has disregarded the legacy of his father, Stacker, and stayed under the radar of the military. However, a new threat arises and Jake must answer the call and… well…. cancel the apocalypse.
The regular cast is either featured in a small way or at least mentioned. Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman all star to varying degrees. Notably, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) is nowhere to be seen, but gets two mentions. That said, Boyega is a better lead, more suited for the camp this movie requires. He shows a fair amount of charisma that is nowhere to be seen in the Star Wars flicks. Honestly, his role in Pacific Rim is much better written than that of SW’s Finn.
The story in Uprising is…interesting. It’s bland, but also moves the plot of the franchise along and doesn’t match the first movie note for note. Certains characters are developed in surprising ways and the mythology of this universe is moved forward, instead of just repeating the standard formula that could have so easily and lazily be replicated.
The odd thing about Uprising is that it is almost the opposite of the 2013 movie. The original movie brought something that Michael Bay could never dream of with his never-ending Transformers flicks. The action brought something new that was so incredibly fun to watch in IMAX. It showcased spectacle and was a thrill to watch because it wasn’t dark metal fighting dark metal. You could actually see the visual difference of a giant robot vs giant monster fighting in the streets. The first movie totally delivered on an anime lover’s dream of a live action big-budget mech movie. And it doubled down on that fact, by having completely cringe worthy acting and dialogue in the non-action scenes.
Uprising flips the switch. The dialogue is slightly better and everything, outside of the junior Jaeger cadets, works well. Without Boyega, this might be a different situation, but he elevates the material and keeps it watchable. On the flip side, the action is completely uninspired. I’m sure the studio didn’t want to risk as much budget (PacRim budget $190M/PacRim2 budget $150M), but you can tell as the fighting scenes comes off as animated.
Also, Uprising falls into the Transformers trap by focusing on robot-on-robot action. It’s difficult to root for anyone, when all you see is metal clashing. The Kaiju are an afterthought, only truly appearing in the climax.
I’m reading that last paragraph again and I promise I wasn’t going for a robot euphemism.
Pacific Rim Uprising is truly a movie for 10 year olds who want a fun and loud live-action cartoon. There’s enjoyment to be had for sure, and it’s worth the popcorn. However, it forgets about the spectacle that made the first one stand out. C
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