Pacific Rim Uprising

Ten years have passed since The Battle of the Breach.  The war with the Kaiju is long over but humanity remains diligent, anticipating the return of the monsters who nearly destroyed their planet.  Jake Pentacost, son of the Kaiju Wars greatest hero, is summoned back into service to train the next generation of Jaeger pilots.  And it looks like they’ll all get their chance to prove their worth sooner than later as the overlords of the Kaiju, the Precursors, begin their latest attack, using our own technology against us.  We thought the war was over, but the true battle is only just beginning.

Pacific Rim was a rare feat for the world of movies.  After years of begging, pleading and praying, we finally got the giant robot vs giant monster rumble fest we’d always wanted since we’d seen our first Godzilla movie.  It wasn’t a perfect flick (the story could have been better) but where the visuals and action were concerned, Pacific Rim did its job beautifully.  Best of all, it felt very self contained.  After all, the good guys won in the end, right?  No more Kaiju coming to Earth…so what were they going to do for the sequel?  Apparently they decided to focus mostly on everything that didn’t work in the first film…and make that worse, although some of Uprising does work when it wants too. 

One thing that sets Uprising apart from its predecessor immedietley is the visual effects.  Under the direction of Guillermo del Toro, the original Pacific Rim’s mechs were detailed to a T.  You felt the size, scale and intimacy of each mecha, right down to all the moving gears when it took a single step.  You felt the power of each punch it threw, the impact it took from a Kaiju hit.  Whether he wants to admit where he borrowed some inspirations from or not, Del Toro watched a lot of giant robot anime and knew what parts of it he wanted to look at the deepest and it showed.  Pacific Rim Uprising takes less cues from Anime and more from Michael Bay’s Transformers travesty…that alone should speak volumes as to how not as great a visual film Uprising is compared to it’s predecessor.  Sure some of the action is kind of flashy and im happy the Jaegers move a bit faster and have some neat abilities.  But at the end of the day, the action moves too fast to keep up with and you have a hard time making out who is hitting what and why you should even care.  You know it’s something when Godzilla Final Wars has better battles of titans (mecha, Kaiju or otherwise) compared to a big budget blockbuster Hollywood sequel.  Which is a shame because I do like the director.  Steven S. DeKnight has shown he can do some great action, being the showrunner of both Spartacus and the first season of Daredevil.  Here, he’s missing his magic a bit and any semblance of magic that made the first Pacific Rims epic battles so magical. 

Whereas the first Pacific Rim had a so-so story with some good world elements to build upon, Uprising feels like a case of throwing darts at the dart board and seeing what sticks: the return of the Kaiju, rival Jaeger building companies, the next generation of Top Gun Jaeger Pilots, further exploring the psyches of the Kaiju and their masters.  All of those and more get thrown into a blender to churn out a story that is pretty boring, hardly engaging and entirely forgettable.  The fact that that same lack of energy sometimes carries into the fights is a bad thing as well.  Most films you can forgive a bad story that just serves as a way of getting from one fight to the next, if the action is good and as I mentioned above…it’s just meh.  Then there’s the main cast.   Only three characters return from the first film, one of whom isn’t around that long.  There are beefed up roles for scientists Newt and Herman but theyre not as great as they were before.  The new generation isn’t very memorable and isn’t really given enough time to stand out.  The only ones who do are John Boyega’s Jake Pentacost and Callie Spaeny’s Amara Namani.  Boyega’s star continues to shine beyond Star Wars and he’s got the charm and chops to be a good leading man, making his scenes stand out even when the movie feels low on gas.  Spaeny is a good pair up, bringing spunk and humor as a Jaeger junkie who knows her facts and how to build them and she bounces off Jake perfectly.  They’re a good successor duo to Raleigh and Mako.  BTW Mako does return and her scenes with Jake (her step brother) are pretty good too, so it’s criminal they don’t have a lot of time together. 

While Pacific Rim Uprising ends on the promise of the fight continuing, I cant really see any reason to come back to this universe besides a random visit to the better made first film.  Visually Uprising isn’t quite Transformers leftovers like Battleship but it is nowhere near as majestic and deep as the first film.  John Boyega is the hero this franchise deserves but he can only do so much on his own (though he rises to the occasion).  In the end, I didn’t think Pacific Rim needed a sequel and I still don’t even after watching Pacific Rim Uprising.  For certain, I know we don’t need a third film.  Could we just get Del Toro back in the directors chair and have him make Voltron vs. Godzilla and bring along John Boyega and Callie Spaeny along for the ride?  That would be better time spent. 

5/10