Pacific Rim: Uprising Review
PG-13: Sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language.
Universal Pictures, Legendary Pictures
1 Hr and 50 Minutes
Dir: Steven S. DeKnight | Writer: Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, Steven S. DeKnight, T.S. Nowlin
Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Rinko Kikuchi, Jing Tian, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Adria Arjona
INTRO: Robots Vs. Monsters. Guillermo Del Toro brought it back in 2013 with Pacific Rim, a film people unitedly said “meh” to. I mean, when the film came out, it wasn’t only a bomb in the states, but it suffered a box office loss to the likes of Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups 2.
Now we have Pacific Rim: Uprising, a sequel that doesn’t have Del Toro at the helm but, luckily, doesn’t have to compete with Sandler. This time around it has to dethrone “Black Panther” from the #1 spot. In other words, this film is fucked.
Ten years after the Battle of the Breach, the oceans have become restless once again, but the Jaeger program has evolved into the next generation for the PPDC. However, a mysterious organization has reopened the Breach for the Kaiju and a Jaeger has gone rogue. Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, rises up to stand against the evolved Kaiju and the mysterious rogue Jaeger, Obsidian Fury, to prevent humanity's extinction and preserve his father’s legacy.
THE GOOD
It is quite fitting to have Boyega as the son of Idris Elba. For the sake of this sequel, he does look and sound like a potential Elba offspring, though he also does share a lot of facial attributes with Denzel Washington. Even the way he portrays Jake is the same way Denzel carries himself in a lot of his roles; the only difference is that Boyega is British. This is the first film since Attack the Block where we hear Boyega in his native British accent.
I give Uprising this: never once was there a moment I missed Charlie Hunnam or Rinko Kikuchi (who returns here only for a hot minute, thankfully). Boyega doesn’t only have screen presence, but he can actually ACT! No offense to Hunnam but, in the predecessor, I felt nothing towards his character because his performance was just deadpan. Boyega has enough charisma and charm to lead a movie on his own and he delivers it on all cylinders.
Uprising actually provides successions Del Toro failed to implement, like well-written characters with depth and chemistry. For the most part, Jake is paired with a rebellious teenage girl named Amara (played by Cailee Spaeny). Jake and Amara are a dynamic duo and they spark a fun older-brother-little-sister bond throughout the film.
Granted, I’m not much of a fan of CG destruction fests, especially when it has to do with big ass robots in cities (thank you Michael Bay), but thankfully Steven DeKnight is a competent director who knows what the hell he is doing. I wasn’t a huge fan of Del Toro’s Pacific Rim because the action sequences all took place late at night. I hate the Transformers movies because, not only are they painstakingly a chore to sit through, but you also can’t decipher most of the action half the time. DeKnight fixes this common directorial mistake in his feature film directorial debut by making his action sequences clear to look at and providing bright settings. Here, the majority of the action takes place in the bright daytime. What I’m trying to say is:
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN HAS GONE!
In terms of story structure, this is a much better film than its previous installment. On a technical level, this comes nowhere close to the predecessor. This may be because WB put a shit ton of money into the original’s budget, but Universal didn’t provide this sequel the same courtesy. I MEAN, BOTH FILMS COST OVER 150 MILLION DOLLARS TO MAKE, but I guess 190 is more effective than 150. Yet, last year’s Colossal was made on a 15-million-dollar budget and the effects in that indie movie looked more detailed than either Pacific Rim film. It is quite unfortunate because there are several effect shots that just look unfinished or not fully rendered.
The CG ain’t perfect but that doesn’t mean the action isn’t a blast. My brain was turned on and I was still able to have a good time. As I said, I’m not a fan of the big CG spectacle involving pure city destruction, but I will forgive this because the main essence of Pacific Rim was inspired by old-fashioned Kaiju monster movies Del Toro loved and you get bits of homages to those here, too.
THE BAD
One of the best things that work in this film’s favor is its pacing. But, at the same time, it’s a negative due to consistently stupid moments, especially when the film focuses on the rangers. For example, Amara is recruited as a cadet the first day when she gets arrested. Then, for some reason, her peers and commanding officers give her shit. Bitch, the girl just got there. Why are they such hard asses on her?! The same thing happens to Jake where he is also recruited as a ranger, but his partner Nate (played by Scott Eastwood) gives him shit because he is a slacker and has no resemblance to his heroic father.
Speaking of Eastwood, he was one of the only characters in this who barely has any kind of a personality. None of the kids outside of Amara has a personality either, but Eastwood is as bland as you can get. Remember his character of Eric or “Little Nobody” in Fate of the Furious and how he was supposed to be the Paul Walker replacement? Well, his character of Nate is pretty much a copied-and-pasted version of Eric but, instead of driving a car, he’s driving a robot!
When Charlie Day comes in the movie sorta takes a bizarre turn. In the predecessor, he was the comic relief. Here, he’s the character that the audience remembers from the first movie and, for the most part, he’s obnoxious. Once the film reveals a plot thread involving his character and his behavior, you can easily predict his role for the remainder of the film.
THE RENDY
Dear studio films that are either an existing franchise or trying to become a franchise:
STOP TRYING TO SET YOUR CURRENT FILM UP FOR A SEQUEL AND CALL YOUR ENDING AN ENDING!
For some reason, every film I’ve been seeing recently tends to have a conclusion that confidently goes, “GET READY FOR THE SEQUEL!”
NO! You can’t just do that! Can’t studio blockbusters just have an ambiguous ending that suggests a sequel instead of boldly going, “Hey, we’re going to have a part 2!”? It happened in Tomb Raider, and now it’s present in Uprising. You don’t know how your box office will turn out. You can probably turn out to be a bomb and your confident sequel will never come into fruition so in the end you’ll look like a huge dumbass!
Seriously, you don’t wanna end up like this girl.
Bless your soul if you either get the joke or survived this movie.
LAST STATEMENT
Dumb but constantly fun, "Pacific Rim: Uprising" fixes the shortcomings of the predecessor by providing a charismatic lead, clear and cool action sequences, and well-written characters — even if it doesn’t have the detailed effects that made the action epic.
Rating: 3/5 | 68%
uper Scene: Amara’s backstory.
