Hey now everyone, hope you’re all having a great day, and welcome to my review of Pacific Rim Uprising! When the original Pacific Rim came out I really enjoyed it, despite the fact that it wasn’t a great movie. It had an interesting visual style and combined giant mech suits with Godzilla type creatures in a way that I had never seen before. It also featured some of my favorite actors, and was directed by the great Guillermo del Toro. I think of these kinds of movies as candy, something that isn’t really good for you, but sometimes that’s what you’re in the mood for. Unfortunately it didn’t do well at the box office, and wasn’t well received by many people so it looked as though we would never get a sequel. But now years later one’s finally been made, so let’s get into it!
Pacific Rim Uprising is a science fiction action film directed by Steven S. DeKnight. This is his worldwide directing debut for the big screen and most of his previous work has been in television. It stars John Boyega as Jake Pentecost, son of Idris Alba’s character from the original, Charlie Day as Dr. Newt Geiszler, Scott Eastwood and Burn Gorman. I’m happy to see that Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are back to reprise their roles from the previous film, and they get a decent amount of screen time, but I was instantly bummed out when I found out that Guillermo del Toro is no longer the directer. He brought a lot of flavor to the original that made it special, and without him the movie loses some of it’s flare and signature visual style. There’s also a whole new group of young actors that round out the cast who are pretty good, especially one girl that the plot focuses on for a while.
Uprising takes place ten years after the events of the Battle of the Breach where the world is still dealing with the aftermath of those brutal Kaiju attacks.Ever since the portal has been closed there are no more Kaiju to worry about, but the world is still unstable. The Jaeger program is still up and running just in case and it keeps guard over the Pacific Ocean. The movie opens following Jake, John Boyega’s character, as he makes a living off stealing junked Jaeger scraps and selling them on the black market. One night while he’s off on a heist something goes wrong and he finds himself facing two options, go to jail, or join the Jaeger Program as an instructor. Obviously he chooses to become an instructor.
In the ten years that has passed since the events of the Kaiju attack Dr. Newt, played by Charlie Day, has become very wealthy. He has managed to start a private company that is in the process of building remote piloted drone Jaegers that would eliminate the need for anyone to endanger themselves. This would also make the Jaeger academy that watches over the Pacific Ocean obsolete. Before the drone Jaegers are operational there’s an attack in Sydney Australia by an unknown rouge Jaeger that is extremely powerful. It creates panic and does a lot of damage, but manages to escape into the ocean before the Jaeger academy can stop it. This makes the world even more unstable now, and the need for those drones to be up and running is greater then ever. This starts the hunt to track down this rouge unit and find out who is responsible for the attack.
There’s a lot more to the plot than that, with things escalating more and more, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll stop right there. Instead let’s talk about my experience watching this movie. For the most part I had a good time with Uprising, the pacing wasn’t bad, most of the characters were interesting and well done, which is a step up from the original. But this one chooses to focus more on the human side of things and you don’t get a whole lot of Kaiju action. There’s plenty of large scale battle sequences that are pretty spectacular, but it’s all Jaegers that fight each other for most of the film. You really don’t get any Kaijus until the third act, which was actually really good and where this felt closest to the original.
I liked Jake, John Boyega’s character, well enough and he gives a good performance that helps carry most of the movie’s weight. It’s definitely a huge step up from the original’s main character that I didn’t like at all. I was very happy to see Dr. Newt, Charlie Day, reprise his role as well as the other scientist, Burn Gorman. Charlie brings a welcome light heartedness to the serious, dramatic tone of the other characters, and it’s good to see some familiar faces that I liked from the original. The two of them do play a major role, although not what I expected, and that combined with good performances from the rest of the cast makes this movie an improvement in that department. I also thought the plot was interesting, and it even threw in some twists here and there to keep you on your toes. All in all the characters were well done and enjoyable.
The previous film knew how to give you enough action with the Kaijus and Jaegers to keep you engaged while fleshing out the humans in between. Uprising also does this to an extent, except it’s giant robot against giant robot for the majority of the running time. This is okay and it kind of gives the third act more of an impact when the Kaiju do finally show up, but the battles just aren’t as visually stunning or fun to watch as the ones from the original. Guillermo del Toro clearly put a lot of thought into the lighting and color palate that he chose to use making the battles a joy to watch. Uprising doesn’t have that same feel to it, and most of the fights happen in broad daylight taking away the unique style that del Toro created before. They definitely wanted to try something new here and focus less on the Kaiju, more on the human side of things, but the Kaiju are the real stars that people want to see.
As someone who enjoyed the first Pacific Rim, I can say that if you liked that one you’ll probably have a good time with this one too. I think they tried to give this universe more substance by making it less of a monster invasion story, but that’s why I liked the first one. I honestly just wanted to see the same kind of thing with better characters, and more interesting Kaiju running a muck destroying everything. The runtime is about 30 minutes less then the first, and the final act goes on for a while which is where it really picks up, so the pacing felt good. I recently watched it for a second time and liked it even more since I already knew what to expect. I think if you’re a fan of the original you will most likely enjoy this one, just keep your expectations low and have a good time with it. There’s plenty of fun to be had here and I don’t agree with the negative reviews that it’s been getting. It tried something different and made some improvements, but I could have used a lot more Kaiju. I give Pacific Rim Uprising a grade of…………………………………..
C+
Thank you for reading my review of Pacific Rim Uprising, I hope you enjoyed it!
Watched the first Pacific Rim and even though the ending of the first didnt look like it could allow for a sequel, its pretty awesome to know that the director knew how to twist the plot in such a way that it connects with the first. Totally gonna watch it 'cause I also love giant robot fights.
Dumbest awesome movie or the most awesome dumb movie.
(c) honest trailers
Watched the first Pacific Rim and even though the ending of the first didnt look like it could allow for a sequel, its pretty awesome to know that the director knew how to twist the plot in such a way that it connects with the first. Totally gonna watch it 'cause I also love giant robot fights.
If you are going through hell, keep going.