Review of Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) by Jarvis — 07 Jan 2019

This movie isn't just an insult to fans of the original, it's an insult to cinema as a whole. Uprising has a completely different aesthetic than it's predecessor and that's not a good thing. The original Pacific Rim was able to feel realistic and captivating, despite it's ridiculous concept. And a lot of that came from director Guillermo del Toro's commitment to pseudo realism. He can take any ludicrous concept and make it feel real. That's not a common talent, and yet you would expect the director of this sequel, Steven Deknight to at least try his best to replicate that feel. But surprise surprise, he doesn't. This entire movie feels like a cartoon, all sense of scale and weight from the first movie are thrown out the window in favor of cartoonish antics which pull you out of the narrative. Most of the Jeager Pilots in this movie are literal teenagers, showing just how little the filmmakers cared about the original movie. This film was designed by focus groups, not artists, and it reflects very poorly on the final product. To make it even worse, the film feels like it was designed to ruin the universe the first movie established. One of the main characters in the first film has been reduced to a villain for no reason, but that's not nearly as bad as how this piece of trash then decides it would be a good idea to cram one of the leads in the first movie into the first act, have them show no emotion or semblance of character, and then kill them off, and act like it was nothing.

Finally, the action is just useless. There is more of it in this one than the original, but there is no effort put into its' choreography. Fights are slow paced and uncreative, there are no distinctive weapons or abilities used, (none that mean anything anyway). There is no effort put into making any of the hits feel strong or impactful,the fights aren't nearly as visceral or captivating as the first one's. All around this is an abysmal movie with no redeeming qualities, anything that looks good in this garbage heap has been done better by other movies.