Review of Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) by Mh280 — 27 Mar 2018

Ok, I'm going to be clear on this one, I adore Pacific Rim. The combination of giant robots and giant monsters makes PR an awesome movie. Add a great cast of characters and you have a very enjoyable movie. And this makes me even more disappointed with Pacific Rim Uprising.

PR Uprising (henceforth referred to as Uprising) tries its best to captivate audiences like its previous movie. Unfortunately it falls flat.

Characters and Jeagers.

John Boyega played as the main character Jake Pentecost in Uprising, and did a really good job at it. I'm not too familiar with the other actors but they were also pretty good, not amazing, but good enough that it wasn't terrible. The characters themselves however were pretty forgettable, and the director should have stuck with Jake and Lambert's story and relationship as they piloted Gypsy Avenger (similar to the development we see in the previous movie).

The Jeagers on the other hand, I have some issues with. In the first movie they were big and bulky, every movement they made gave the impression and highlighted the fact that these were 80 metre tall machines that weighed thousands of tonnes. Each one had a unique detail that made them memorable; Gypsy Danger had had the chest reactor, Striker Erika had the air missiles, Cherno Alpha had the huge, hydraulic fists and Crimson Typhoon had the three arms and three pilots (Something that was said to be very difficult, I'll get back to this later). In this movie however some either feel like re-skins of previous Jeagers or had no unique feature; Gypsy Avenger was basically an updated Gypsy Danger with nothing really special to add, Sabre Athena used swords and was pretty manoeuvrable, but this makes no difference because EVERY OTHER JEAGER HAD BLADED WEAPONS, except for Guardian Bravo. Speaking of which, Guardian Bravo had an electro-whip, something he uses once and utterly fails at it. Bracer Phoenix has to be my favourite, due to its design keeping to the classic, big and bulky stile of the original with some pretty cool chest cannons, however it's let down by the nonsensical morning star and the three pilot link, which wasn't original and made no sense in context. Overall, the Jeagers feel like a step back from the previous movie.

The Story.

The story made no sense. It was convoluted and did not tie in to the original, despite how hard it tried. Also, the villain was the worst, period. Without spoiling, they tried to pull off an epic twist that just fell flat.

The Action.

The action was pretty forgettable, instead of having distinct locations with distinct scenes, the action felt unoriginal and forgettable. In PR each fight scene had something unique, from the ship in the Hong Kong battle, to the death of Yancy Becket in the beginning. In the new movie, aside from the battle in Sydney and the Battle in the Arctic, nothing felt either fun or captivating like in the original. And, funnily enough, the previously mentioned fights were against Jeager Obsidian Fury and not the Kaiju, in a movie about killing Kaiju.

The Humour.

The humour was bland and outdated. I only found myself laughing or giggling in excitement during the fight scenes, but it was never at any of the jokes. Also, using the Trol song is just outdated, it was an epic killer of an otherwise pretty tense scene.

Animation.

Animation? Isn't this live action? It is, but a lot of animation is required for the movement of the Jeagers. In the first movie, every movement by the Jeager reflected its giant mass and size, from punching, running and even jumping, the camera would shake a little, reminding the viewer that these machines were huge and powerful. Uprising does not do this, the Jeagers, whilst visually stunning (design wise not so much) felt too human and too light. I know this movie is set 10 years after the original, but even so there are no visual cues or anything that maintain the viewers suspension of disbelief and, dare I say, immersion.

Conclusion and TL;DR.

Overall, I didn't hate Uprising, but I did leave the cinema feeling disappointed. Uprising certainly didn't live up to the original either through bad dialogue or poorly designed Jeagers, and for the sequel I hope Guillermo del Toro jumps back on as director, as it seems Steven S DeKnight has botched this one up very badly.