Review of Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) by Eric P — 24 Mar 2018

If I had to rank the first Pacific Rim it would be an 8 out of 10. This sequel I would rate 6 out of 10. By that ranking it means this movie is better than average, but not as good as it should have been.

Here is what made this movie not as good as the first one:

1. The character of Amara Namani played by the young actress Cailee Spaeny was annoying as *&#!. She enters the movie as a disrespectful and smug know-it-all kid who tries to one-up all of the adults who are way more experienced than her. Then, they try to soften her character and make her sweet and innocent by the end of the film, but it just doesn't work. She comes off as annoying, bratty, and completely grating. The actress is good, but not the character. She's also supposed to have built her own mini Jaeger all by herself, including mastering the digital interface and the neural network, but displays total astonishment when the thing she built actually worked. Yes, the movie is a fantasy, but when the characters aren't behaving in believable ways it can destroy the realism that fans want to experience.

2. The Jaeger fights were great, and the CGI was fantastic, but people came to this movie expecting epic Jaeger/Kaiju battles, But we only got one at the end of the movie. Yes, it's a pretty cool battle, and what happens with the Kaiju is pretty cool, but there was no reason to make the audience wait the entire movie before seeing it.

3. Too many actors and actresses in this movie have heavy accents which makes it difficult for some to understand parts of the dialogue.

Despite these issues the movie was still rather good, and I would gladly see it again and would recommend it to my sci-fi & fantasy-loving friends. It's not a high-class movie and probably won't win any awards, it's just an enjoyable ride to share with a friend or two in the theater.