Title – Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Director – Steven S. DeKnight (feature debut)
Cast – John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Rinko Kikuchi
Plot – 15 years after the events of the first Pacific Rim, the Kaiju threat is back with Jake Pentecost (Boyega) charged with entering out from his dad’s shadow and saving the world thanks to the use of the Jaeger machines.
“Don’t mess with my toppings, man”
Review by Eddie on 22/11/2018
I’m not sure there’s too many people out there who would call Guillermo Del Toro’s 2013 robot/monster infused popcorn event Pacific Rim a classic of any sort but the eye-candy clad and seriously entertaining experience looks like a genuine masterpiece when placed alongside this charmless and trite sequel.
Somehow turning the prospect of giant robots and oversized monsters going at each other in a battle of life and death into an utterly boring and tiresome exercise, Pacific Rim: Uprising is the early death knell to a series that should’ve been a brand name that became the perfect excuse to turn your brain off and enjoy some big screen spectacle that is home to cheesy one liners, over the top CGI infused carnage and some A-listers hamming it up for good measure.
Taking over directing duties from Del Toro, debut feature film director Steven S. DeKnight brings none of the child like charm or enthusiasm the Mexican auteur brought to the table with his entry as we instead get a lame and tame tale of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecosts’ child Jake (played by a struggling John Boyega) turn from troublemaker to Jager pilot, as the world finds itself once more under threat from the dreaded Kaiju monsters.
The first Pacific Rim had a similarly dumb plot and characters that were more like walking caricatures but there was a sense that everyone involved was having a great time and despite better judgements, you as an audience member did to.
That’s completely lost here, there’s little fun to be had with the bland and uninteresting action scenes, the main cast are all completely forgettable, while even returning cast members such as Charlie Day’s Dr. Newton Geiszler and Burn Gorman’s Hermann Gottlieb are more of a tacked on accessory, with Day in particular getting an embarrassing character development that is both lame and totally misguided.
With a pulse-free plot line and thrill-free action there was little chance Uprising ever had at succeeding and there’s little mystery as to why this unwanted sequel failed to capture the dollars at the box-office, guaranteeing the Pacific Rim brand is now dead in the water.
Final Say –
Not even the most hardcore of Pacific Rim fans will find much to enjoy in Uprising, an utterly forgettable and disposable new entry into the wannabe franchise that somehow manages to turn it’s over the top foundations into a bland, charm-free and tiresome event.
1 child mechanic out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
I quite enjoyed the first one as a bit of fun! Pity they couldn’t make anything of it!
I am very much in the same boat mate, had a lot of fun with the first one but this was really pointless.
E
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
You’re very right! The first one was a nice pleasant surprise but this was just shocking. So lame and devoid of any real life or spark.
E
Pingback: Pacfic Rim: Uprising – Not So Bad – McRatings·
I was disappointed with this movie. I mean the action sequences were good and liked all the jagers / kaiju designs effects, but it the plot was bonkers, the characters were bland, and just felt like “middle” piece that leads into another film.
Mate the plot here was terrible ha, I mean you never watch these films for the plot but still, it could’ve tried a little harder. I think this franchise is well and truly dead now.
E