Pacific Rim: Uprising

Pacific Rim: Uprising

Starring John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaney, Rinko Kikuchi

Directed by Steven S. DeKnight

The Story:
Ten years after an inter-dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean was closed, keeping out the monstrous kaiju, the world is starting to rebuild.  Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) - the son of General Pentecost (Idris Elba) - is living the life of a nomad, stealing in order to survive, and comes upon fellow scrapper Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny), a spunky young girl who's building her own Jaeger - giant robots used to defeat the kaiju before - because she fears they will one day return.

After a brush with the law, both Pentecost and Amara are sent to Pan-Pacific Defense Corps, where Pentecost first worked for, to be trained to pilot more Jaegers.  Pentecost is reunited with his former friend Nate (Scott Eastwood), and learns there's a corporation led by Liwen Shao (Jing Tian) who plan on creating Jaegers that can be controlled remotely.  At a public show, a rogue Jaeger attacks, and they find this is no small incident - someone is planning on opening the portal again to let the kaiju back on earth, and they have to stop it before they weak havoc again.

The Synopsis:
In 2013, Guillermo del Toro directed the first "Pacific Rim," and while it didn't make a lot of money in America, it cleaned up overseas, especially China.  Now, even though del Toro had a hand in writing the script (along with three other people), he didn't choose to direct the sequel, but instead went on to direct "The Shape of Water" - which earned the Best Picture Oscar and del Toro his first Best Director Oscar, so he obviously chose well.

What made the first "Pacific Rim" great was the characters controlling the Jaegers.  Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi (who makes a cameo appearance here) have such great chemistry between the two of them, and Hunnam is such a natural professional, that you're instantly drawn to their characters.  Here, it's "Star Wars" star John Boyega taking the helm, and while he does an admirable job, his script is less interesting than before.  There's sort of a love interest, but I can't even remember her name, and she possibly has a thing for his old friend Nate as well, but there's nothing really established there, but instead feels shoe-horned in for the sake of it.  Whereas the first film had the sexual tension between the two leads, here it's an adopted brother/sister story as Boyega's Pentecost takes in wayward girl Amara, who is basically Kikuchi's character in younger form.  She's wise and headstrong, but she isn't given a lot to work with either.

The first film dealt with how the pilots operate the Jaeger - it's run by two people, who must sync minds and memories, giving a deeper relationship between the two.  Here, it's an afterthought as they just climb in and start rockin' and sockin' their way to victory.  There's no depth of characterization, and you don't even remember any of the cadets' names, let alone their stories: not to spoil anything, but the ending leaves one ambiguous option where you want to find a conclusion for.  There's no real conflict between the characters here, as even Pentecost and Nate have a love/hate relationship, they easily come together for the common good way too easily.

What "Uprising" does focus on more is the fights, but even those appear less lackluster than the first.  There's no big opening with a kaiju attacking a bridge, or a Jaeger using a boat as a baseball bat, but instead the fights are typical and ordinary, which is an odd thing to say with towering monsters battling each other.  While the first film focused solely on Jaegers vs. kaiju, now there's a rogue operation with their own Jaegers who wage war against other Jaegers, so it's truly a rock 'em sock 'em fight for most of the film.  The final creature is reminiscent of a Power Rangers villain, in more ways than one, and while that fight was exciting and fast-paced, it still paled in comparison to any of the fights from the first film.

Still, even though they weren't as exciting, they were still fun to watch.  That's what "Uprising" gets right: it knows it's supposed to be fun, and it is.  There's no depth thrown in, no philosophical message, nothing more than just big creatures fighting through busy city streets and destroying everything in their path.  To that end, it was a lot of fun - just don't expect any story, and you'll be set to enjoy a mind-numbing adventure.

The Summary:
While it doesn't possess the grace and nuance of the first, "Uprising" does score with exciting fighting and destruction, a perfect popcorn movie to sit back and enjoy without having to think about it.

The Score: A-