Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) Review!!!!

Synopsis – Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots, including rival Lambert and 15-year-old hacker Amara, against a new Kaiju threat.

My Take – Five years ago, visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro delivered a prime example of how to do a science fiction film with giant robots in the most perfect way possible. Sure, the film didn’t have much depth to it, as the characters were dolts with the performances being mostly cartoonish, yet the film’s unabashed spectacle had its adolescent thrills, as it wasn’t just big, loud, and downright ludicrous, but also oozed panache with director del Toro‘s trademark giddiness for cinema. Personally I enjoyed the film quite a lot, and didn’t mind the idea of a sequel, even though del Toro left the director’s chair to focus on his Oscar Winning film ‘The Shape of Water’, I was fine if there was another director, as long as he or she knows what they are doing with the source material. And just as I had expected this follow-up, with director Steven S. DeKnight (Daredevil, Spartacus) behind the camera, is just as big, loud and downright ludicrously action packed as its predecessor, and that is all you can ask for sequel. However, when compared to the first it lacks that critical, intangible spark that makes those elements delightful rather than a tad numbing as the film takes a much a much lighter approach in order to cater to much wider audience, which logically made sense, considering it’s disappointing run at the U.S. box office, yet considering its set up as a fan I expected something more complex, despite being constantly fun to watch. Picking up ten years after the events of the first film, the story follows Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of the self-sacrificing hero Stacker (Idris Elba), who is a thieving rogue stuck in his father’s shadow.

With the world now having moved on after rebuilding from the devastation caused by the conflict, Jake happily passes his days partying and selling parts from decommissioned Jaegers on the black market, that is until he runs into fellow scrounger Amara (Cailee Spaeny), a precocious orphan, who is collecting parts for her own creation named Scrapper, and gets caught by the authorities. However, when his half-sister, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), gives him a choice to pick jail time or rejoin the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC). Figuring training a class beats jail, Jake agrees to teach Amara and a new class of Jaeger pilots with his former rival Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), even though corporate titan Liwen Shao (Tian Jing) plans to put the PPDC out of business with her drone program led by Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day). Despite this, training moves along as planned and Nate and Jake even work well enough to pilot a Jaeger at a ceremony that will usher in a new but controversial new age in protection for humanity. When an unexpected threat arrives and causes mass devastation and chaos, Jake, Nate and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) must get to the bottom of the threat. As their investigation moves along a massive threat is discovered which pits them and their untested recruits against a threat old and new which threatens to end humanity. What follows is a SFX laden finale where cities are laid waste to and massive combatants engage is a truly impressive visual spectacle. Just in case you missed the 2013 original the film kicks things off with a recap of the original film, as this one has thematic ambitions, and no interest in wasting time on explanations, deepening the mythology, or exploring new corners of its world. How much you love director Steven S. DeKnight‘s continuation of this universe depends on how much you were in love with director del Toro‘s empathy metaphor as well as his tone of sobriety. Unlike the dark and gritty tone of the first film, this one is one takes a more jovial and self-aware route, which is evident not only in the wry banter that the characters engage in but also in almost all of its robots-versus-monsters brawls now take place in the brightness of day (than the darkness of night). This is a film that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a monster/robot mayhem. It gives you the CGI thrills, spills, and chills in terms of design and the sound editing beautifully complements it. While the story is not the deepest, it works for the most part, allowing plenty of time to cram in the action you have paid to see. The fanboy glee that director del Toro brought to the first film is somewhat in evidence here—you could practically hear him chuckling with glee behind the camera at being allowed to play out this prepubescent battle-royale fantasy on a studio budget—but director DeKnight doesn’t have quite the same eye for widescreen grandeur. There’s still some residual pleasure to be had in watching the film’s spectacle—and a tip of the hat to whichever of the four credited screenwriters came up with novel new places to put awesome guns on the Jaegers—but there’s a stultifying bloodlessness to the proceedings that no amount of superficial excitement can shake. The script co-written by director Steven S. DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, and T.S. Nowlin, hits all the basics, manages a pretty unexpected plot turn, and loads the film with humor, and while not all the jokes and gags work they set a suitable tone for the punch, kick, and explosion-filled action. It feels every bit like the old-school kaiju films that some of us used to watch on Saturday afternoons as kids with broad comedy, furrowed brows, and immense destruction to skyscrapers. The film invests cursory time towards the drama of relationships — Jake and his sister Mako, and much as one of the lead characters – namely, the teenage orphan Amara Namani – has to overcome her own traumatic loss of her family in order to properly pilot a Jaeger, there is much less emphasis here on the so-called psychic link that the pair of pilots have to forge in order to ‘drift’.

Director Steven S. DeKnight also manages to bring some creativity in giving these Jaegars a different look. Every one of them was different and had their own special weapon if it was an electrical whip, a giant spiked cannon ball, or a gravity pull weapon. Also, the action sequences are big and loud and exciting. Yes, the design of the new robots gets a round of applause, with sleek angular designs, some new tricks, and a fluid movement that fit well with the Japanese monster film feel. Monster wise, the Kaijou aren’t as prominent as the first film, but once breached, the monsters have got their own unique design that is odd, but again fitting in theme, with movements that again work with the pace of the film. And of course, all the lights, punches, and collapsing buildings are beautifully brought to life in all their dazzling, speaker rustling greatness. While the film does manage to engage you, as a sequel, it also fails to cover any new ground. This is most likely due to having to basically cast a whole new group of characters, give them scenes rather than simply starting off where the last left it. Consequently we don’t really get too much more info in terms of what or how or why things happen, only that the Kaiju are coming again and we have to stop them. Some of the elements also pretty much doesn’t make any sense, I mean, a lonely fifteen-year old street girl with no one around to nurture or protect or educate her on how to survive without any house or family built her own small Jaeger from scraps of the unused parts of old Jaegers alone? Alone? Plus, where is Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam)? What happened to him? We never find out. The bad parts just don’t stop there, the human dynamics between the characters were also got a little bit too forced to hold the already rushed plot up until the end. While the original got away with this because it only focused on about five main characters, this one tries to give a sense of camaraderie between a group of Jaeger cadets, but aside from Amara, the others are entirely forgettable and interchangeable, especially when they all wear helmets. Also the humor here sometimes is a little too ridiculous and distracting from the overall tone of the film. A random aside here and there works, but when over utilized as it is in this film, well then it gets rusty and breaks down. And so, while director del Toro‘s franchise opener was probably too somber for its own good, this sequel pivots quite drastically to the other extreme, thereby diminishing the stakes involved as well as the gee-whiz grandeur. We do wish there were more personality to the Jaegers though, apart from being the one with the electric whip or the ‘gravity slings’ or the plasma swords. Considering the overall plot, it’s obviously not fair to expect Oscar caliber performances from its leading stars, however, what’s surprising is that the acting is a step up from other films in this genre. Led by the ever charming John Boyega, who seems to be having a lot of fun here. Boyega has become a household name thanks to the new Star Wars films, and here he plays some of the same action-hero notes, balancing self-deprecation with moments of stirring intensity. Rinko Kikuchi once again delivered a good performance as fan favorite Mako Mori from the first film, as for Charlie Day and Burn Gorman, they manage to continue their awkward goofy scientists’ roles. Cailee Spaeny plays her spunky role with maximum attitude and a paucity of charm, while Scott Eastwood is watchable. In supporting roles, Jing Tian, Adria Arjona, Chen Zitong, Kim Jeong Hoon, Jin Zhang, Karan Brar, Wesley Wong, Ivanna Sakhno, Mackenyu, Lily Ji, Shyrley Rodriguez, Rahart Adams and Levi Meaden are alright. On the whole, ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising‘ is a goofy action spectacle which despite lacking the energy of its predecessor manages to be straightforwardly entertaining.