Movie Review: Pacific Rim: Uprising

Pacific Rim Uprising ** / *****

Directed by: Steven S. DeKnight.

Written by: Emily Carmichael & Kira Snyder and Steven S. DeKnight and T.S. Nowlin based on characters created by Travis Beacham.

Starring: John Boyega (Jake Pentecost), Scott Eastwood (Nate Lambert), Cailee Spaeny (Amara Namani), Rinko Kikuchi (Mako Mori), Charlie Day (Dr. Newton Geiszler), Burn Gorman (Dr. Hermann Gottlieb),Tian Jing (Liwen Shao), Adria Arjona (Jules Reyes), Jin Zhang (Marshal Quan), Karan Brar (Suresh), Ivanna Sakhno (Vik), Mackenyu (Ryoichi), Shyrley Rodriguez (Renata), Levi Meaden (Ilya), Rahart Adams (Tahima Shaheen), Zhu Zhu (Juen), Nick E. Tarabay (Sonny).

You can count me as one of the people who really liked Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim – a film that I thought married spectacle and emotion quite well – had some truly remarkable scenes, and was basically blockbuster filmmaking at its finest – even with a bland lead. Unfortunately, you can pretty much flip everything about Pacific Rim around, and you get the sequel. The lead this time is charming and fun and played by John Boyega, who is anything but bland. If nothing else, the movie proves Boyega is a true movie star – he carries the movie on the basis of his charisma alone, because there really isn’t much else here.

Set 10 years after the first film – the war is now over, and the world has recovered for the most part. Boyega plays Jake Pentecost – son of the Idris Elba character in the first film (you remember him – he cancelled the apocalypse) – who is now basically making his living as a thief – stealing part off of the old jaegers to sell to idiots who want to make their own. One thing leads to another, and soon Pentecost is forced back into the jaeger pilot program he fled years ago – this time with a very smart teenage girl, Cailee Spaeny in tow – even as it appears like the jaegers pilot program is all but done. Soon, there will be drones to run the jaegers – and besides, without the kaiju (those giant monsters) – who needs them anyway. You can guess what happens from there – and you’d pretty much be right. Drones go crazy, the kaiju return – and everyone has to mount up, and do the same thing all over again.

This time, the film is not directed by Del Toro, and his touch is sorely missing. Steven S. DeKnight is making his feature directing debut – and the direction is more workmanlike than anything. Yes, there are still giant robots fighting giant monsters, but the film lacks anything beyond that. It takes a long time before we really get to see those fights – and when we do, in the last act, it’s pretty much continuous, monotonous noise.

The cast of the first film was effortlessly diverse – bringing an international cast together with ease. This time, every choice seems more cynical – the first film was a much bigger hit in China than in North America, so they throw in a bunch of Chinese actors. In theory, this is a good thing (Asian representation in American movies is abysmal) – but the film basically feels like just sticking them in there is good enough – they don’t actually give them anything interesting to do. The comic relief of the first film – played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman – is pretty tired this time around. The most interesting characters from the first film are either dead, or basically cameos (I love Rinko Kikuchi in almost everything I’ve seen her in – she does nothing here).

Basically, Pacific Rim: Uprising pretty much encapsulates everything that is wrong with sequel culture in Hollywood movies – a cynical attempt to recapture a movie that made money the first time, without really understanding what made that movie something special. A hollow copy of a very good original.