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Movie Review: Pacific Rim: Uprising

Scott Davis

Guillermo del Toro’s “robots versus monsters” blockbuster Pacific Rim arrived in the summer of 2013 with plenty of intrigue and excitement among film fans, but it failed somewhat to gain much interest with domestic audiences. The film struggled to pass $100 million domestically, but it’s overseas box office soared to much higher as it pushed its worldwide total to just over $400 million. While not a runaway success, there has always been talk of a sequel but it was never at the top of production company Legendary’s agenda. Guillermo del Toro eventually moved onto the very strange Crimson Peak (2015) and this year’s best picture winner The Shape of Water (2017), which also got him his first directing Academy Award. Things have been good for him since 2013, but he didn’t have the time to get back in the directing chair for a Pacific Rim’s sequel when Legendary was ready, so the reigns got passed along to television director Steven S. DeKnight. While Pacific Rim wasn’t the most groundbreaking idea on the planet, it was an original concept and story that Del Toro spent a considerable amount of time pondering, so it was a little strange to hear he wasn’t going to be in the director’s chair for Pacific Rim: Uprising. The first Pacific Rim didn’t earn the director his first Oscar, but he did make that movie his own, which DeKnight does not do in Uprising. The almost five-year wait for the sequel doesn’t feel worth it as Uprising certainly has its thrilling moments, but fails in almost every other aspect. The story feels stale and incredibly forced, the acting is cheesy and even cringeworthy at times, and the whole thing never comes together to make for a satisfying experience.

Set ten years after the events of the first film, Uprising focuses on Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), and a young rag-tag group of Jaeger pilots. There isn’t much to do besides train as there hasn’t been a Kaiju sighting since they were defeated in the first film’s climatic battle, but Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Tian Jing (Liwen Shao) are ready to unveil a new type of Jaeger that will allow them to be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world. When their presentation is interrupted by a rogue Jaeger and a new Kaiju threat, Pentecost and his crew must figure out what is the cause of this sudden uprising (get it?) before it’s too late.

Pacific Rim was by no means a masterpiece, but it balanced a seemingly ridiculous plot with some unique looking action set pieces to make for an incredibly enjoyable summer flick. Uprising does not do that. Its plot is ludicrous and strains to make a compelling argument as to why it should have even been made in the first place. The first film mostly wrapped everything up, and Uprising never makes a compelling argument for its existence. The film is a quick 111 minutes, but it never pauses to explain anything in detail. Things just happen without much consequence. While not all of it is a complete train wreck, many scenes are indeed cringeworthy.

The cringe-worthiness extends to the acting as well. While Legendary assembled a talented cast, they mostly fall flat on their face here. It should be said that the material they are given is not very good, but still, none of the actors are able to elevate the material. It is disappointing to see Boyega, who has been so charismatic and entertaining as Finn in the new Star Wars films, somewhat crumble here. He doesn’t make the role his own and sort of gets lost in the CGI-shuffle. The first film was able to rise above its bland lead (Charlie Hunnam) given everything else going on in the film. While Boyega certainly tries, he unfortunately isn’t given much room to showcase his talents. The other two big stars in the film—Charlie Day and Scott Eastwood—are also equally disappointing as their characters are one note and predictable at almost every turn.

While most of this review has been negative thus far, there are some things that I enjoyed about Pacific Rim: Uprising, mainly when it came to the film’s action. One of the big complaints about the first installment was that many of the big set pieces take place at night, and it seems like Legendary listened to that critique as most of the scenes in this film are set in broad daylight. The audience is now able to see everything much more clearly, and what a sight it is. The CGI and special effects are top notch as both the Jaegers and Kaijus look terrific, especially when fighting. The sound is just as impressive as the film skips the overbearing Transformers-like sounds and features a good mix among the chaos. On top of the impressive CGI and sound, director DeKnight shows that he can stage exciting action scenes. His direction fails elsewhere, but the action scenes are by far the highlight of the film. This might be enough for some viewers as they are paying to see big, exciting action set pieces, and Uprising delivers the goods there.

Overall though, Pacific Rim: Uprising is an uneven experience, which is certainly a step down from the first film. That film knew what it wanted to be and had the luxury of a great director behind the wheel. While DeKnight knows his action, he fails almost everywhere else. The set-up for Uprising is dumb, the plot is almost laughable, and the acting is incredibly disappointing. The action, however, is supremely entertaining and well-done. The final climatic battle shouldn’t leave viewers disappointed, even if it does end somewhat abruptly. It might sound weird to get overly critical on a “robots versus monsters” flick, but while Pacific Rim: Uprising packs a punch in the action department, it’s hollow everywhere else.

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Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
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