John Boyega is the only bright spot in the otherwise unsuccessful Pacific Rim Uprising [Review]

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A whole bunch of new characters are introduced to pilot the giant Jaegers, but they’re all fairly forgettable

Wong Tsui-kai |
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Giant robots known as Jaegers are our only line of defense against the monstrous Kaiju.

The first thing you need to know about Pacific Rim Uprising is that the original Pacific Rim is much better. The second thing you need to know is that the best parts of the movie will fit comfortably in a standard YouTube clips, so you won’t be missing much if you skip buying a ticket.

Like the first film, Uprising is the story of earth being invaded by an alien race from another dimension called The Precursors who send Kaiju, giant monsters which humans fight by building giant robots called Jaegers.

A handful of returning characters get important roles in the new film, but the plot is centred around Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the son of Stacker Pentecost from the first film. However, the new characters feel more like cardboard cutouts, the film falling into the trap of introducing too many characters while at the same time not introducing enough interesting ones.

It is a credit to Boyega for managing to hold the film together when given so little to work with by the scriptwriters. Scott Eastwood was fine as a mostly generic soldier dude, but to be fair, the dialogue didn’t give him much to work with.

And that is exactly the problem with this film. Most moviegoers wouldn’t go into giant robot movies expecting high art, but they expect a fun movie, which Pacific Rim delivered in spades. Uprising however lacks the same charisma and fails to sell you the idea this is a fun movie.

The fights are mostly good, with one giant showdown in the middle of Tokyo standing out due to its sheer scale.There are a few okay plot twists, but the first movie’s distinct ‘feel’ is gone. Maybe it is due to director Steven S. DeKnight not quite living up to Guillermo del Toro’s storytelling skill, but we hope the inevitable third movie is much better.

Edited by Jamie Lam

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