2013’s “Pacific Rim” gave me exactly what I was promised: giant robots beating the living pulp out of giant monsters.
The film was nothing more than a big, really fun time, but it handled itself well, and its success can be largely attributed to Guillermo del Toro’s excellent direction. Five years later “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” is pretty good — it’s just missing that special del Toro touch that made its predecessor great.
Though it’s a sequel that doesn’t feel needed — with a third on the way, judging by “Uprising’s” conclusion — I appreciated the logical progression of the film’s worldbuilding. There are no sudden new Kaiju attacks just for the sake of them. Instead the film’s villains are insidiously sourced from Earth this time around.
“Uprising” picks up 10 years after humanity’s successful final stand against the invading Kaiju, enormous extra-dimensional creatures sent to pillage Earth. Society is rebuilding, but a surprise attack from an undocumented Jaeger (the promised giant robots) sends the world into another state of alert. After being kicked out of the Jaeger program years before, Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of last film’s war hero, Stacker Pentecost, must suit up again to protect humanity from another extinction-level invasion.
Like “Pacific Rim,” you get what you come for from “Uprising” with some hot robot-on-robot action included with the price of admission. Monsters get smacked around, giant robots wrestle with other giant robots and cities are leveled in the process.
It’s all pretty sweet, though “Uprising’s” skirmishes unfortunately don’t feel quite as great as those of the first film. Every swing and blow lacks the slow, clunky weight of the original film’s fight scenes, feeling more like normal people hitting each other rather than skyscraper robots slugging it out.
Some of del Toro’s charm is lost in “Uprising” with this more human, straightforward choreography — there are no ocean liners pulled out of the water to be used as baseball bats in the sequel.
“Uprising” also suffers from some poor-pacing — a problem “Pacific Rim” didn’t encounter too much thanks to del Toro’s keen direction.
The robot action feels too short and is sprinkled much too sparsely throughout the first two acts, only to be exhaustingly long in the final third chunk. The characters and narrative aren’t much to write home about, so the film can get tedious when its heroes aren’t suited up and brawling.
It is frivolously overcrowded, with many characters serving only to spout a quippy line or two. Despite this “Uprising” is at least well-acted during these narrative stints. Boyega leads the film nicely as Jake, and it’s hard not to root for him when he’s butting heads with his uppity Jaeger co-pilot, Nate (Scott Eastwood).
Charlie Day and Burn Gorman’s return from “Pacific Rim” is also welcome, thanks to their goofy charms and the interesting evolution of their friendship after the events of the last film’s 10-year gap.
Again, the film could do without a good portion of its teenage cadets, as their pithy subplot doesn’t pay off well in the shadow of the main apocalyptic narrative — and there’s simply too many of them crowding the most interesting of their lot, Cailee Spaeny’s Amara.
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Though not as well executed as del Toro’s original, “Pacific Rim: Uprising” still provides a good dumb time at the theater. With a B-movie’s sensibilities and script, it’s hard not to be entertained by the cheesy spectacle of giant robots duking it out against giant monsters on a blockbuster budget.
Grade: B-
Hector Valverde is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. He primarily writes movie reviews. He can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @hpvalverde.
