Pacific Rim Uprising is the sequel that no one was really asking for, but here it is. As a sequel to the original, it does it’s job well here and there.
If you liked the first one where robots and monsters are fighting for most of the movie, you’ll be thoroughly rewarded as this one offers more of the same.
This sequel stars John Boyega from the newer Star Wars movies as Jake Pentecost, son of Idris Elba’s Stacker from the first one, who makes a living as a thief and during one of his high-priced thefts, he stumbles upon part of the Jaegar’s system and tries to sell it, but gets apprehended. He’s confronted by a group of individuals who have now taken over the Jaegers because they believe the monsters known as the Kaiju are coming back for seconds and they tell him they’ll clear his record if he acts a trainer for the new generation going to war.
That’s pretty much all you need to know about the plot.
Jake meets up with the new recruits and they aren’t very exciting but we do get Scott Eastwood as his former copilot and there’s immediate tension between the two. Why? The movie doesn’t bother to give us a convincing reason as there’s plenty of monsters to kill.
The movie does cram wall-to-wall sequences but unlike the sequels to Transformers, it does have some fun with itself while being somewhat in the neighborhood of coherency.
Sure, the effects are fine and there’s a lot of distracting action. Not to mention, the movie does like to encourage itself to go to infinity and beyond with its relentless cheese. You’ll be needing a cracker or two before the end. So, why was I left unexcited and unimpressed? Frankly, I didn’t really care. Some scenes are filled with good humor and energy and other scenes had me checking the time on my cell phone.
At the risk of repeating myself, it’s fine as far as the action and effects go, but everything else is strangely lacking. Wait. Did I just say something is lacking in a movie like this? Still, it is better than the Transformers sequels, so it’s got that going for it at least.
Grade: B-
(Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language.)
