‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’ beats back ‘sequelitis’ with monster-bashing fun
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In today’s world of endless cinematic franchises, sequelitis is a malady movie audiences see far too often. Sequels get overcooked, bloated with unnecessary side plots and characters or forget what made the original films so good. Filmmakers change, budget get slashed and studios make demands. “Pacific Rim: Uprising” exhibits many symptoms of sequelitis, but thankfully, it overcomes these with a megadose of pure unadulterated fun.
Set a decade after the events of “Pacific Rim”, “Uprising” ushers us into a world that has largely recovered from the events of the first movie. Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) makes his living stealing scraps from decommissioned Jaegers, the giant robots mankind built to fight the monstrous giants known as the Kaijui n the first film.
Jake, son of a legendary hero from the Kaiju War, has turned his back on the Jaeger pilot life, but a run-in with youthful scrapper Amara (Cailee Spaeny) lands him knee-deep in a new mystery involving the kaiju, new-fangle Jaeger drones and shady machinations that could end the world. All while learning how to get along with his former partner, Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), and training a new generation of Jaeger pilots. Jake’s plate is pretty full.
The first “Pacific Rim” came from a simple recipe, basically “Top Gun” with giant monster-fighting instead of jets. Simple. “Uprising” goes the route most sequels go and expands the mythology of the “Pacific Rim” world. There is a lot of talk about The Precursors, the creators of the kaiju. There’s whole story strand about Amara training to be a pilot and the obstacles she has to overcome. There’s a side plot involving Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) that takes up a lot of screen time, and that’s tied in with a mystery surrounding a particular rogue Jaeger.
In other words, there’s more going on this time. Add in new characters, and all the additional set-up and pay-off they require. The kaiju also need to have some new tricks up their sleeves. That’s a tall order to pull off in an hour and fifty-one minutes, and while some of it works, some of it doesn’t. The Geiszler plot, in particular, seems to come out of nowhere and isn’t very satisfying.
The movie also really misses elements from the first movie. “Uprising” suffers from a lack of key cast members from the original movie. Director Steven S. DeKnight does a solid job, but he lacks the distinctive visual style and ability to elevate a script that Guillermo del Toro has in spades. And the only time the musical score manages to make an impact are the too few moments when the original “Pacific Rim” theme pops up.
And yet, “Uprising” more than makes up for its deficiencies. John Boyega is so charming and charismatic that he nearly overcomes the cast shortcomings all by himself. He raises the game of any actors he shares scenes with. He ever makes Eastwood, a mediocre actor at his best, tolerable. Boyega projects needed warmth in with Spaeney, and boy, can the guy deliver a motivational speech.
But what really puts “Uprising” over the top is the action. The thrill of seeing a skyscraper-sized robot beating up an enormous alien menace is still potent. This time around, we also get a few Jaeger-on-Jaeger battles, which put an interesting slant on the fight scenes. And there’s a moment late in this movie that’s so ridiculously awesome, it’s worth the price of admission all on its own.
“Pacific Rim: Uprising” isn’t as good as the first “Pacific Rim.” It has plot, character and acting issues. There’s a plot twist that made me roll my eyes at first. In spite of all that, there’s still enough fun, kaiju-clobbering action and silly humor to make “Uprising” a sequel worth seeing.