Pacific Rim Uprising - Review
This review of Pacific Rim Uprising is spoiler-free!
You know, after one Pacific Rim film you would think I would have had enough of giant robots fighting giant monsters, but here I am rushing out to a theater to check into another film in this interesting but troubled franchise. I really had no idea what to expect when I went into this movie for two reasons. The first of which being that Uprising is under the direction of a new director, Steven DeKnight. The second is that when you look at all the promotional material for this film, it felt like I was watching a completely different film tonally. The first film was extremely serious, but it seems like this movie is cutting down on the seriousness and looking at potentially being more comedic. For me, I'm actually happy with a change of direction for this series, but let's dive into how Uprising did!
Absolutely attempting to hit a similar story beat to the original film, Uprising is about Jake Pentecost. Pentecost is the son of Stacker Pentecost, and he's in a strikingly similar situation to that of Raleigh Becket. You see Pentecost was a promising pilot of a Jaeger, who abandoned his training. But, when Jake is caught up in the wrong world, he's given the opportunity to return to the world of monsters and robots and chooses to do so after being given a pep talk. When the Kaiju do return, Jake is ready to take them on in the spiritual successor to Gipsy Danger: Gipsy Avenger. The story of Pacific Rim Uprising's main character is alarmingly similar to the original film, and this is a major problem for me. The best parts of this film are when he isn't like Raleigh and he's more of a comedic personality whose trying to train a young girl he meets near the beginning of the film. Overall, the story fell flat but had some strong moments.
John Boyega plays our main protagonist of Jake Pentecost, and like I said previously he really is at his best when he's playing the comedic tone that comes with Jake. He's a cocky person with alot of humor and dry wit. That's one of Boyega's strengths as an actor and what makes him so likable even in movies that aren't as good as his acting. The other major character in this film worth discussing is his young protege by the name of Amara Namani, played by Cailee Spaeny. Her role in the film feels like a means to follow another problem I have with this movie. It's using the stereotypical storytelling mechanic of the best being gone so the recruits are looked at to hold down the fort. Spaeny does her best with the role and her and Boyega's chemistry is actually pretty great. Unfortunately, though it feels like her capabilities were wasted here, hopefully, if we see the third film in this franchise it attempts to right the ship with her character.
So, let's dig into what's really the problem with Pacific Rim Uprising. My first and biggest issue with this film is the tonal shifts that occur throughout the movie consistently. Uprising can't seem to nail one specific tone, it seems to be confused about whether it wants to treat the story more lightly or go for a deep drama. For me, I preferred the lighter tone and more comedic and relaxed characters, but it seems DeKnight wasn't as interested in this besides for punchlines. Secondly, the story really falls flat. I can't mention specifics, but where certain characters are taken and where the overall plan of the movie goes really just does not sit well with me. It truly feels like the writers' room came together with absolutely no ideas and just started spitting out random thoughts until something landed.
Uprising is a visually great movie, but nearly every other element in the movie ends up failing. Unfortunately for someone like John Boyega who gave his all in his performance, Uprising just has too many problems for it to be a successful sequel. I fear for this franchise's future if this film fails to land with audiences, which I still believe it could strictly for the robots vs. monsters draw. In the end, Uprising had a lot of potential to be great but was a great whiff of a film. I can't help but feel if Del Toro was given this same opportunity he could have done better, but DeKnight did what he could. Comparing the two films though, I really can't say that either is a good movie, but if I was forced to watch either of these films again, it would be Uprising because Boyega is the best performance of the series. But let me relay this though: Pacific Rim Uprising is NOT a good movie by any sense of the word and is the worse of the two films.
