Pacific Rim Uprising

Much like sky portals, the post-2000 eras of high budget action blockbusters found a new trend they would learn to get bored with quickly known as "Transformers etiquette". Ever since Michael Bays Transformers in 2007, a slew of movies kept trying to follow the lazy formula of large giant battles over substance in trying to attain the classic feeling of the pre-2000s stereotypical cliches. However, the golden rule applied where if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all applied to a large portion of them. One of these was 2013's Pacific Rim, which was an above average version of "Transformers etiquette" with a level of effort from Guillermo Del Toro at the helm and became a fun moderate hit audiences enjoyed. This brings us to the sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, where Del Toro isn't directing this time (only producer) and there are 4 screenwriters (compared to the predecessor's 2). The marketing campaign seemed to boast some action that felt more loose with the physics including a rap song "Get it on till I die" being utilized and the project earned mixed reviews. After 1 month since its release (since it wasn't a priority at the time), I entered the auditorium after watching Blockers and left it very bored and disappointed in this wasted unnecessary sequel.

My Thoughts on Pacific Rim: When enormous monsters (Kaiju) emerge from a portal and attack cities, the surviving governments band all of their resources into gigantic piloted robots (Jaegers) to combat the menace and strive to close the breach before larger threats bring the end of the world to humanity. While it wasn't some big groundbreaker, it was something that you can tell had a level of effort where it counted. It kept the story simple enough from laying down what motivates each individual, allowed the build up development to make the large battles have more weight, and Guillermo Del Toro's fun quirks help out. There are some valid issues such as Charlie Day, a forced romance with little to no chemistry, Charlie Hunum, and parts of the fights being hard to see due to the lighting at times. But then again any dosage of Ron Perlman and Idris Elba is always a win (especially the "cancelling the apocalypse" speech). ⭑⭑⭑1/2

Plot: Taking place 10 years after closing the breach, a new batch of Yaeger pilots must contend with a nefarious plan to bring back the Kaiju. With something about giant robots and monsters fighting it out, you would think that the story would be the least important factor to contend with in these action flicks, but unfortunately we're aren't so lucky here. The storytelling with the script is very mismanaged and meandering as it kind of does nothing but tells you exposition instead of showing it in the first two acts while going suddenly adding insane things out of nowhere in the third act. There are couple beats of action spread throughout to try and build excitement but it falters here for lacking a sense of danger.

Essentially the first two-thirds feels dull in failing to establish a decent motivation for the protagonists involved to the point of struggling to stay awake. This plot is so much of a corporate product compared to its predecessor to the point where they abruptly end it immediately after saving the day (because they are so confident in their chances for a sequel). Oh and there's a scene during the end credits to solidify that aforementioned pride in itself saying "We'll be ready for more next time!" One thing to also note is that the studio knows its targeted demographic so well you can expect a lot of pandering to them throughout whether it's certain cities used or the race of minor story people used to fight the monsters and helps our leads save the day (and considering its box office so far, they probably succeeded). Honestly it ended up so confusing at points (notably during that third act with rushed danger points) to where I looked it up on Wikipedia just to make sure nothing slipped by and/or see how nonsensical in a bad way the writing was.

Characters: The people to focus on are Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) and Amara (Cailee Spaeny). Jake is the Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) and former Yaeger pilot who's recruited back into that program in order to train new recruits. John is one of the best things going for the film with his charismatic performance but it's not enough to salvage it due to the dialog he's given (arguably almost as bad as what he was given with The Last Jedi). Amara is street orphan newly recruited into the Yaeger program. Cailee gives a serviceable portrayal with nice chemistry with John but their bond isn't shown much and her character is very stock/forgettable. Dishonorable mention goes to Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) and the actors who portray the other cadets with the former only being used for his attractive looks to bring in an audience while the latter are just bland in their performances overall. Special dishonorable mention goes to Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) primarily for something off-putting that the script does to him, which clashes against his character from the predecessor and affects his acting in the process.

Action: One improvement that should be noted with the action is that most of it takes place during the day and it's more easy to follow unlike the Transformers films where it looks like two scrap piles jumbling together on a screen. The battle fields mostly take place in the cities such as Sidney and Tokyo with an occasional detour to a mountain or ice field. More destruction takes place here in terms of buildings (increasing the homeless situation in those places in the process) for the sake of what people are hoping for. With the number of battles that take place (around 4 or 6) using the same repetitive motions you would expect, it managed a feat I didn't think it would do: It made giant robots and monsters battling it out incredibly lifeless and tedious to watch, which is a huge problem when that's what most of the audiences showed up were looking for.

Overall Consensus: Pacific Rim Uprising is a disappointing action sequel with an abundance of horrible writing, wasted actors, bland rushed storytelling, disrespect to its predecessor, and repetitively dull action. ⭑⭑💻 Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes PG-13

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You have seen Pacific Rim and are interested to see how its followup is handled. You just want to see battles between giant robots and monsters. You don't mind predictable stereotypical cliches such as bland love interest with a forced love triangle. You don't mind studio choices pandering to a foreign demographic. You don't mind ignorant choices to the 2013 classic.

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You have seen Pacific Rim and don't want to see how its followup is handled. You don't care about battles between giant robots and monsters. You hate predictable stereotypical cliches such as bland love interest with a forced love triangle. You are frustrated studio choices pandering to a foreign demographic. You dislike despicable choices to the 2013 classic.

Coming up next: I didn't think April Anticipation would reach a point that's lower than Rampage but Pacific Rim Uprising said "hold my beer" and put me in a disappointed mood. With one disappointing studio film out of the way, now it's time to prepare for what's going to be a sure fire hit with another studio film. This one is arguably the most anticipated movie of the year and has been an event that's been built up for 10 years culminating in something audiences have been patient for. Will it be something that's been given the time and effort it deserves or will it play itself too safe and disappoint the fanbase (unlikely but possible)? Tune in next time as Screening Spectacles will conclude April Anticipation Month with Avengers: Infinity Way!!!

Spoiler Details Below!!!
  • Cons
    • Dr Newton Geiszler: While Charlie Day was toned down from how he was before, a twist suddenly turns him into a villain. Yeah it turns out when he regularly drifted with a Kaiju brain in the first movie (aka a formed a connection), the alien race who created the Kaiju controlled his mind and have been using him to sabotage humanity for their return. It's entirely contradicts his good natured role from before where he wants to serve for the greater good but just throwing that away in favor of a hive cliche is just too much. 
    • Killing off Mako Mori: One of the returning people who has very little screen time but an important role before is just used as a plot point motivator. It's terrible considering how much she had to work to where she ended up here and she only has one or two scenes with Jake but those don't last much. It was a huge missed opportunity for the screen writers to show us her growth and experience to help the team in a more substantial manner than what she actually did. Not to mention it's ridiculous for Jake to finally care about losing that one life compared to the number of casualties the fight he was just in before Mako was killed in the helicopter crash caused by the opposing Yaeger he was battling. 

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