The magic that made Pacific Rim an epic cult classic hit is lost on the sequel, but at least there are some neat fight scenes between the massive robotic Jaegers.
John Boyega stars as Jake Pentecost, the son of fallen military hero and Jaeger pilot, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba). Unfortunately, unlike his father, Jake is a rebellious partier and all around self-serving, arrogant, failure. In a random twist of fate, John Boyega befriends a young girl and Jaeger mechanic/prodigy named Amara Namani, and both are forced into a Jaeger Pilot Program to prepare for any future attacks. Well, it happens eventually and the two most join forces with other military personnel and cadets to save the world with Jake having a chance at redemption and the opportunity to bring honor to his family name.
Here’s the thing about PRU; the movie is terrible. Flat out awful. The CGI is wonderful and the fight sequences were excellent. But what makes the movie fail on so many levels is its attempt to copy what was good about the first film (which it doesn’t succeed in doing), and to appeal to a much younger audience through the teenage Amara (Cailee Spaeny) and her trust little mini Jaeger (which heavily resembles a little Michael Bay Transformer), named Scrapper.
The plot as a whole can’t be delved into without spoiling, but what you should know is that it completely damages, almost obliterates the direction that the first film setup and goes from absurdly fun and badass in the prequel, to absurdly dumb and occasionally neat in the sequel. Pacific Rim Uprising is ruined by poor writing and a mediocre understanding of what made the prequel so magical.
The references to the prequel seem lazy and the writing is poor at best. But if you are for the fight sequences, they are pretty successful at entertaining. If you are into the motivations behind the fighting, or just a plot in general, then you are going to be sorely disappointed.
Pacific Rim Uprising stars John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Rinko Kikuchi, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day, and Adria Arjona.
