Review Summary: Far from the classic it wants to be, but entertaining and interesting nonetheless.
We wonder why almost every big event movie nowadays has to be a special-effects destruction showcase (cough Rampage cough cough). It's pretty obvious what the answer is. It's what will pull in the cash today. Yet, the idea of Pacific Rim getting a sequel remains a head-scratcher. It wasn't really a box office success (it earned $100 million in the U.S. against a near-$200 million budget). However, it remains a cult favorite with audiences, and it did pull in three times its' domestic total overseas. So, here we are.
I personally didn't find the original Pacific Rim to be all that amazing on first viewing. It offered unique visuals and an appealing east-meets-west mentality. But, storywise, it was pretty weak. The characters really weren't given a lot to do besides, you know, "kick Kaiju butt". Even A-list actor Idris Elba was relatively restrained in his role, save for an inspiring speech or two.
Seeing Uprising came about as an idea to do a fun outing with a tween-aged young man that I've been mentoring for a couple of years. Otherwise, I would have leaned towards not making the trip. But, I have to say, I enjoyed Uprising more than I was thinking I would. There's quite a few improvements here from the first film, and its' story even goes in a few directions that I personally didn't expect. It's certainly flawed, but its' fun.
Lets' start off with the positives. First off, the lead character here is definitely more interesting than Charlie Hunnam from the first film. John Boyega (Finn from the recent Star Wars trilogy) proved to be a great casting choice here for Jake Pentecost (the son of Elba's character from the original). He's charismatic and fun, and gets a memorable comedic scene towards the beginning. The other lead, a female recruit named Amara is also played solidly by Cailee Spaeny. Charlie Day returns as Dr. Geiszler, and he definitely hams it up (not too much though).
Per usual, the visual effects are great. The action sequences are both intense and even realistic in a few areas (there's quite a bit more death here than normal). One interesting twist is that the final climax doesn't take place in a city. Instead, the Kaiju attempts to make a final attack on Mount Fuji. In the meantime, the Kaiju also make a daring move to try and inhabit rogue Jaegars. These half-Jaegar/half-Kaiju creations were also an idea I wasn't expecting, and made the overall ride more suspenseful. But the visual creations definitely are sparkling and interesting enough that they seem like they would be primed for Oscar nominations next year. Lorne Balfe's music score accompanies these scenes well.
I also was surprised at how tight-paced Uprising was. This isn't your overblown and overly-long 2 hour action movie. The final film clocked in at a solid hour and 35 minutes without the credits. There's no slow or unnecessary stretches, and the only out-of-place scene is a weird one involving Bean's character. But, as someone who often watches overly-long films waiting for the movie to be over for awhile, I didn't feel quite that way watching Uprising. It moves at a good clip, and is hardly ever boring.
On the downside, however, the film's story still has problems. First of all, while the film has character depth, the character's stories often get shoved to the side midway through. Jake starts off as the clear lead, having to learn to overcome his spoiled, rebellious nature. But after resigning himself to being more self-sacrificial, he literally becomes a supporting character for the rest of the film and nothing else really happens to him personally. The same goes for Amara. We see a few hints of what fears she struggles with (as well as why). But after a couple of scenes the movie discards these ideas completely in favor of....you guessed it, Kaijus coming back to destroy the earth.
The script also is very lazy and clumsy at times. Boyega is given an opportunity to give a motivational speech, but at the end, you're left asking, "Was that it? Really?" It's almost as if the screenwriters added it in last second without thinking about it. Several other lines of dialogue are also pretty clunky. Sometimes these mix with a few cleverly-placed genre-mocking lines (making fun of how unoriginal this whole thing is), but overall, the overall script at many points is at the level of a Saturday morning cartoon. There's also a lot of heavy vocal accents shown here. Some lines of dialogue are said so fast that it's often difficult to keep up with and comprehend especially with the accents involved.
You can argue that Pacific Rim and its sequel are both nowhere close to original. Yes, we've seen robots and heroes battle monsters. But, I can definitely give bonus points to Uprising for nicely executing a few gutsy twists here and there, as well as giving just enough charisma and intrigue between characters to help you really believe in what they do.
Uprising has its' share of sloppy moments. But, that doesn't ruin the fun as much as it could have. When the creative gears really turn, it works very well as an entertaining, CGI romp. Fans of the original, in the meantime, will not be disappointed.
My Score: 7.3/10
Content Concerns for Family Viewing: Pacific Rim: Uprising is rated PG-13 for "sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language". While maybe more bright and colorful for a kid-friendly audience, the movie is not really appropriate for elementary-aged kids. Parents are advised to take the rating seriously. There's a lot of violence and destruction as kaijus destroy buildings and tear apart Yaegars. A few pilots die in the process to (with a little bit of blood seen on faces in a few moments). The Kaijus will likely be terrifying for very young viewers. A couple of characters are impaled at one point (the pilots are meant to feel and see what happens to their robot through their mindset). Kaijus are destroyed in a few ways, often having a (digital) body part sliced off or some blue goo (blood) gushing out of an injury a few times. A couple of characters wrestle in a few scenes a little violently. A girl's family is stomped out away from her in a kaiju attack (we don't see the after-effects).
The language also borders on too much. We hear 13 uses of "h---" along with 10 more uses of "a--". There's also three s-words, five uses of "d---", two of "oh my g--", and one each of "b----rd", "p---" and "g--d---". When a kaiju dies in a pit, two pilots make a Jaegar give its' dead enemy the middle finger with both (robotic) hands. One party scene at the beginning involves alcohol, and Jake waking up with a girl in a bikini sleeping on him. One character has a sensual digital interlude with a Kaiju brain (I found it very weird, not really sexual honestly). Another female character lands on top of a male in one moment in a provocative position (Jake comments on this). Someone makes fun of a character's dad being a plastic surgeon, jokingly saying he handles "boobs" all the time.
