Pacific Rim Uprising has all the hallmarks of a sequel to a film that wasn't originally meant to have a sequel, but because the original made enough money and had enough public support for a sequel, the studio didn't know exactly how to continue the story, and this is what we got.
Essentially, this film is both a second chapter to and a retread of the original. Ten years after Gypsy Danger closed the breach that the Kaiju were coming from, the son of General Stacker Pentecost, Jake (John Boyega) is forced to resume his father's work and face a renewed Kaiju threat that has the potential of wiping out the world.
At first, this film attempts to forge a new direction. There's a more jovial and self-aware tone, we see smaller, home-made Jaegers going up against the more familiar big boys, and a scrappy new protagonist who seems to have some genuine personality (Cailee Spaney as Amara Namani).
The bond that begins to develop between Jake and Amara is the one genuine highlight of this film, and it does resolve in a satisfying way. However, as Uprising turns more formulaic and relies more and more on the gags and banter of the first film, it really turns into a yawn.
Character development is even more lacking in Uprising than the original Pacific Rim. The original got away with this because it only focused on about five main characters. Uprising tries to give a sense of camaraderie between a group of Jaeger cadets, but aside from Amara, the others are entirely forgettable and interchangeable, especially when they all wear helmets.
Ultimately, this film tries too hard to recapture the lightning in the bottle that was the original, and in the end in more ways than one it comes off feeling like a bad rip-off of Independence Day: Resurgence, which was itself a bad rip-off of the original Independence Day. Best to remember what good there was in the original Pacific Rim, and leave this one to the bargain bin.
Essentially, this film is both a second chapter to and a retread of the original. Ten years after Gypsy Danger closed the breach that the Kaiju were coming from, the son of General Stacker Pentecost, Jake (John Boyega) is forced to resume his father's work and face a renewed Kaiju threat that has the potential of wiping out the world.
At first, this film attempts to forge a new direction. There's a more jovial and self-aware tone, we see smaller, home-made Jaegers going up against the more familiar big boys, and a scrappy new protagonist who seems to have some genuine personality (Cailee Spaney as Amara Namani).
The bond that begins to develop between Jake and Amara is the one genuine highlight of this film, and it does resolve in a satisfying way. However, as Uprising turns more formulaic and relies more and more on the gags and banter of the first film, it really turns into a yawn.
Character development is even more lacking in Uprising than the original Pacific Rim. The original got away with this because it only focused on about five main characters. Uprising tries to give a sense of camaraderie between a group of Jaeger cadets, but aside from Amara, the others are entirely forgettable and interchangeable, especially when they all wear helmets.
Ultimately, this film tries too hard to recapture the lightning in the bottle that was the original, and in the end in more ways than one it comes off feeling like a bad rip-off of Independence Day: Resurgence, which was itself a bad rip-off of the original Independence Day. Best to remember what good there was in the original Pacific Rim, and leave this one to the bargain bin.