We are fans of the big-budget creature vs robots feature Pacific Rim so when the sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising came out, it was a no-brainer we would go see it.
The sequel sadly for us was a major disappointment.
Set 10 years after the events of the first film, troubled Jake (John Boyega) son of the Idris Elba ‘ Stacker’ character of the first film is now stealing the highly valuable and desirable parts from fallen Jaeger robots.
When Jake is arrested, after being caught with young girl Amara (Cailee Spaeny) also out stealing parts, the 2 are offered a once in a lifetime chance to return to the Jaeger academy and serve as pilot and cadet respectively, to avoid prison by Mako, Raleigh co-pilot from the first film (Rinko Kikuchi) who has replaced Stacker.
As we return to the world of the Jaegers, much like the first film, the government are looking to reduce costs, especially as the threat of Kaiju creatures has seemingly been eliminated. Newton (Charlie Day) has worked with Liwen Shao (Tian Jing) to offer a cost-effective drone robot alternative to the 2 pilot operated machines.
As Mako attends a final assessment to determine if the drones are a valuable source, her helicopter is shot down by a rogue Jaeger which pretty much seals the go-ahead for the drone programme.
But then not a lot happens, Amara and some other young kids train as Jaeger cadets, Jake rebuilds the friendship that he destroyed with Nate (Scott Eastwood) his Jaeger co-pilot and they both flirt with Jules (Adria Arjona) a Jaeger engineer.
The Drones, however, have taken a mind of their own and reopened the ring of fire to release the Kaiju from their encased prison. The creatures, finally after a film which is like a kid’s Jaeger Academy film, with some great destruction scenes but by then, it felt too little, too late.
The creatures are heading for Mount Fuji for some elements which will make them even stronger, a theory discovered by Hermann (Burn Gorman)
To make matters worse Drones have destroyed the majority of Jaegers, leading to a situation where the kids most grow up and save the day by piloting the robots they manage to salvage.
Full of clichés, Amara who has struggled to pilot a Jaeger due to memories of seeing her family killed by the Kaiju and alienated as an outsider by the other young cadets who see her as getting a free pass to the academy they worked for suddenly manages to beat it and befriend the rest of her team.
Likewise, Jake, who has had no interest for the Jaegar program now fills with pride and builds a partnership with Nate who he had no respect for.
We were so disappointed by this film, we went to see the great Kaiju creatures who hardly appear in the film, and instead felt like a bland Transformers film
The only positives are a great performance from John Boyega, who has such enthusiasm he just about makes the film watchable plus a great comedy performance from Gorman as Hermann.
Sadly we found more wrong with it than right, the film despite under being 2 hours really dragged, the Charlie Day character who was one of the better things of the first film is turned into a poor mad scientist.
Boyega does so well but this in part because he has so much screen time, Eastwood and Arjona characters do nothing, likewise, Mako returns to seemingly just to connect it to the first film, as we centre on the Jake and Amara storylines.
If you like the Transformers film you will probably find something to enjoy at this film, for us hoping for a creature feature of the first we found this film a real let down.
You can view the trailer here:
Pre-order the film from Amazon:
Read our review of the better first film here:
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