Pacific Rim: Uprising is a formulaic but fun burst of giant robots and demolished cities. The film goes through the motions of a big blockbuster, but sci-fi fans have probably seen it all before. Giant monsters destroy a futuristic Tokyo? Check. Countless huge explosions? Check. Robots with badass codenames? Check. Endless slow motion shots? Check.
Set 10 years after the initial war against the monstrous Kaiju took place, we are introduced to the son of the 2013 Pacific Rim film lead, Stacker Pentecost, Jake. Like every other rebellious son of a fallen hero in a science fiction film, Jake is less concerned about saving the world and more interested in drinking, partying and stealing parts from abandoned giant robots, known as Jaegers. It is during one of his criminal escapades that he meets a young girl named Amara Namani and her home-built Jaeger, Scrapper. Chaos ensues, they are arrested and forced to join the Pan-Pacific Defence Corps (I.e. the guys with the big bots). Amara moves into the training program with a group of other talented teens to be taught by Jake and his old Jaeger co-pilot, Nate.
Following along with a recent trend, the kids were the focus of the film, which was clearly an attempt at picking up some of the younger sci-fi fans that have developed after mega-hit Stranger Things. This was not necessarily a downfall, as Hollywood has seemingly discovered an endless wealth of talented child stars over the past few years. The dynamics and teens’ personalities are pretty believable, a difficult feat when you are trying to appeal to both the original and a new audience. You still require a fairly big leap of faith to believe a group of teenagers are the only possible Jaeger pilots left to save the world by the end of the film though. Was nobody else trained for this in the past 10 years?
The few characters who return from the original film do not get much of a look in, and as a shell of their former selves (wink), most characters are used as a device for John Boyega to give a cheeky comeback to. Despite his taking away from the other characters, Boyega is still a lot of fun to watch and his British charm is adored. Pair that with a few hints of witty dialogue and a heart of gold, it is difficult to dislike Pacific Rim‘s new leading man. Average in nearly every way, you can’t really complain when you get exactly what you expect.
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