PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (2018)

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) - 3+/10

I wasn’t expecting much from this unnecessary sequel of a film I loved. The original was such unabashed fun. This...was not. It definitely felt like an afterthought, using its budget on CGI that was decent but missing story elements that, even in its bare-bones predecessor, were far superior. The premise here is laughable and the action was flashy, but stakes-less and sub-par. It really had the ambition and feel of a made for TV sci-if movie, but with a huge budget.

Boyega was charismatic, when the script allowed for it without stifling him, but everyone else was fairly generic and stock. Eastwood is, frankly, a gravity well of appeal and allure. Like putting a 5 o’clock shadow on a mannequin.

The entire film is a “deus ex whatever-ya-need”. Impossible alien tech that no one knows about but is in everything and can do anything? Sure. Emotional subplots and arcs that materialize, manifest, and come to fruition without any gravitas or believability? Of course. Crazy insane experimental tech and pilot advances that show us that everything that had been happening in the last hour of the film was pointless? Definitely.

The points it gets for theoretically subverting the Chinese villainess idea are spent wantonly because her inclusion, dialogue, and emphasis was to open to and sell to the Chinese market. It all seemed cheap to me, not revolutionary. Perhaps I am being a cynic.I mean, I don’t remember the last mega-corporation tech empress who also becomes a tech trash hero out of nowhere to “save the day”. Extra marks for (ahem) logic and (hack) believability.

In the end, I didn’t buy her story, or really care. That was a problem. I didn’t glom on to his tale. Kind of important. And the side characters dillying is monotonous and eye-rolling. Other than the robot punches and eventual monsters, none of which had the magic or juice like the original, there isn’t anything to really enjoy. It is a passable mildly enjoyable, but completely vacant and conventional notch on the belt of science fiction mediocrity.