At least Pacific Rim: Uprising knows what it is. The original had lots of Guillermo del Toro subplots that were promising but unfulfilling. Uprising dispenses with any subplots and just gives you Robots vs. Monsters. It’s empty movie calories, but more like a Garlic Bread movie and less like a diet Red Bull empty calorie movie.
Jake Pentecost (great name John Boyega gets to play) is Idris Elba’s son from the first Pacific Rim, choosing a life of exile. After a mishap with Amara (Cailee Spaeny), a girl who creates her own jaeger (i.e. robot), Jake gets pulled back into the military to teach new recruits with his former partner Nate (Scott Eastwood). The new jaegers are designed by Dr. Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), who is still a little sour his science pal Newt (Charlie Day) ran off with the Shao corporation and their leader Liwen (Tian Jing) to develop droned jaegers to potentially fight any kaiju (i.e. monsters) that might reappear.
I’m gonna keep this review short and simple. Pacific Rim: Uprising eschews all extraneous parts of a movie to serve its one main purpose. Completely minimized are the science subplots, character development, and deeper meaning behind the story. Thankfully, John Boyega has enough charisma by himself to carry a movie, and he does so admirably here (he does the same in The Force Awakens), and there’s just enough of everyone else to make you care at least a little about them. All Uprising really has to do is to make sure the monsters vs. robots fights are hella fun. Compared to the first film, Uprising’s fights don’t hit either the highs or the lows of Pacific Rim; they are just consistently decent battles. The battles, like clockwork, show up when the character development threatens to “consume” the movie instead of us watching robots beat up monsters or other robots. The best fight is in Russia, where Boyega and Eastwood wreak havoc on a mysterious jaeger. As the battle escalates, the robots get cooler and have different moves and weapons to hit the kaiju with, and they’re fun in the moment. But they will cut to a scene of someone in the jaeger brain in peril and you will NOT care about them, because those characters mean nothing compared to the monster or robot. So I recommend just sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying the ride and then forgetting it the minute you get home from the theatre.
Pacific Rim: Uprising reminds me of the Fifty Shades franchise. The first film, though mostly stupid, was a delight in moments and caught me by surprise with how much I liked it. Then the 2nd got rid of the first’s gambles in favor of pornography, much like Uprising just goes big and then goes home. If the 3rd Fifty Shades movie is any indication, maybe it’s time for this franchise to quit while they’re still ahead, and by ahead, I mean watchable.