Pacific Rim: Uprising
2 stars
Director: Steven S. DeKnight
Stars: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny
Duration: 111 mins
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd
2013’s monster-machine mashup movie Pacific Rim earned a not insignificant $400 million at the international box office... nowhere near the numbers boasted by some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters (current champion Black Panther is on $1.2 billion and rising). It was enough for the film to spawn a wholly unnecessary sequel, one that pretty much emulates is predecessor in terms of disaster spectacle but wastes no time on plot or characterisation.
Pacific Rim: Uprising charts events 10 years after the climax of the original film which narrated the conflict between the ‘Kaiju’, giant reptilian monsters from the deepest recesses of the Pacific Ocean, and the Jaegers, the gargantuan super-machines built to defeat them and controlled by pilots of the Pan Pacific Defence Corps. These pilots work in twos, connected by a neural bridge to navigate the machines. The world was saved when the underwater breach was closed by heroic Jaeger Marshal Stacker Pentecost, who gave his life to ensure the success of the operation by detonating a nuclear bomb.
Humankind has sort of recovered, trying to get back to a semblance of normality on a planet that still bears the scars of the massive destruction it suffered. Yet, the threat posed by the Kaiju still lingers. Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), Stacker’s son, has abandoned his own pilot training, claiming “I am not my father’’, and instead is living the life of a petty thief.
Jake’s exploits land him in jail and he is bailed by his adopted sister, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), herself a high-ranking official in the PPDC. Her only condition is that he re-joins the corps, which he does under protest, especially when he discovers he must work once more with long-time rival Lambert (Scott Eastwood).
But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed Jake has to step up, set aside his personal issues, and with a generation of new Jaeger pilots by his side, fight once more against the threat of total annihilation.
Any attempt at characterisation, depth or acting is overwhelmed by the scenes of wanton destruction
If the characters (spoiler alert) are successful in their latest battle versus Armageddon, the actors playing them fare less successfully. Any attempt at characterisation, depth or, you know, actual acting is completely overwhelmed by the scenes of wanton destruction that comprise a good two-thirds of the film’s running time.
Each scene features more devastation than the one before... yet still comes across as nothing much more than a mindless, alienating cacophony of massive explosions, grinding metal, falling buildings, disappearing roads, seaquakes and running hordes of people escaping the threat.
You can’t quite fault the actors for failing to register any impact, emotional or otherwise, amid all this mayhem. It doesn’t help that the majority of the dialogue is laced with stilted scientific gobbledygook and jingoistic babble. Nor that there is plenty of shouting going on.
With two acclaimed Star Wars films under his belt, Boyega just about makes it out with his dignity intact, slipping into hero mode with ease, tough-guying it with the best of them, the mostly stale and occasionally droll dialogue tripping easily from his mouth.
Eastwood carries on the square-jawed tradition of his daddy. Newcomer Cailee Spaeny does feisty as 15-year-old Jaeger hacker-turned-trainee-pilot Amara.
Burn Gorman and Charlie Day return from the original as bickering scientists Dr Hermann Gottlieb and Dr Newt Geiszler – the best thing about Pacific Rim. While the former acquits himself rather well with grace under fire, the latter chews the scenery rather unnecessarily. An international consortium of actors make up the myriad scientists, military officers and pilots that make up the ensemble, offering rather anonymous support.