In Pacific Rim: Uprising`s climax, Tokyo and Mount Fuji appear a mere few miles apart, which they most certainly are not. It makes for an exciting battle that falls apart when you stop to examine it. That may sound like a nitpick, but it`s a good metaphor for the rest of the film.There was something magical about the original Pacific Rim`s giant monster battles, glossy, rain-slicked colors, and seemingly effortless world-building. It`s possible the sequel never stood a chance at living up to that, especially since visionary director Guillermo del Toro chose to focus on The Shape of Water, which won the best picture Oscar for 2017, instead of returning to direct Pacific Rim Uprising. Sure enough, Uprising is a disappointing, if bold, sequel.Uprising takes place 10 years after the original and follows new and returning characters as they battle yet another Kaiju threat. There hasn`t been a new attack since Idris Elba`s character, Stacker Pentecost, helped close the `breach` in the original, and the sequel can`t seem to decide whether we`ve grown complacent since then or doubled down on our defenses. The first movie did a great job communicating the status of Jaegers all around the world, and you felt the stakes heighten as they were one-by-one destroyed; this time around, it`s unclear where humanity`s defenses stand, or why the Jaegers and pilots we do see are the only ones the movie focuses on.At the start, John Boyega`s Jake Pentecost, Stacker`s estranged son, parties in the wreckage of Malibu, giant Kaiju skeletons draped across nearby hillsides. He`s a dropout of the Jaeger pilot program, which for the purposes of this movie is composed of half-trained teenage cadets at a base in China. There may be more pilots at other sites around the world, but Uprising lacks the original`s deftness at worldbuilding, so as far as we`re shown, this is it.Into that program comes Cailee Spaeny`s Amara Namani, an orphan who somehow built her own (albeit comparatively pint-size ...
|
