Movie Review: Pacific Rim Uprising

I’m not sure why I had it in my head to see this movie. I was re-watching the original yesterday and it was about as silly as I recall. I get that these movies are supposed to be throwbacks to the old monster movies, like Godzilla, but there really is no heart, just a lot of special effects. And let me be clear, the special effects are amazing. The huge monsters and the huge mechs that fight them are quite impressive on the big screen. The story, with the son of Idras Elba’s character had less draw to it. John Boyega plays his estranged son, who has, in the past, gets thrown out of the flight school or something. There may be slight SPOILERS ahead, but really, I don’t know how much of the story I can talk about.

The premise of the overall story is basically that the bad monsters are gone, but there can never be enough production, so drones are being built and tested to replace the regular robats/mechs. They need another pilot to help train the new kids, so they’ve found John Boyega’s character in jail and told him he has to re-enlist or go to jail. He chooses the former option and brings a young kid with him, who has built her own mech. The two get there and the drones crash some event, putting more people in danger. Then one of the scientists from the first one who mind-melded with the bad monsters has secretly been a double agent and has been trying to get a gateway open so the monsters can come through and take over.

As you might expect, the good guys win. It wouldn’t work any other way, I suppose. There is a decent amount of diversity in this movie. The lead actor is of African descent, and he is paired with a white girl, but there are other people, of other colors throughout the movie, so that was nice. The female characters never need the guys to come save them, which is a nice change of pace. Overall, that aspect of the movie was strong. If you have kids, this might be too scary for them, especially in 3D, but it was fun. For $12, I’m not sure I’d recommend it.