Pacific Rim: Uprising (2D)

Director: Steven S. DeKnight

Quick Impressions:
A big monster runs amok Tokyo. (Surely that’s not a spoiler for anyone who has seen the first Pacific Rim.)

In this surprise sequel to 2013’s tale of Kaiju vs Jaeger, a lot is going on. I feel like if someone were to ask me about the plot, I’d take a breath and reply, “Okay, well A is doing x when he runs across B doing y, and they run afoul of C who takes them back to z where they meet D, E, F, and G. Meanwhile H, I, J, K and L are trying to do a. But then we meet M, who seems kind of shady, and we’re reintroduced to N and O. Only something must be up with O, which we later learn is P…”

At this point, my friend would interrupt in dizzy confusion, “Wait! What?”

And I’d take a deep breath and say, “A big monster runs amok in Tokyo.”

Pacific Rim: Uprising features tons of new and returning characters, all with their own troubled backgrounds and misguided agendas, and basically every single one of them is on a journey of growth. But when you pare the story down to the most barebones level, a monster running amok in Tokyo is the big payoff of the whole thing.

And isn’t that what we all want from a movie about Kaiju? An updated version of the Godzilla story with a few surprises in the plot and state of the art special effects?

I’m not so sure that Pacific Rim needed a sequel, but this one is lots of fun and seems designed to launch a franchise which our family would continue to watch. (My daughter completely forgot that she even saw the first movie, and she seemed a little bewildered early on, but even under these circumstances, the movie managed to engage her by the end.)  It really is a lot of fun.

The Good:
The basic formula for this film is simple and easy to describe. It is almost exactly like a sci-fi B movie from the 1950s enhanced with the special effects of today.

And that’s not an insult. Old B movies are great. They’re usually well plotted and even if elements are silly or unlikely, they still make sense within the world of the movie.

Honestly, I would have preferred the movie without the special effects and CGI. The action scenes are too chaotic, busy, loud, and jumbled for me. They literally overwhelmed my brain, and my mind just turned off. But this is a limitation of my brain, not a criticism of the movie. The rest of my family really liked all the action. At one point, my daughter leaned over and whispered to me in excitement, “This would look so awesome in 3D!”

Despite a teeming cast of characters with varying agendas and levels of interconnectedness and a dizzying editing style that can induce panic attacks as we plunge rapidly from scene to scene, Pacific Rim: Uprising actually surprised me by having a completely coherent plot. It even explains a few things that we were still scratching our heads about at the end of the first movie. Well, basically one thing. But it’s kind of a big thing. (Now if you’re like me, you might find yourself saying incredulously, “Wait! That’s what they were trying to do? Wow. They were really bad at it!” Still, though, it fills in some gaps.)

The story sticks to formula and reminds us how satisfying formulaic writing can be as it rewards us with massive payoff in the form of all these meaningful callback moments. If something is painstakingly told or shown to us, it will come back later, and it will be important.

The beginning of the movie just jumps right in, and it’s a bit chaotic. Then the next part of the movie introduces thirty thousand characters and jumps all over the place, and it’s even more chaotic. But then…

The movie gets really good.

Once everybody finally gets pointed in the same direction, the story suddenly finds focus and energy, and the payoff of all those earlier scattered moments hits all at once.

Then a monster runs amok in Tokyo, and a big disorienting action scene ensues, and I zone out so completely that I jolt with shock when I remember that I’m currently watching a movie.  And then…

The movie is over. But…

Wait! There might be a sequel!

I kind of hope there is a sequel. This installment features some fantastic characters.  I love Idris Elba, but obviously Stacker Pentecost can’t return, and John Boyega is convincing and charming as his son Jake. With his mustache and accent, Boyega is quite different from his Star Wars character (though not so different from his persona in interviews). He has fantastic chemistry with Rinko Kikuchi. I wish Jake and Mako had more scenes together.

Cailee Spaeny as Amara Namani is the reason my nine-year-old started to engage with the movie. She’s great and I’d be delighted to see her again.

Scott Eastwood looks so much like his dad that it actually distracted me. His character is charismatic enough (though I’m not quite sure what’s going on with Adria Arjona. These two need more development for sure next time around).

I liked all the young actors playing cadets and was particularly delighted to see Karan Brar because my daughter spent so much time binge watching Jessie last summer that she brainwashed me into caring deeply about the entire cast. (Actually, I’m always happy to see a young Disney Channel star escape and start making mainstream movies.)

I also found Jin Zhang extremely compelling and wish I could have seen more of him.

Two scene stealers from the first film, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are back. Their previous storyline was one of my favorites, and they both play significant roles here, especially in the third act. Gorman is kind of awesome, in fact, just as much a hero as any of the cadets in the program.

My favorite new character by far is Tian Jing’s Liwen Shao. She’s captivating from the start, but her character grows increasingly awesome as the story advances.  I really love her.

The cast in this film is so diverse and multinational that it will surely do well overseas. For that reason, even if Uprising performs only decently at the domestic box office, I could imagine the studio greenlighting at least one more installment in the franchise. (I could be wrong, though. I have no head for business.)

Unlike the original, Pacific Rim: Uprising does not run its catchy theme music into the ground. In fact, we really only hear the soaring theme once. Since the first movie definitely over used the theme, that restraint should be a big plus, but I must admit that when the stirring theme music did begin to play, I found myself thinking regretfully, I wish they had let us hear that horrible earworm every ten seconds like last time!


Best Scene:
The big confrontation/reveal/discovery in the lab at Shao Industries really kicks the movie into high gear. Even if you’re like me, and the action sequences send you into sensory overload, you should find this moment exciting. It focuses on my favorite characters, and it provides the movie’s closest thing to a plot twist, which is kind of exhilarating even if you see it coming (which you will).

Runner up is the last scene between Jake Pentecost and Mako Mori who have a convincing rapport. Boyega and Kikuchi have fantastic chemistry together.  It’s easy to see these two siblings have a complex and loving relationship.

Best Scene Visually:
The action in Uprising reminds me of what we get in Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. The last big battle sequence actually reminded me a lot of Transformers 3. (Isn’t that the one with Carly where they spend so long falling down the building?) The way the windows break in all the skyscrapers as big robotic arms slash through them and stuff…

I find it all very disorienting. It’s like I’m being held prisoner in a kaleidoscope, or I have vertigo and stumble into a kinetic sculpture made of reflective metal shards. And it’s all really loud!

Even when the battles are not happening, this movie rushes into and between scenes so quickly that something as simple as two people having a conversation feels like action because we jump so violently from scene to scene.

So visually, what I liked best were the few moments that were easiest for me to process. There’s one scene very late in the film when someone yells, “Amara!” And then we see her look up. I remember finding that shot visually soothing. I also love it every time we see Burn Gorman’s face in a blue room.

The very visually oriented introduction to John Boyega’s character and his lifestyle works quite well, too.

Best Action Sequence:
As I’ve said, the action sequences sent me into sensory overload. But that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t able to focus on and appreciate some isolated moments during these long intervals of frantic activity.

I really liked the first encounter between Jake Pentecost and Amara. During their interaction in the small Jaeger, my daughter first stopped fidgeting and began to enjoy the movie.

Of course, I couldn’t stop thinking, How often does this happen to John Boyega? He winds up in the cockpit of an amazing vehicle, and the young girl with him is like, “Shut up! I’m driving!” 

It was hard not to think of Finn and Rey in The Force Awakens.

The last action sequence is so long that it takes up a full third of the movie, so my focus drifted, but I did love Shao’s role in the excitement. She’s a promising character played by a charismatic actress. I liked her a lot.

The Negatives:
Obviously I’m not a fan of the relentless action that sent me into sensory overload, but the rest of my family liked it, so clearly that’s more a flaw with me than with the movie.

I did find myself frequently frustrated by the way the interactions between John Boyega and Scott Eastwood were playing out on screen. Both men are handsome and charismatic. They bring considerable charm to their roles. But somehow the timing of their interactions seems off. I didn’t really feel the emotional heft of the tension that was supposed to exist between them, and I think the pacing of their scenes as well as the timing between scenes had something to do with that.

What did work brilliantly was the onscreen relationship between Boyega and Kikuchi. I easily believed Jake and Mako were brother and sister. In fact, it wasn’t until their last big scene together (in which she asks him to accompany her) that I truly believed Jake Pentecost was the guy he was supposed to be with the history he was supposed to have. But then they had no more scenes together! How disappointing! I wanted more Jake and Mako, and more Mako in general.

Another small detail that bothered me is what happens with Scott Eastwood’s character at the end. The state he is in and what he is able to accomplish do not quite add up from my point of view.

I also think the movie doesn’t really find its stride until two thirds of the way through. The beginning is enjoyable enough, but once everybody comes together focused on a single objective at the end, the film improves exponentially to the extent that it almost feels like a different (and far superior) movie.

The beginning is a bit overcrowded with characters who have only accidental relationships with one another. Does it need to focus on both Jake’s story and Amara’s story given that they have completely different backgrounds and completely different journeys for the first two thirds of the film? There’s a lot going on with Jake and Nate. There’s just as much going on with Amara and the cadets. Neither story gets the full emotional development it deserves because the movie ambitiously tries to jump between both. And then we also have Mako and Chao and the two scientists. There’s just a lot going on and not much time to give any single element the development it deserves.

To be brutally honest, this film is not quite as good as its predecessor simply because the original Pacific Rim contains that brilliant scene featuring the young Mako (by far the best part of the entire movie and now the franchise). But this is a worthy sequel that delivers everything fans of Pacific Rim would expect.

Overall:
I hope they do make more installments of Pacific Rim because my family and I will gladly watch. The cast is charismatic. The characters show a lot of promise. The plot is surprisingly coherent with room for natural growth. If you liked the first Pacific Rim, then you should like Pacific Rim: Uprising, too.

For what it is, the movie is actually quite good.  Just don’t expect anything but a B movie plot enhanced by expensive special effects because that’s exactly what Pacific Rim: Uprising will give you.