Film Review: Pacific Rim Uprising

"This Is The Way The World Ends..."

With Guillermo del Toro joyously arriving home earlier this month with a couple of Academy Awards in his back pocket for The Shape of Water, his latest rousing critical success is brought somewhat back down to earth with the release of Pacific Rim Uprising, a sequel to del Toro's 2013 ridiculously silly action gargantuan which in all fairness, is more painfully cheesy than entertaining, and a film which brings to mind the middling rough patch the Mexican seemingly went through before this year's resounding return to form. Swapping the director's chair for a producing role however, the job of taking hold of the unnecessary sequel falls to Steven S. DeKnight of Daredevil Season One fame, undeniably the strongest Marvel/Netflix release to date, whose big-screen debut features John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) as Jake Pentecost, son of the legendary General Stacker Pentecost as portrayed by Idris Elba (Thor: Ragnarok) in the first film, who swaps his life of thieving and black market dealings for a return to the fold in line with the Jaeger program after a fresh threat arises from the destructive, otherworldly Kaiju. With awful dialogue, a woeful lack of emotional investment and endless, mind-numbing overblown action set pieces, Uprising is unsurprisingly utter tosh, and even when some of the characters at times threaten to make the film more interesting than it should be, it's plain to see that the main function of DeKnight's cinematic debut is of course, solely monetary.

Whilst the first feature was just straightforward, unadulterated nonsense with an added layer of awfulness due to Charlie Hunnam's vacuous leading character, the performances of both Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi meant that the film was at least likeable to a certain degree, and with the latter one of the more interesting returning characters added to the fold once again, her particular narrative strand within Uprising is systemic to the problems of the film. Far too many times are new and returning characters given so little to do in terms of engaging character development that when the film does eventually heed to the wishes of its' true and fundamental natures in the form of CGI-engulfed action sequences, not one audience member actually really cares who does what and who makes it out alive. With it becoming patently clear that any movie touched by the woeful "talent" of both Charlie Day (Fist Fight) and Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad) is destined to be labelled as god-awful, Uprising does at least benefit from a committed, cockney-fuelled performance from the ever-charismatic Boyega and a runtime which improves on the staggeringly long length of its' predecessor, but with a concluding act which makes Man of Steel look like a Woody Allen movie and a jarring post-credits sequence which makes you roll your eyes in utter condemnation of the movie's future possibilities, Uprising doesn't totally suck, it's just the type of movie you watch with a blank expression and let it leave your consciousness as soon as its' over. If you stay awake that is.

Overall Score: 4/10

Pacific Rim - Review -SPOILERS-

If you have been following me on Twitter, you are sure to have noticed my excitement over this film. If you haven't been following my Twitter, go ahead and follow, Its free!
Here is a collection of reasons why I fan girled over this movie:
1) Giant monsters
2) Idris Elba
3) Carnage
4) Massive fights

A general overview of the story is an alien invasion via the Pacific ocean by an alien race using giant monsters. We spend most of the time in Hong Kong, which isn't a surprise after the whole Godzilla incident.  To defend against the incoming assaults, the human race bands together to fight the ugly bastards. So looking at the basics of the story, we can find it to be a little simplistic or basic yet it follows a few little sub stories throughout. One is the research team, which takes you onto the streets of Hong Kong and into its dark underworld ruled by Hannibal Chau (Ron Perlman). Another is the story behind the damaged Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) which explains her connection to Idris' Stacker Pentecost. The little stories inevitably collide and aid the final event, but it is nice that it jumps between them and doesn't overplay the action scenes.

Speaking of actors and the action, both were brilliantly executed. The crazy researchers were both irritable but comedic in their own style which makes their performances stick out vividly in my mind, but the main man for me was Idris Elba, whose ability to switch between anger to a calm silence

which makes you shiver in anticipation for his next move. As you see in the trailer, Idris has a prominent speech to raise morale. A well written speech, well performed with a vigour that makes his character even more believable. I do have a couple of bones to pick with acting though. A scene which entails a young Mako Mori is disturbing and wrong on so many levels. Good child actors are hard to come across, but when she moans like she's in an Asian porn movie on repeat, it turns a few heads and should have been toned down to avoid such incidents.

As one of the only giant monster movies in recent years, its safe to say that it has enough to compensate for the years the genre has been non existent. In true Hellboy fashion, monsters are big, stunning to look at and violence is plentiful, splashed with wisps of humour. The action and fight scenes were incredible and great fun to watch. Shots are erratic and hard to track but immerses you into the settings while disorientating you like our heroes. If you are anything like me, you would have been giggling and laughing like a little kid at the sheer carnage and the severe beatings that were being rained down by both sides.

Just looking at the scenes, it is obvious that the film had a huge budget and FX specialists worked day and night to create some of the best visual effects that I have ever seen.  Everything looked real; the scales on the beasts, water rippling at every move, glass twinkling in the Hong Kong's neon and the general scenery which was flawless all the way though. Even set pieces were gorgeous. The blending of so many colours, lights and debris was stunning and is the perfect example of what the area would look like. We also have the costumes which were a mix of many different style. From a Sci-fi white to a badass carbon fibre armour, the suits are simplistic, yet elegant. It's also nice to see that the women aren't sexualised throughout with skimpy armour and little clothing. You will also notice Hannibal's distinctive golden armour plated shoes which are just crazy and would fit well in my collect, so if you know where I can find them, be sure to comment below!

I'm still pumped from seeing it and want to get my hands on anything and everything in relation to the movie (Already got the soundtrack!), which will most likely be a badass poster and maybe my first collectable statue. But anyway, the movie is a must see blockbuster hit. Certainly one of my favourite films of this year and is a good summer smasher, so this movie shall be getting a 8/10 simply for its generic story and a few little niggly bits throughout.