Jake Pentacost (John Boyega) is a Jaeger Pilot, like his father before him. Controlling giant robots, sent to defend the world against the Kaiju, monsters sent from another dimension, Pentacost teams up with rival pilot Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) and a young hacker Amara (Cailee Spaeny). Together with some old friends and enemies, the world will shake under the weight of their wrath.
We say, “Giant monster movie, loud!”
TAYLOR: Don’t go to Pacific Rim: Uprising expecting to be able to take a twenty dollar nap. It’s too dang loud. Maybe the speakers were cranked in the theatre, the trailers and commercials did seem pretty loud too. Maybe I’m just getting old.
HOWE: Yes you are. I know we slagged the first instalment off with how bad it was, mainly due to Charlie Day being loud and obnoxious. I found this next part to be pretty good and I can’t believe I just said that. Yes Day is still loud, yes he is still very obnoxious but I didn’t mind him this time round.
TAYLOR: He’s only in it for a couple minutes. I had low expectations for Pacific Rim: Uprising. The film, like its predecessor, asks so many leaps of of the audience that everything becomes meaningless. The Jaegers, (the giant robots) are piloted by two people that have to “mind meld” then strap themselves into a device whereby they mimic the actions they want the robot to do. So if the robot is running, it’s because the pilots inside are running. Same works for punching, grabbing, jumping through the air, etc. This is just too silly. I could imagine such machines as possible before I could imagine any real utility. Somebody said, “Let’s have giant robots (that aren’t Transformers) fight giant monsters (that aren’t Godzilla.)” It is doubtful that they also then said, “and let plot points fall where they may,” yet this seems to have been the case. If you’re not paying attention, it isn’t going to matter.
HOWE: The story line is very stupid, the monsters look like they are made out of playdough and the acting is way over the top. Yet for some reason I had fun watching it. Maybe it was because I didn’t take it seriously. Maybe because it is silly and I didn’t enjoy the first one I had lower expectations for this and I was able to disengage my brain. Whatever the reason, you are able to take the younger kids, it is clean, no swearing, it has action and it is not so scary that they will have nightmares.
Howe gives Pacific Rim: Uprising 3 Transformer lookalikes out of 5.
Taylor gives it 2 useful stealth bombers out of 5.
— Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon.
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