* * 1/2
On an exposition level, Pacific Rim: Uprising does what a sequel
should do. I have not seen the first Pacific
Rim (though Matt Zoller Seitz’s 4-star review piques my curiosity), and
this 2018 sequel told me all the basics of what I needed to know about the
world and the characters that inhabit the story. I felt at home right away, but
as Uprising continued on, though
entertaining, it’s one of those sequels that ultimately makes you wish you were
watching the first one instead. I repeat: I’ve not seen its predecessor and I
wish I was watching that.
A decade has passed since Jake
Pentecost (John Boyega) and his team took control of the Jaegers (colossal neural-controlled
battle bots) defeated the Kaijus (giant monsters that obliterate everything in
their path) and made Earth safe once again. In those 10 years, the world has mostly
healed and is fully functional. But Jake can’t live without living on the edge;
with Jaegers now outlawed, Jake makes a living off of Jaeger components on the
black market. He has a run-in with Amara (Cailee Spaeny), a young and
rebellious orphan. They are both caught with a Jaeger, and are arrested by the
Pan-Pacific Defense Corps. Jake is given a choice, though: go to prison, or go
to the PDCC as an instructor. He takes the latter. Amara joins alongside and
becomes a cadet.
Routine PDCC operations are
interrupted when a rogue Jaeger inexplicably attacks the city as well as the
PDCC base, taking a loved one of Jake’s in the process. Without saying too
much, the Kaiju threat may or may not be terminated after all. Jake bands together
with his former colleague Nate (Scott Eastwood) to save the world once again.
Meanwhile, Amara’s rebelliousness gets in the way of her training with the
inability to focus as well as frequent debacles with fellow students.
I’m not particularly proud of
this attempt at a plot synopsis. I’ll be completely honest that I had to refer
to Wikipedia a few times. It has nothing to do with an overly-confounding story,
but I was still lost from time to time. While I commend the courteous
exposition Uprising provided, there
was still so much jargon important to the world of Pacific Rim being thrown around that it quickly become a
head-scratching experience. On one hand, my fault for not seeing the first
film. On the other hand, a great sequel should always be able to (mostly) stand on its own.
It doesn’t help that action
scenes, at times are quite clunky. Though not nearly as bad as, say, a Michael
Bay film, action scenes become an overbearing torrent of hasty editing –
editing so fast I could barely keep up. The sequence where the PDCC base is
under attack is the worst offender. I was watching. I was attentive. Next thing
I knew, it was over. I actually mouthed to myself “what happened?”
There is a huge problem with
character balance as well. Uprising so
dearly wants to introduce key players into the Pacific Rim universe with Amara and the rest of her crew in
training (most of which are built up to have a significant role), but is so
badly wants to continue Jake and Nate’s stories. As for the supporting cast,
they just seem to exist in the background. And then there’s the villain; I can’t
reveal who it is, but their purpose feels so forcefully wedged in that it felt
like they were a last minute idea.
There’s sort of a love
triangle going on with Jake, Nathan, and Jules (Adria Arjona – I’m going to
assume she had a bigger part in the first film). This is brought up here and
there, but goes nowhere. Nowhere.
It’s not all bad, though. I
mentioned that the movie just can’t resist continuing Jake and Nathan’s story,
nor do I blame the movie. The two are great characters, Jake especially (his
character alone piques my interest in the predecessor even more). I feel it
would be redundant to go into the details of their characters as that’s
probably been established in the first film. Here, though, they’re frequently
at wits end: Jake is rebellious and off-the-chain, while Nathan runs a tight
ship by the books, by the numbers. Though they don’t seem to like each other,
there’s a deep mutual respect that’s warming to watch, especially in the film’s
third act.
Which brings me to my other
praise. As lesser-quality as the other battle sequences are, the climactic
third act is actually pretty entertaining – at least by comparison. Granted, I’ve
never been a big fan of large-scale battles between otherworldly colossuses,
but it was still pretty entertaining to see wanton destruction here. Though reminiscent
of something like Transformers, it’s
at least a lot more in-control here (this scene, specifically). Unfortunately,
this final act ends all too quickly on a borderline insultingly hand-wave
resolution. It ends in that “wait – it’s over already?” kind of way.
As lukewarm as Pacific Rim: Uprising was, it at least
wasn’t a slog and was entertaining from time to time. It’s probably not the
sequel that Pacific Rim fans deserve,
and the money to pay for the ticket may not be best spent here, but it won’t be
a complete waste. At the end of the day, though, it just kind of came and went,
but I could feel that it wanted to be a solid sequel (perhaps there was some
sort of snafu with the production company). There is a passionate heart pulsating
throughout Pacific Rim: Uprising, but
it was just too weak a pulse.
Interesting to see a review from someone who hasn't seen the first movie. That's atypical. But your point is valid -- the movie probably should be able to stand on its pen more than the way you've described... ultimately, you've confirmed a suspicion I had about this movie: this world didn't have much going for it outside the interesting (i.e. stupidly entertaining) premise of monsters vs mechas -- and that was contained in the first movie. THAT movie was entertaining, you should give it a whirl. Not that it didn't have it's plot holes, but hey. It's originality as a universe helped it in comparison.
ReplyDelete