Review: Pacific Rim Uprising Smashes Into Cinemas

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Pacific Rim came out in 2013 and was a guilty pleasure for those that love big robots fighting large monsters.

The first film's North America take was soft, but the film made enough money worldwide to warrant a sequel almost five years later called Pacific Rim Uprising.

Pacific Rim Uprising has a better cast in my opinion as Star Wars' John Boyega is much more likable than the bland Charlie Hunnam.

That said, the sequel is not all perfect thanks to a surprisingly slow start that doesn't get better until towards the end.

Basically, Pacific Rim Uprising takes place 10 years after the first one and Earth is somewhat safer than it used to be. However, a new threat emerges that forces Earth's defenses to suit up and fight the Kaiju one more time. 

While the story is straightforward and has a few twists, the pace of the film is very slow at the start as it takes a long time to develop some of the newer characters.

Aside from Boyega's Jake Pentecost, another main character in the film is Amara Namani played by the young actress Cailee Spaeny.

Amara is basically a rebel Jaeger pilot who's training with other young cadets to be proper Jaeger pilots.

It's this focus on the younger characters that drags the film a bit in the beginning because there's a lack of action for the majority of this movie.

Thankfully, things start to pick up towards the end once you know of the Kaiju's plan and everyone is forced to suit up and fight.

The CGI battles in this movie look amazing and unlike the first movie, most of the action scenes are nice and bright as they are set in the day time.

If you plan on watching Pacific Rim Uprising, make sure to watch it in the cinema because that's the best way you can experience the epic looking fighting scenes.

Not only do the visuals look nice, but the audio effects are also as impressive.

The only actor in the film that made me cringe is Charlie Day who plays the scientist character named Dr. Newton Geiszler.

They tried to make him sort of a comic relief type character, but his performance came off as more awkward and unfunny in my opinion.

Fans of the first movie might not like Uprising because most of the major actors in the original film are missing. Rinko Kikuchi only gets a small part while Charlie Hunnam is nowhere to be found. 

As a whole, Pacific Rim Uprising is not a bad movie, but it's not a very good one either. If I were to watch this movie again, I'd skip most of the beginning parts to just watch the action scenes again.

I still enjoyed parts of the film, but it's not a movie I'd watch from beginning until end multiple times thanks to the slow parts that drag it down.

Verdict: 3/5 stars

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Universal Pictures