User reviews

Although I did enjoy this movie, and it was a joy to watch on the big screen, the overall tone, and mood are so different from the first. The difference between fight scenes at night vs broad daylight may not seem like a big deal, but for some reason it really stood out to me. It just feels like this one was more geared toward kids, and potentially selling action figures. I didn't hate it by any means, but it really lacked what made the first one so unique, and intriguing to me.

A sequel to a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters. What was expected? Bigger robots fighting bigger monsters. The same thing with little tweaks - as most sequels do. What we got?

A product. A film generated by an AI. I wasn't there, but I assume it went something like this. The first meeting of the creators of this movie follows.

Ok, Google, what do modern kids like?

1. Robots (Transformers) 2. Scary cool monsters 3. Robots fighting monsters 4. Robots fighting robots 5. Memes from 2009 (Trololo sing) really? + memes from 2017 (the salt). 6. Horribly executed kid rebel subplots (Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Hunger games whatever) 7. Action 8. Forced drama? 9. Bad jokes?

Ok, let's take The Independence Day Resurgence's basic plot and fail miserably at everything. Done.

In other words, there is nothing in this movie besides action scenes. The plot lives on its own, there are no characters, and even their substitutes are completely disconnected from the dead plot. Nothing they do matter, it just follows typical cliches until the end. It even gets confusing at some point, but then you see the light at the end of the tunnel. It rushes the ending knowing that by this point nobody cares.

All the dialogue is cringe-worthy. Most of the actors are just having fun knowing that there's no need to get invested into anything here. Sadly, Scott Eastwood's face is stuck in one emotion and is unable to display anything else.

CGI crews did a good job, I guess. Looks fine. There's even one creative action scene involving buildings. Other than that the action is generic, even IMAX can't make it feel better. Maybe it would've been more impressive but the overabundance of CGI city destruction in modern blockbusters seriously lowers the threshold for getting impressed by CGI.

I'd compare this to a long video game cut-scene, but modern games have more character development and creative visuals in their cut-scenes. For instance, pretty much all Blizzard cut-scenes are visual masterpieces.

Final verdict: not entertaining on the big screen and a total waste of time for home viewing.

The story is senseless and is very poorly told. I just don't know who is who, who is good or who is bad. It is so silly to see the characters running inside the robot to make the robot run. If technology is so advanced, couldn't they just make a neural link? The only good thing is that this time the film is in daylight, so at least I can see what is happening.

I absolutely love the original Pacific Rim. I felt that the film was a love letter for adults that love Robots fighting Aliens. The Monsters were unique and interesting. The fights were bone-crunching. The Sounds the Kaiju made were great.

Unfortunately, Pacific Rim: Uprising loses the gravity and heart of the first film and is really made for kids this time round. There are a few "cringey" moments and it all seems a lot more light-hearted. The storyline is ok but it feels like there is a great film in there and it just couldn't get out. Perhaps they should have spent a little longer improving the storyline and having slightly less kids.

Anyway, don't get me wrong, the action scenes are incredible and they are worth the admission price alone, but it feels like a missed opportunity. The ending also feels a bit rushed. I think I'll get the film when it comes out and just fast-forward all the talking bits and just watch the Robot action and Monster fights. That's where this film succeeds.

Pacific Rim (2013) was big, it was dumb, and it was oddly enjoyable but when I watched the trailer for Uprising it looked like 2hrs of stupidity painted liberally with cgi.

I'm not wrong often when it comes to these things, but I was wrong here. Uprising is stupid and it is heavy on the cgi (As it had to be I suppose) but it's also a lot of fun just like the first movie.

The cast however are mostly different and that's a very mixed bag. Scott Eastwood is awful, he's just the absolute pits and has no place in front of a camera. His father was dire initially as well, so if he follows suit with his father he'll be a bearable actor by around the age 60 mark!

Next we have John Boyega whose choice of roles explains why I'm not keen on him. He played a Storm trooper gone good in Star Wars, he was a chav moron in Attack the Block and here he's a criminal turned hero. Sorry but that just doesn't work for me, why is he always the good guy with bad roots?

And finally of those note worthy we have Cailee Spaeny who was excellent, very likeable, very talented and I hope this girl has a bright career ahead of her as based on this performance she deserves it.

The movie itself is exactly what you'd expect, it follows on well from the previous movie and adds to the universe well but ultimately is just dumb take your brain out over the top fun. And you know something, that's okay! Not every movie needs to be smart or well constructed, sometimes you just need to see big flashy cgi robots beating up big scary cgi monsters!

I hope there is a third (And probably final) movie to wrap things up. The franchise is never exactly going to produce outstanding movies but for simple silly fun they tick all the right boxes.

The Good:

Big dumb fun

Cailee Spaeny

The Bad:

John Boyega is simply not up to filling Idris Elba's boots

I struggle to get behind criminal protagonists

Scott Eastwood

Felt like it should have been longer

Of course, adults are incompetent at doing anything to save the world, so the tweens must do it alone. Heard this plot line before? A thousand times? Of course you have. It's not any better this time.

You're not missing anything of substance by skipping this one. Just stick to the original and stay happy.

I'm a fan of the first movie so I watched this sequel as soon as it comes out. I checked out some info about the movie before watching it and was disappointed to see some of the main actors and even the director were replaced. But after watching it even with negative assumption, I was still awed nonetheless.

Simply said, if you enjoyed the first movie, then you'll most likely enjoy this one as well.

I noticed that this movie is more oriented towards children and uhm, manchild. Most of the parents I saw after exiting the cinema look just okay, while their children were very excited.

Don't watch this movie while expecting superb acting or stellar storyline, go watch it while expecting to see giant robots punching other giant robots and monsters. But hey, at least I can safely state that the plot and acting are still way way way better than the Transformer franchise.

In conclusion, this sequel lives up to its supposed expectation as the most awesome dumb movie (as said by Honest Trailer).

Man, this movie should have been named as Pacific Rim Next Generation: Dawn of Evangelion, With Transformers Involved.

Will admit to enjoying the first 'Pacific Rim'. It wasn't great or perfect as an overall film, and somewhat of a case of style over substance, but it entertained and did well on delivering on its objectives. The involvement of Guillermo Del Toro and Idris Elba are reasons enough to see the film

Really do wish that the same can be said for its sequel 'Pacific Rim: Uprising'. The trailer was not good and the reviews not great (one of the weaker received films of those released so far this year), but saw it anyway due to liking the first film enough and wanted to see something that was pretty much the same sort of thing quality-wise (and perhaps with improvements). No such luck. 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' turned out to be a dull and soulless sequel and film, and one that comes over as pointless at the end of the day.

Starting with what 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' excelled with, which sadly is not much, much of the cinematography and editing are slickly atmospheric, the production design is gritty and audacious and some of the effects are top-notch.

Some of the action and spectacle is exciting, they're big and over-the-top but appropriately so. John Boyega is a reasonable and charismatic lead and the only actor to come over well.

On the other hand, nowhere near as good a job is done with the direction, nowhere near as in command of or at ease with the material the action, making for a film that tries to be both silly fun and taking itself seriously but fails at both and neither gels. The film doesn't know what it's trying to be, it can be dully paced and target audience is not easy to figure out due to the film's muddled done.

Boyega aside, the acting is very bad, especially from Charlie Day and Burn Gorman who are as irritating as they were before. 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' also has some cringe-worthy, childish and vomit-inducingly inane dialogue and paper thin stereotypical characterisation (enough to tick off the long list of cliches one by one in quick succession) where not much is done to develop the characters and make one properly care for them. There are clumsy and unnecessary references to the first film too and there is too much exposition that really bogs things down.

Although there are instances of them being good, other effects are cartoonish. A lot of the action doesn't work, not very inventive and not always cohesive let alone exhilarating. A big case of a lot of noise and attempted style but not a lot of brains or soul. Worst of all is the story, which is dull, ridiculous, barely coherent and with a cobbled together glued badly feel and a complete lack of emotional investment.

Concluding, a mess apart from a few good things. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The movie has the robots, the badass fight scenes, the enjoyable cast of characters and all the makings of a fun time. For most part, it is. However, when compared to the first it lacks that certain reverence for its inspiration which shows most apparently when watching the action.

Character scenes aside, since the first was no winner in this department either, what Pacific Rim did amazingly well was craft gargantuan mechs and monsters that we can remember. Uprising almost feels like the director was following a checklist, but forgot to watch the first one to see how Del Toro put it all together to make it special. The result is a 'cool' and 'badass' robot v monster fight scene collection that ultimately fails to resonate.

As a sequel, it also fails to cover any new ground. This is most likely due to having to basically cast a whole new group of characters, give them scenes rather than simply starting off where the last left it. Consequently we don't really get too much more info in terms of what or how or why things happen, only that the Kaiju are coming again and we gotta stop them.

Pacific Rim Uprising fixed the pacing issues from the original, but thats about it. Otherwise, more doesn't always equal better sums it up pretty well. It IS still a fun watch, especially if Jaeger v Kaiju action was what you're looking for in the first place.

Strangely enough, the quality of big blockbuster movies is reaching the point where they have the same level of quality as those of game cinematics. The acting part and the "story" are so forgettable that the CGI is all that remains. And the CGI is stupid. I mean, not bad, just completely dumb. I've seen this done real time in computer games. The creators of this movie bet big money on condescendingly telling their entire audience that they are cretins for watching and, of course, paying for this. The whole movie is stupid, not the CGI, the CGI is slightly more interesting.

And you might think that I am one of those haters, but I am not. I actually loved the actors and how they played. Imagine good actors, waiting and training their entire life to get into the big leagues, and when they get there they have to perform admirably... on a dumb script. I am not going through it, just consider this: the entire premise of the movie is that kaiju blood reacts violently with rare earth minerals. So all you need to do is shoot him with rare earth mineral bullets! It was that bad.

There are a lot of poor reviews on here from people expecting some high class masterpiece of emotion and intrigue it would seem. If you saw the first film or the trailer for this one and didn't expect PR: Uprising to be a big, dumb, loud battle royale then you're an idiot.

For those who DID enjoy the first film or who are fans of giant monster movies, humongous mechas, and Power Rangers in general you're probably going to find this film quite the trip.

While it does take some time to get going and makes several leaps of logic it is extremely entertaining and a highly serviceable continuation of the original, featuring some much improved Jaegers and a final battle that will absolutely blow you away.

Yes, it's stupid and fast paced, but so was the first and that was made by the great Del Toro, who's fingerprints are still very much all over this film if you look hard enough; just look at the names alone!

Just watch the film, turn off your brain and enjoy the ride. You'll thank me later...

It does not matter who your parents are, where you came from, who believed in you and who didn't. We are a family now, and we are earth's last defense.

What amazed me the most was the fact that I couldn't remember much of "Pacific Rim", even though I thought it was an original-looking film years ago. No worries. Little by little everything is explained again in such a way that I partially knew it again. And even though "Pacific Rim" wasn't high-quality cinema and simply a very expensive monster film with superb looking computer-generated images, the film impressed me at the time. "Pacific Rim" was brainless amusement with a high entertainment value. This sequel is simply a duplicate with other main characters in identical Jaegers. But it's so irritating and annoying mostly. I was hoping this time the Kaiju's took control and destroyed planet earth. That way we don't need to be afraid of a possible sequel in the future.

Since the design and subject are identical to that of the initial film, one could say that it's thanks to Guillermo Del Toro the first film was kind of a success. But that's a bit simplistic to state, in my opinion. I rather think there are several factors that ensure that you can't really call this a successful film. This time the entire Jaeger program shifts from a mature world to that of teenagers. We end up in a cadet school where young people are trained to become Jaeger pilots. A bit like in "Ender's game" but now it's not in space. And of course, there's one of the cadets who can't stand the newcomer Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) and believes she doesn't belong there. And who will be the hero in the end? Yep, not hard to guess. Anyway, it all feels a bit like a kindergarten. The Goonies in giant robots who save the world. Haven't we seen that before?

Also, the acting wasn't something to get enthusiastic about. Cailee Spaeny was acceptable with her youthful enthusiasm and rebellious behavior. John Boyega sometimes played the indifferent Jake with reluctance. Scott Eastwood was again suitable for the character Nate. And not only because of that creepy resemblance to his famous father. But the acting by Burn Gorman, Charlie Day and Tian Jing was at times simply bad. Bad enough to make me squirm.

Only the graphical part remains. Just like the 2013 film, it's a visual spectacle. And just like the acting, there are also ups-and-downs here. It's fun to see huge robots and enormous monsters smashing into one another. But to be honest, it's the same old thing as in the previous movie. And the final battle in a Japanese city close to "Mount Fuji" just looked ugly. It wasn't as if this clash of the titans took place in between blocks of flats made from cardboard. Just like in those ancient Godzilla films. But it's a close call. The duel on the ice, on the other hand, looked extremely great. A computer-graphic masterpiece.

Do you like to watch huge robots and by extraterrestrial created monsters battle each other? Then I guess this film is right up your alley. Have you seen "Pacific Rim" years ago? Then you can safely skip this one because you won't be seeing something really new here. To be honest, I sometimes had the feeling that I was watching a modern version of the Power Rangers. Only the creatures who emerged from another dimension resembled those that the Power Rangers fought against a long time ago. Ridiculously long time ago.

As an old fan-boy, I enjoyed it. It wasn't really new ground but it was well done with a solid plot and strong climax at the end. I see them making more and people buying tickets. This is the Pokémon of this generation.

I'm not sure there's too many people out there who would call Guillermo Del Toro's 2013 robot/monster infused popcorn event Pacific Rim a classic of any sort but the eye-candy clad and seriously entertaining experience looks like a genuine masterpiece when placed alongside this charmless and trite sequel.

Somehow turning the prospect of giant robots and oversized monsters going at each other in a battle of life and death into an utterly boring and tiresome exercise, Pacific Rim: Uprising is the early death knell to a series that should've been a brand name that became the perfect excuse to turn your brain off and enjoy some big screen spectacle that is home to cheesy one liners, over the top CGI infused carnage and some A-listers hamming it up for good measure.

Taking over directing duties from Del Toro, debut feature film director Steven S. DeKnight brings none of the child like charm or enthusiasm the Mexican auteur brought to the table with his entry as we instead get a lame and tame tale of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecosts' child Jake (played by a struggling John Boyega) turn from troublemaker to Jager pilot, as the world finds itself once more under threat from the dreaded Kaiju monsters.

The first Pacific Rim had a similarly dumb plot and characters that were more like walking caricatures but there was a sense that everyone involved was having a great time and despite better judgements, you as an audience member did to.

That's completely lost here, there's little fun to be had with the bland and uninteresting action scenes, the main cast are all completely forgettable, while even returning cast members such as Charlie Day's Dr. Newton Geiszler and Burn Gorman's Hermann Gottlieb are more of a tacked on accessory, with Day in particular getting an embarrassing character development that is both lame and totally misguided.

With a pulse-free plot line and thrill-free action there was little chance Uprising ever had at succeeding and there's little mystery as to why this unwanted sequel failed to capture the dollars at the box-office, guaranteeing the Pacific Rim brand is now dead in the water.

Final Say -

Not even the most hardcore of Pacific Rim fans will find much to enjoy in Uprising, an utterly forgettable and disposable new entry into the wannabe franchise that somehow manages to turn it's over the top foundations into a bland, charm-free and tiresome event.

1 child mechanic out of 5

It's been 10 years since the end of the original movie. With no more Kaiju, the world is trying to rebuild. Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) ran from his father's heroic legacy and lives on the edges of the rebuilding civilization. He deals in black market and tries to steal from a decommissioned Jaeger. He is scooped by street kid Amara Namani who builds her own mini-Jaeger. They get arrested and his stepsister Mako Mori recruits him back into the program. Amara joins the other young cadets training to be pilots under Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood). Ruthless industrialist Liwen Shao is pushing for Jaeger drones controlled remotely by a single operator with bumbling Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) working under her.

The Guillermo del Toro style has been scrubbed down and transformed. Jake is a less than compelling lead which is not that different from the original. It starts with a lot attitude and a lot of fronting. Boyega does save it by his sheer charisma. The first movie is a kiddie idea taken seriously with fun. This one takes that serious take and injects some kiddie jokiness. It literally adds a Robin-like character. The attempts at jokes annoyed me. The city destruction has a sterile feel. There is still some fun to be had and it is still robots fighting monsters.

Most of us who watch these movies are fans of the giant robot stories (mecha) of incredible animated series like gundam, evangelion and of course Mazinger z is that far from the robots and the incredible fights is that there is an interesting plot, a story that plunges us into the worlds created for them, and this second part does not have an interesting story to tell, and this may be because its director Steven S. DeKnight is his first film and although he knows how to do entertaining series, he does not know how develop a plot in the short term, do not know how a character develops in 2 hours of film and definitely do not know how to balance the humor in the plot, the film hurts the clear image that the first tape had, the created universe was thrown overboard for Guillermo del toro, you know that the thing is going wrong since we changed to Warner for Universal, the details that made the film great are no longer there, but CGI does not make it better in fact Aijus are too inferior and the story of his return has larger plot gaps than the Jaggers, if there is something good is the actors who do their work John Boyega and Scott Eastwood do a very good job but it is not enough to save a movie that only offers entertaining moments, but not memorable in the long run will become what transformers is for Michael Bay just a movie to make money and not to give us how original it was.

I have been waiting for this one for quite some time, but what a disappointment ... this film is for kids, all actors are kids.

Story: 5/10

Character development: 4/10

Dialogue: 3/10

Plot consistency and general common sense: 2/10

And yet i enjoyed the movie. Why? Because the above points are not why this movie is made.

Action: 10/10

Visuals / CGI: 10/10

Giant robots and giant monsters beating the shit out of each other in awesome fight sequences: 10/10

not to mention: Ellen Mclain's (GLaDOS) voice: 10/10

That's why you watch this movie. If you expected anything else, that's your problem.

Leave your brain behind. Brush aside the various glaring potholes and just enjoy some good old fashioned Jaeger-on-Kaiju action. That's what the first one was. This one is simply more of the same.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is set ten years after the events of Pacific Rim(2013). Jake Pentecost(John Boyega) is the son of Stacker Pentecost. Jake has to save the world, with a bunch of new recruits & his partner Nate Lambert(Scott Eastwood), from a new Kaiju threat.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is a good film that, could have been so much better. Director Steven S. DeKnight doesn't successfully take over directorial duties from Oscar-winning filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro. Some of the dialogues in the movie, are cringe-worthy & unintentionally funny. The visual effects are good. The action set pieces are the highlight of the film. The 3D is effective. The performances suffer, due to the poor script. John Boyega is great as Jake Pentecost. Scott Eastwood is superb as Nate Lambert. Cailee Spaeny is spectacular as Amara Namani. Newcomer Spaeny outshines all her co-stars. Burn Gorman is great as Dr. Herman Gottlieb. Charlie Day is hilarious as Dr. Newton Geiszler. Tian Jing is brilliant as Liwen Shao. Jin Zhang is effective as Marshal Quan. Adria Arjona & Rinko Kikuchi are awesome as Jules Reyes & Mako Mori, respectively. Karan Brar, Wesley Wong, Ivanna Sakhno, Mackenyu, Lily Ji, Shyrley Rodriguez, Rahart Adams & Levi Meaden are impressive as, Cadet Suresh, Cadet Jinhai, Cadet Viktoria, Cadet Ryoichi, Cadet Meilin, Cadet Renata, Cadet Tahima & Cadet Ilya, respectively. Pacific Rim: Uprising is not a must watch. However, watch it if you're a massive fan of Pacif Rim(2013). Just keep your expectations incredibly low.

Whats with the Hollywood lately? They take decent adult movies and make sequals for kids. They ruined Iron Man, now they ruined Pacific Rim, etc.

Unless you are kid, avoid the sequel and rewatch the original, you will enjoy much more.

If you go into this film expecting anything more than sky-scrapper tall robots fighting with giant alien monsters, you've gone into it with the wrong mind frame to begin with. I would group this film in the same group as transformers, or fast and furious films (Switch-off films, if you will) - if you go into them looking for faults, you'll find them by the absolute truck load, but go in with a blank mind, you might be surprised by how much fun you can have.

John Boyega's charisma carries the film between the action scenes - his position and relationship in relation with Caliee Spaeny (who I was surprised to learn is 19 - she plays a 14-15 year old very convincingly), is established early on, and for the most part, works well. The supporting cast do what they have to - Scott Eastwood's character arc is predictable, but provides great moments of clarity.

I believe this film is definitely an improvement from the first - the big action moments are far easier to understand who is punching who, the lighting and colouring has been revised so that everything happens in daytime, which is great. Would I recommend this film? If you, like many others, go to the cinema to switch off for a couple of hours, this is a great film. It's not a film of subtilty or nuance, but if you can expect nothing more you'll have a great time.

If you like the first movie, then no doubt you will like this one too. But, it is not an Upgrade. The story will not wake up your interest, but the Visual effects will. Great fight scenes, new moves and weapons are pretty cool!

Just enjoy those scenes and make the best of it!