The sequel to the Guillermo Del Toro directed 2013 movie, Pacific Rim, was one that I wasn't exactly too excited about. For one, Del Toro wasn't returning to direct and the movie would be lead by an entirely new cast. Even with the addition of John Boyega as the leading man, the trailers didn't do much to sell me, so it's fair to say I went in with low expectations. The movie picks up 10 years after the original, with the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba's character in the first movie) named Jake living in a world without the Kaiju. He spends his life stealing parts from old Jaeger machines to sell to the black market to fund his party life. When looking for a part to steal from an old broken down Jaeger, the deal goes south and Jake is caught. He's forced to return to the place where his father was stationed before he died. Jake must help teach the young recruits how to pilot the Jaegers, but things don't go as planned as an old threat is planning its return sooner than expected.
So this is the third movie in a row that features a story about a young prodigy that lost their father at a young age and decide to squander all their potential because of not being able to move on with their lives. Wrinkle In Time, Tomb Raider and now this movie all have the same character arcs in them for the leads. I'm sure it wasn't planned to be that way, but it's kind of funny to see this story being told to death this month. Uprising is just as predictable as those other two movies as well, at least in terms of character arcs. This movie wasn't bad though, it was actually decently enjoyable.
The main problem with this movie for me was the lack of any interesting characters. The lead Jake Pentecost is actually pretty interesting at first, but as the movie goes on his character never really builds on the interest that I had at first. The rest of the characters are all pretty generic and unmemorable, I forgot most of them a few hours after the movie. The movie doesn't do much to build on any of the characters past their generic personalities. To the point that I don't even really care what happens to them when they are put in danger. They also attempt a lot of humor early on in the movie and most it didn't really work for me, it felt like it was trying too hard to have that Marvel style comedy. None of the characters had enough charisma to pull it off, or maybe the timing just wasn't right.
Really the only thing that saves this movie is the epic battles with the cool Kaijus Vs Jaeger concept. It never really gets old watching some cool robots and monsters using weapons and destroying cities in battle, at least not when it looks as great as this movie. The visuals during the fights are still really fun and exciting, even though the characters don't feel that important. The designs for the Kaiju and Jaegers are also as cool as they were in the first one for the most part.
If you're looking for some chaotic action with lots of destruction and robots fighting giant monsters, then you'll probably still get enjoyment out of this movie. Don't expect a compelling story and characters that will stick with you. Everything here is passable, nothing was really terrible but also nothing was more than just okay. I'd probably say just watch the first one again if you really want to see giants fighting each other, but there might be enough in Uprising to at least watch once.
Overall Grade: C
0 comments:
Post a Comment