Pacific Rim: Uprising review

A sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 robots-fight-monsters movie, Pacific Rim: Uprising picks up the story ten years after the events of the first one (there is a handy reminder at the start in case you’ve forgotten what happened).

In the original, Idris Elba’s Staker sacrificed himself to save the world, but his son Jake (Boyega) hasn’t followed in dad’s footsteps. He’s not interested in piloting a giant Jaeger robot, instead making money selling parts on the black market, but a series of incidents lead to his destiny (yawn). It’s just in the nick of time as rogue Jaegers rise up to fight other robots, and the Kaiju (the monster lizard thingies) hang around waiting to launch their first attack on earth for a decade (surely if they wait long enough the robots and stupid humans will do their work for them).

More new characters are introduced – including Spaeny as Amara, Boyega’s likeable sidekick, and Eastwood as his rival, as well as some forgettable teen cadets to appeal to younger audiences – but most people will not have paid to see deep characterisation here, they want to see a Japanese monster movie and you do get a lot of bang (and smash) for your buck.

The robot/monster fights are pretty impressive – and one in particular lasts ages (great if you like that sort of thing but bum-numbingif you don’t)– and they are certainly better than anything that’s been in the Transformers movies. But in the end it is all really just an exercise in how much CGI can be crammed into one movie, and even the very watchable Boyega can’t give this monster flick its sorely needed heart.