In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s been a full five years since Pacific Rim. A lot’s happened in the interim, though: director Guillermo del Toro returned to his signature Gothic territory with Crimson Peak, then bagged a bunch of Oscars for The Shape of Water; and giant monster epics have returned to the forefront of the blockbuster market in the wake of Jurassic World, Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island. Still, while Pacific Rim wasn’t quite the commercial flop or critical disaster it’s sometimes made out to be (personally I think it’s great fun, and have revisited it plenty of times this past half-decade), it’s certainly debatable as to just how much demand there really was for a sequel. Small wonder, then, that director Steven S DeKnight’s Pacific Rim: Uprising goes to great lengths to relaunch the franchise for a new audience – although, in so doing, it may well alienate the comparatively few devotees the original has brought back.
We pick up ten years after the events of the first film. Our original hero – Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh Beckett – is nowhere to be seen. In his place, we have an all-new bad boy born to pilot a Jaeger, Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of Idris Elba’s martyred Stacker Pentecost, and adoptive brother of Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako – one of the few returnees from the original, along with Charlie Day and Burn Gorman’s scientists Newton and Herman. While the Kaiju war is to all intents and purposes history, the Jaegers still reign supreme, with a whole new crop of pilots being trained up to be the first line of defence should the Kaiju attack again. Having washed out years earlier, Jake reluctantly finds himself recruited back into the training programme along with young amateur Jaeger builder Amara (Cailee Spaeny).
However, it seems as if the Jaegers won’t be in demand for much longer, as an all-new defence project – super-powered, remote-operated drones – is being introduced by a major Chinese tech company for whom Day’s Newton is now chief scientific officer. Naturally, not everyone in the Jaeger team is keen on this idea – but in the wake of an attack on Sydney by an unlicenced rogue Jaeger, some take this as a sign that the drones are indeed just what Earth needs. As the dust settles, Jake and company quickly realise that there’s something very fishy going on – but who’s behind it all? Could the Precursors, the alien race who created the Kaiju, somehow be responsible? If so, how, when the Breach – the wormhole at the bottom of the Pacific ocean, by which the Kaiju invaded Earth in the first place – is now sealed shut?
Pacific Rim: Uprising is a rather different proposition from most modern megabudget follow-ups; the bulk of such films seem primarily concerned with repeating everything that worked about the last one, whilst bringing back as many characters and getting in as many fan-pleasing nods as possible. This is the key reason why the likes of Kingsman: The Golden Circle and the bulk of the Marvel sequels have tended to underwhelm. By contrast, Pacific Rim: Uprising seems to have been made primarily in the hopes of luring in viewers who didn’t see the first one, hence the casting of Star Wars actor Boyega in the lead, and the youth of most of his supporting cast. It also makes a point of addressing the key criticisms of the original. It’s a lighter affair in just about every sense, with a shorter running time, and a much brighter colour scheme; the original took place primarily at night, out at sea in the pouring rain, making the pivotal battle scenes difficult to follow. By contrast, Pacific Rim: Uprising is bathed in sunshine and big city lights, with new, more garish-looking and aerodynamic Jaegers, who spend a great deal more time in action this time around.
Alas, Uprising also deviates from its predecessor in ways which might be deemed to betray the spirit of what came before. For one, as might be apparent from the earlier synopsis, the Kaiju are largely absent until quite late in the day, and – without getting into spoilers – the means by which they return might not go down well with everyone. On a related note, the film’s treatment of the few returning original characters is also bound to be a bit of a sticking point. Not only is the absence of Hunnam’s Raleigh rather glaring (the actor was reportedly unable to return due to a scheduling clash, and DeKnight has admitted they’ve left his character’s fate vague in the hopes that they might bring him back in Part 3), but the choices made regarding those few survivors of the original are not entirely pleasing. Again, I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers, but I will say that while Uprising largely avoids being a bald-faced repeat of its predecessor, it does fall into a few all-too familiar sequel traps.
All in all though, Pacific Rim: Uprising is worthwhile in that it provides firm proof that John Boyega (also a producer) has what it takes to carry a movie. Sure, many of us already believed it from Attack The Block, but given that the wider audience knows him purely as Star Wars’ Finn, his turn as Jake Pentecost may come as a surprise: he’s brash, cocky and arrogant, yet very human and sympathetic. Without someone as charismatic as Boyega heading it up, it’s entirely likely that this sequel wouldn’t have worked it all. It certainly couldn’t have been held up by Scott Eastwood, a firm contender for the single most bland and forgettable actor currently working in Hollywood who somehow seems to keep getting big roles. Still, Boyega does have some nice support from Cailee Spaeny and the other young Jaeger cadets. While some older viewers might complain of the whole teenager vibe getting a bit Power Rangers, the fact is the teen characters and their boot camp camaraderie are far more endearing and watchable than the adults and their tedious corporate subterfuge/scientific blatherings.
And hey – given that last year’s big screen Power Rangers was a bit of a let-down, Pacific Rim: Uprising feels in many respects like the best Power Rangers movie we’ve had yet.
Pacific Rim: Uprising is in cinemas now from Universal.