By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Steven S. DeKnight
Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Cailee Spaeny, Rinko Kikuchi, Burn Gorman, Adria Arjona, Zhang Jin, Karan Brar, Ivanna Sakhno, Mackenyu, Lily Ji, Wesley Wong, Shyrley Rodrigez, Rahart Adams, Nick E. Tarabay, Sam Kalidi, Jamie Slater, Dustin Clare, Dan Feuerriegel and Charlie Day.
Rating: Poor.
Steven S. DeKnight, makes his directorial feature film debut with “Pacific Rim: Uprising” and this second installment is light years away from it`s predecessor.
The story centers in Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of the Kaiju War hero Stacker Pentecost who makes a living by stealing and sealing Jaeger parts in the Los Angeles area.
His life will change when she meets a hacker named Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) who recently built a Jaeger, which causes her to be arrested with Jake.
Once arrested, Jake is offered to fight against a new generation of Kaiju that threats humanity. Jake is reluctant about this opportunity but ends up accepting and will join forces with Amara, his rival Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) and a new generation of Jaeger Pilots.
Now humanity depends in young Jake who will try to step out of his father´s shadow and prove that he is a true hero as well.
The main reason why I mention that this sequel of 2013´s “Pacific Rim” does not work is story wise. The screenplay also written by Steven S. DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kra Snyder and T.S. Nowlin needed more character development and more work.
The beauty of the first film is that you feel by the main characters Raleigh Becket, played by Charlie Hunnam and Stacker Pentecoast portrayed by Idris Elba since their internal conflict from the beginning is real and organic.
John Boyega is a very talented young actor but here it got me on my nerves since he tried to be funny but he was annoying. He mentions constantly how good looking he is and this is not part of the screenplay.
I have mentioned many times that when you have 4 writers in a project the chances for failure are high since the writers can be susceptible of having many ideas and this proves my point.
The first movie directed by Academy Award Winner Guillermo Del Toro not only focused in the visuals, but also in story and that´s why the film works from beginning to end.
Here the problem is that DeKnight tried to focus more in a visual story and it looks that in the story part was careless.
Another issue that I had was Charlie Day´s character change from the first film to this one. I didn´t buy it from a minute and again this doesn´t work.
One positive note tha I have from this film is their visual effects of the film and the look of the film is very stricking.
Maybe since I liked the first “Pacific Rim” so much I was hoping that this could be at the same level but it´s not the case and I just hope that Steve S. DeKnight can learn from this experience. I do believe he will since he has had a very successful career in television and I´m sure that in his next project he will pull it off.
With that being said “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is one big disappointment and I cannot recommend it for it´s story and slow pace.