So far, in my tenure writing columns for this newspaper, almost every film I have seen in theaters I’ve enjoyed. Most are excetotal fights between monsters and robots. This film has less monster fighting than the original, which was already felt lacking in the amount of action in it. Nearly every change that was made between the original and “Uprising” was the wrong choice. 

Most of the exposition about this film is either followed or preceded by the characters reminding each other (and the audience) about events from the first film. This is not only lazy writing, but it also feels like they didn’t trust the audience to remember the events of the first one. I think that has to do with the five year gap between films, which made events and characters from the first film hard to remember for even me. 

I believe this film should never of been made, and if it was impossible not to make this movie, release it earlier than five years after the original. This movie is bad, and not even worth watching for a joke. I think the only people I can recommend this film to are those that have not seen the original, and those who love the 

“Pacific Rim Uprising” might be the single most generic and predictable action movie in recent memory. The film follows John Boyega as Jake Pentecost, son of famous war hero Stacker Pentecost, played by Idris Elba in the original, who doesn’t want to be his father and would rather steal than join the military in their fight against the Kaiju, monsters that come from riffs in the sea floor. 

What doesn’t work about this film is the relationship between Jake and Amara, played by Cailee Spaeny. We are introduced to Amara while she’s stealing something Jake was trying to steal. Starting with their confrontation about what Amara stole, I never once bought into why Amara was even in the film. Her character felt like a direct response to the lack of strong female characters in the original. However, that idea does not succeed. The cast all do a fine to okay job. 

The standouts are Boyega as always and Charlie Day as Dr. Newton, who was a fan favorite from the original and is greatly underused in this film.  

This film is probably the worst of the films I have had the displeasure of watching. I cannot stress this enough: you should not go see this film for a multitude of reasons. First off, Guillermo Del Toro is no longer the director of the film. This might not seem like that big of a deal. However for some reason new director Steven S. DeKnight decided to abandon the aesthetic and look established by the original film. They trade the darkness and neon look of the first for a way too bright, campy and over-the-top feeling for the sequel.

I think the worst part about this aesthetic change is due to the fact that most of the CGI (Computer Generated Images) in the original worked so well thanks to the darker mood and atmosphere of the film. In “Uprising,” almost every, if not every, fight scene was shot in the middle of the day. 

The CGI looks far less convincing in this film, although there are certain scenes that do look tremendous. The only part of this film from a direction sense that I enjoyed was the sense of scale the movie gave us.

For a movie that’s been billed as giant robots fighting giant monsters, there sure is a lot of dead time in between the three total fights between monsters and robots. This film has less monster fighting than the original, which was already felt lacking in the amount of action in it. Nearly every change that was made between the original and “Uprising” was the wrong choice. 

I think that has to do with the five year gap between films, which made events and characters from the first film hard to remember for even me. I believe this film should never of been made, and if it was impossible not to make this movie, release it earlier than five years after the original. This movie is bad, and not even worth watching for a joke.