Review #1,343: 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' (2018)

It's been five years since Idris Elba's brilliantly-named Stacker Pentecost cancelled the apocalypse in Guillermo del Toro's ultimately disappointing Pacific Rim. The 2013 film promised giant robots vs. Kaiju from one of the most visually arresting directors in the business and certainly delivered on that front, only it was spattered amidst an unnecessary convoluted mythology, questionable comic relief, and dull-as-cardboard characters played by equally dull actors. It barely registered domestically, but managed to quadruple its takings overseas, performing well in China especially. This, it would seem, is enough to justify a sequel not many were crying out for. Pacific Rim: Uprising also comes with extra baggage, with del Toro stepping aside for Steven S. DeKnight, who is perhaps best known for his TV work Spartacus and Daredevil.

Ten years have passed since Pentecost closed the inter-dimensional breach joining out world to that of the Kaiju. Many of the big cities still lie in ruin, and the landscape is littered with the skeletons of huge perished monsters. Pentecost's son Jake (John Boyega) feels more at home stealing Jaeger parts and selling them on the black market, as opposed to following in his hero father's footsteps. An encounter with Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny), a young Jaeger enthusiast who illegally constructs smaller, but highly functional, Jaegers of her own, leads Jake back to the military base he was kicked out of years ago. After a talking to by his sister Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), Jake is eventually talked into helping train young pilots by his old friend/rival Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), just in time for the shady Shao Corporation's announcement that they have created a fleet of self-operating Jaegers. Naturally, this anger the pilots, and even more so when one of the new robots starts attacking Sydney. 

Uprising predictably falls into the sequel trap of making everything bigger but not necessarily better. While it doesn't shroud all of the action in night like the original, there's a sluggishness to the smack-downs that lack of heft of del Toro's hand. It's essentially a mash-up of Star Wars, X-Men: First Class and Transformers: The Last Knight, almost like a corporate hand has plucked out elements from more successful franchises in the hope that China will still lap it up and fail to notice the similarities. Del Toro's film was far from perfect, but it still had an auteur's touch, laying out a tangible and colourful world full of the director's quirks. Here the characters exist in a collection of post-apocalyptic cliches, not helped by a script (credited to four screenwriters) that fails to inject any sort of urgency to the story or dramatic weight to the characters. Boyega is always great, but after his success with Star Wars and impressive turn in Detroit, he really should be seeking out roles that will allow him to flex his acting muscles. It ends with a scene pleading for another sequel, but much like the recent Independence Day sequel, which closed with the same hopeful promise, I doubt any fan petitions will be started anytime soon.


Directed by: Steven S. DeKnight
Starring: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day, Tian Jing, Rinko Kikuchi
Country: USA/China/UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #671: 'Pacific Rim' (2013)

There has always been a clear distinction between director Guillermo del Toro's art-house Mexican productions and his more audience-pandering Hollywood movies. Not just in quality, but also in tone. His native efforts have produced the haunting The Devil's Backbone (2001) and his masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth (2006), which both leaned towards the director's love of fantasy and folklore as well as meditations on war and childhood. Pacific Rim, his latest big-budget Hollywood production (following cancellations and delays on his work on The Hobbit and At the Mountains of Madness) is probably his most 'Hollywoody' to date. It's big, loud, stupid, but also quite fun, with del Toro harking back to his childhood days watching Japanese kaiju movies.

Earth is under attack from giant monsters dubbed as 'kaiju', who rise out of the Pacific Ocean from a portal to devastate anything in their path. Humanity fared well in their war against this new threat, building giant robots named 'Jaegers' to battle the kaiju's, until the attacks became more frequent, and the monsters larger and deadlier. The Jaeger's need to be powered by two pilots - one to represent the left side of the brain and the other the right. But the pilots are also required to be 'drift compatible', as once in the 'drift', they share each other memories, instincts and pain. We first meet ace pilot Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) battling a kaiju with his brother. His brother is killed, and Raleigh is washed up on shore and helps in the construction of a giant wall to keep the creatures out.

Four years later, and the Jaeger programme is being shut down. Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), the commander of the Jaeger's, takes the programme underground. He persuades Raleigh to re-join the programme, and introduces him to Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), a beautiful woman who clearly shares a link to Stacker. Also working on the programme are comic relief characters Dr. Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), two bickering scientists who are studying the kaiju and their emergence in different ways. Raleigh demands to be teamed up with Mako, who he is clearly drift compatible with, and the two must learn to work together before the final assault.

It's a lot of plot to take in, but this has a hefty 131 minutes to explore it in. Del Toro manages to create a lot of back-story that is crammed in to the twenty minute prologue, but it's all a lot of twaddle to give the movie a reason to stage some gargantuan action scenes. With a movie like this, you come to see the action. We want to see giant robots smash the shit out of giant monsters, and del Toro certainly delivers on that front. There's no elegance in the fighting; they just pummel each other with giant fists and, every now and then, some acid and giant saws. Cities are devastated, thousands are (presumably) killed and tourist sites are made out of the results. The CGI is frankly astonishing, and watched in high definition especially, the film looks beautiful.

Yet as much genuine heart del Toro puts into the action scenes, he fails wholeheartedly in the moments in between. There is no character development and no original plot devices, just another messiah story with a heavy section in the middle dedicated to the preparation for the moment everyone is waiting for. This is as soulless as they come, and although its easy to say that the lack of plot and character is expected of a film like this, the movie doesn't have any star power to add any charisma to the proceedings. Independence Day (1996), as much as I detest the film, at least had Will Smith to keep us amused between the sickening lashings of cheddar, and Armageddon (1998) had Bruce Willis. Pacific Rim has Idris Elba, who certainly tries his best with his Henry V speeches and dashing suits, but he's second fiddle to Charlie Hunnam, who just doesn't cut the mustard.

There's also the distraction of Day and Gorman, who are undoubtedly the most annoying and unfunny comic-relief double-act since those twin racial stereotypes in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). The reason for their existence points to giving del Toro's favourite actor Ron Perlman a reason to be in the film, and although Perlman's presence is always welcome, his sub-plot proves to be a distraction to the central storyline. Perhaps del Toro simply needed to make a movie after a few years of delayed and failed projects, so a little self-indulgence can certainly be forgiven, especially if the results are as entertaining as this. But it just begs the question of why del Toro doesn't put the same heart into his mainstream movies as he does his arthouse films.


Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Clifton Collins Jr., Ron Perlman
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #666: 'Monsters University' (2013)

It's hard to believe that it's been 12 years since the original Monsters, Inc. graced the screens and introduced the world to a green, one-eyed motormouth named Mike Wazowski and a loveable furry giant called James P. 'Sully' Sullivan. Although it was far from Pixar's best effort, Inc was charming and a surprisingly moving little film that made a killing at the box office. So why the wait for a sequel? Cars 2 (2011) aside, Pixar have always prided themselves on putting story above all else, so perhaps the writers simply could not come up with something solid enough to warrant another outing for Mike and Sully. But now Disney are in charge, I guess that if there's money to be made, they'll make sure it's made.

Before the events of Monsters, Inc., Mike (Billy Crystal) is a young monster with only one goal in his life - to become a top scarer at Monsters, Inc. The only problem is that he's not scary. Inspired by an encounter on a school trip, Mike studies and studies until he is enlisted in Monsters University, the best place for any budding scarer to learn their craft. Sully (John Goodman) enlists too, with a legendary family name and a clearly formidable appearance. Sully's lethargic approach to study annoys Mike, and a fallout between the two leads them to be kicked out of the class by the terrifying Dean Harscrabble (Helen Mirren). With seemingly no hope, Mike sees the upcoming Scare Games as the chance to prove himself to Harscrabble, who agrees to let him back in if he triumphs, only he has to team up with Sully to make up the numbers.

The main problem with Pixar's output in the last few years is that they seem to be slowly moving away from making movies that please adults in equal amounts to children. Toy Story 3 was their last great movie and that was three years ago. Cars 2 and last year's Brave were mediocre efforts, certainly beautiful to behold but relatively hollow inside. Much of the same can be said for Monsters University, as although it's nice to see these characters again, it lacks that Pixar touch that led to so many of their films to now be considered classics of the genre. We are left with not much more than a collection of wonderfully constructed set-pieces based around a thin plot that we all know the result of anyway.

Of the new additions, Charlie Day's Art and Helen Mirren's Dean Harscrabble steal the film, the former a truly bonkers creation and the latter given some quality thespian backing. We also get the welcome return of Steve Buscemi's Randy, who's downturn we get to witness thanks to a very clever moment. But ultimately, Monsters University's biggest problem is that it's just not that funny. The best moments are seen in the trailer (such as the snail monster trying not to be late for class on his first day), and the best aspects of college life can't be played with as they involve alcohol, drugs or boobs, a no-no even for Pixar. So we are left with a very pretty film (possibly the finest animation-wise to date) full of breathtaking set-pieces, but one that lacks that special touch I came to love from Pixar and one I am becoming reluctantly resigned to never seeing again.


Directed by: Dan Scanlon
Voices: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day, Alfred Molina
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie