PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

Director
Steven S. DeKnight
(Feature Film Debut)

Stars
John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Charlie Day, Tian Jing, Burn Gorman and Rinko Kikuchi

In the end, it wasn’t a bad decision at all for Guillermo del Toro to hand the directing duties for his follow-up to 2013’s PACIFIC RIM over to first-time feature film director, Steven S. DeKnight. The Mexican-born filmmaker left this action sequel to make 2018’s Best Picture Academy Award winner, THE SHAPE OF WATER, which also bestowed del Toro his first-ever Oscar win as director. With a new team of writers, some fresh faces in the cast and with del Toro working as producer only, how will PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING fare among critics and audiences alike?

Set ten years after the events at the end of 2013’s original film, former Jaeger pilot and son of Stacker Pentecost, Jake (John Boyega), is given a lifeline by his adoptive sister, Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), after being caught making a living by illegal methods. Though clearly not the man his father was, Jake is needed to help combat a new Kaiju threat with his estranged former co-pilot Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) and tough young drifter Amara (Cailee Spaeny).

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As expected, without its visionary creator at the helm and having no real say in the scripting department, the creative engineering behind the cut-above action blockbuster PACIFIC RIM has certainly been downsized in UPRISING. But don’t immediately assume the automatic redundancy of PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING either, for it does boast some worthwhile spare parts that should be enough to keep it functioning.

For instance, this sequel has maintained, if not slightly bettered, the brawn component invented by the first movie. UPRISING’s big-scale action sequences are not only attention-diverting but also have their carnage captured in a more comprehensible manner than what we see in a lot of action movies nowadays. With much of the film’s production taking place right here in Australia, one of these impressively staged scenes is set in the heart of the city of Sydney! Now, any decent action flick requires solid performances as a minimum from its leading cast members and this is another aspect UPRISING earns a pass mark. John Boyega and Scott Eastwood (son of Clint) fulfil the needs of their respective roles, but it’s the impressively energetic performance from first-time feature film actress and up-and-coming star, Cailee Spaeny, that stands-out. She displays a heightened sense of urgency and a precisely judged fierceness in her character that has an instant and lasting positive impact to this sequel. Keep a look-out for this talent, who has already been cast as young Lynne Cheney in BACKSEAT (which tells the story of Dick Cheney) and other promising Hollywood productions, ON THE BASIS OF SEX (a biographical drama about equal rights) and BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (a thriller written & directed by Oscar-nominee Drew Goddard). Also worth a mention is the consistent pacing. Being 20 minutes shorter in duration than PACIFIC RIM (which tired at times during the second half) does indeed benefit this sequel.

3 stars

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