Our take on... Pacific Rim: Uprising

This sequel to 2013’s “Pacific Rim” is one of those films that you can switch on and be caught up straight away even if you haven’t seen the first film. Within the first ten minutes, by way of a handy recap narrated by John Boyega (as Jake Pentecost) the events of the first film have been covered, as well as what has happened in the ten years since the first film ended. In that respect, it feels similar to “Independence Day: Resurgence”, as we’re getting the son of the lead from the previous movie teaming up with some new characters, as well as some of the familiar faces from that first film. Unlike “Independence Day: Resurgence”, the lead here is a more than adequate replacement as John Boyega, hot off the new “Star Wars” films, replaces Idris Elba who played Stacker Pentecost (Jake’s father) in the original. He’s joined by Scott Eastwood as a by the book pilot who recruits Pentecost to train in new Jaeger pilots, and Amara (Cailee Spaey) as a young recruit to the Jaeger program.

While the original film was Del Toro’s love letter to Japanese Kaiju (monster) movies, this film is a much more straight forward blockbuster that is most like a “Transformers” movie except without the awful humour. On the contrary, the script is surprisingly good and while there are moments of humour, they fit the tone of the film perfectly. The chemistry between the actors really makes this stand out as well, especially the scenes between Boyega and Spaey. The returning Burn Gorman and Charlie Day have a blast in their roles, having already starred in the first film, and their roles are more fleshed out this time around. The effects are fantastic, the creature and Jaeger designs are fill of imagination, the action is really well shot and (unlike the original) a lot of the action takes place in daylight which makes it a lot easier to follow.

This was an absolute breeze to watch as it cracks along at a great pace and is massively helped by the charisma of the leads, especially Boyega and Spaey. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable monster/robot smash ‘em up that trades in the deeper elements of Del Toro’s original for thrills, laughs, and more citywide destruction than you can shake a giant robot fist at.

Pacific Rim is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray at Golden Discs stores nationwide or online here at goldendiscs.ie.

These are the thoughts and words of our Kevin Dillon. @kevinwritestuff