Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Steven S. DeKnight
	Actors: John Boyega (Star Wars 7-8), Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny
	Country: USA, CN
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 24.03.2018, cinema Hoys Antofagasta
Synopsis: After having defeated the giant Kaiju monsters, some believe that this is not the end and prepare for whatever may come.
Review: In the first Pacific Rim directed by Guillermo del Toro I loved the robots and monsters, the choreography of the battles and the music. The Mexican director is not at the wheel on this one but is credited as producer and visual consultant, maybe to help ensuring a good continuity with his movie. I find this sequel to be a good one in fact, delivering just what one was expecting to see: more robots, monsters, heroism, battles destroying cities, aerial shots... but it doesn't fall in the trap of getting everything bigger and louder like in the Transformers saga for example. The movie could be said to follow a similar structure as the first one, but that's exactly what we liked and what we want more of! As the surprise effect has passed, I was not so much in awe when watching the battles this time around, but I still enjoyed them a great deal. The main theme, remixed from the original, doesn't work as well. I found the story less cheesy although the character of Amara Namani (Spaeny) is quite useless (but not as much as a similar one in Transformers 4: Age of Extinction) and a pseudo-romance shared by the two main characters leads to nothing. That's what you get when trying to squeeze mandatory female characters in a robot buddy movie for a male audience. John Boyega is so much more at ease (and fitting) in that role than as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And oh what a great idea to have the climax take place in (spoiler, highlight to read) Mount Fuji and Tokyo, Japan, birthplace of the Kaiju culture, even thought the logic leading there doesn't make one once of sense. Not a masterpiece but that's a movie I will enjoy watching every time in the future, maybe even more than the original as it is less trying to build emotions.
Rating: 6 /10