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PACIFIC RIM : UPRISING REVIEW (Spoiler Warning, Look away if you’ve not seen it.)

Pacific Rim Uprising is perhaps exactly what I expected from a sequal of this genre, In short it is an action packed, fun filled and colorful romp of Titanic proportions that offers excellent Action, Creative fight scenes, Likable if not somewhat generic characters from a variety of age-groups, many of which are POC.

However in Longer terms I’ll tell you my opinion in greater detail, Starting with Characters, First New, and Then Returning Characters.

John Boyega makes a landmark performance as Jake Pentecost, The Estranged son of Stacker Pentecost and Jaeger Pilot dropout, He brings a lovable charm and care free day to day surviving attitude at first, simply doing what someone would need to do in a place where nobody’s looking out for you, but when faced with overwhelming Odds takes on the commanding presence and courageous leadership, mirroring his late father in order to motivate his younger fellow Jaeger Pilots to stand up against the new threat emerging.

Scott Eastwood plays Nate Lambert, The more drilled, serious and perhaps more generic military type, starting out with a grudge against Jake, the two however never feel at true odds with eachother, both understand their role in the story and know that they must work together to achieve success. That being said, Nate shows that he is more than a Rough Commanding Officer and actual takes pride in the fact that He, Jake and the Newly Trained Jaeger Pilots are a family, and that he cares deeply for them all. A perfect parallel to Boyega’s more care-free Jake.

Big Screen Newcomer Cailee Spaeny plays Amara Namani, A young genius mechanic capable of building her own Mini-Jaeger named Scrapper, and having the skills to evade, if not for a short time, A much larger PPDC Jaeger, November Ajax. Similar to Mako in the first movie, her tragic past as revealed in a Drift De-sync Memory Spike reveals the reason for her Orphaning, while not as powerful as Mako’s, it still gets across the right amount of emotion, explaining her Abrasive attitude and eventual turn around to helping the Heroes, becoming a reliable companion and conduit for younger audiences.

Other New characters include the Newly Recruited Jaeger pilots, of various nationalities, races and personalities,. some of them are friendly, some are aggressive but all come to work together by the end, proving strength in unity.

The seeming antagonist at first, Miss Shao, head of the company making Drones to replace fully manned Jaegers starts off as serious and business focused but later becomes a great cooperative force, helping the PPDC rebuild their remaining Jaegers for the final battle.

And Now for Returning Characters

Rinko Kikuchi returns as Mako Mori, now the Commander of the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps in place of her father Stacker Pentecost. She brings the appropriate commanding presence but all her sweet and optimistic attitude from her younger years, without hesitation to express her belief in her estranged adoptive brother Jake, and her decision to stick by the Jaeger Program recognizing the faults in Shao Industries Drone Program, much like Stacker’s reluctance to shut down Jaeger Operations in favour of ineffective Coastal Walls, However her Death while a driving part of the plot, came too early and too impersonal, simply losing her life in a Helicopter Crash after being hit by Antagonist Jaeger, Obsidian Fury.

Burn Gorman makes a triumphant return as Dr. Hermann Gottlieb, continuing to experiment with crackpot inventions and theories, but carrying a more optimistic and action ready attitude from his development in the original Pacific Rim, He once again provided a ground scientific role in the story and perhaps provides one of the best things about this movie, although I’ll get to that in a little bit.

Here’s where we really get into spoilers. Charlie Day returns as Dr. Newton Geizler once more but this time in a very different story role, While Day brings his usual brand of loud mouthed comedy he also plays the Primary Antagonist of the film, as Precursors have melded with Geizlers subconscious through prolonged contact with the Secondary Kaiju-Brain whom he now affectionately calls Alice, this twist is...appropriately stupid for the movie it’s in and I couldn’t bring myself to hate it. His Manic attitude plays well to his “A Man Possessed” character in the film and he of course receives a fitting Punch in the face for his actions, however I hope that we do see the Actual Newt return in the inevitable 3rd installment.

Unfortunately Charlie Hunman does not return as Raleigh Beckett and the character is nowhere to be mentioned, while it’s definitely a missed opportunity, it doesn’t hurt the film that much, as John Boyega carries the movie arguably better than Hunman.

Now moving onto the Real Stars : Our Big Ladies, the Jaegers

The Jaegers in this movie while lacking in the Slow, Bulky and Intimidating sense of Weight, Power and Presence of their original counterparts, they bring their own strengths to the table. and while I was nervous at first about their becoming too sleek, upon seeing them close up and in action, All the little details like welding points, scratches, warning labels and decals still make the Jaegers feel like real machines.

Gipsy Avenger (Mid Right) Sporting a slimmer design and 2 sets of Chest Turbines, she is the perfect evolution of her older namesake, Equipped with her Famous Plasma Cannon and Arm mounted Plasma Edged Blade, along with her new Gravity Projector and Shoulder Missiles, she Leads the Charge with brutal power and stunning agility. And her heroic sacrifice one ups her Namesake’s detonation in the Precursor Kaiju manufacturing world by dropping herself from Low Orbit and Bisecting the Mega-Kaiju in two. She’s the star of the show and I love her.

Saber Athena (Far Left) is our replacement for Crimson Typhoon and some elements of Striker Eureka in this movie, It’s tall, sleek and almost Feminine shape alludes to focus on agility and dexterity, rather than raw power, this is shown brilliantly as Saber Athena is capable of running and flipping off of buildings like a Freerunner runs along walls. Her weapon is symbol, A pair of long Plasma blades that combine into a two handed configuration. All in all, A good Jaeger.

Bracer Phoenix (Mid Left) is our replacement for heavy hitter Cherno Alpha while also taking the 3 Pilot configuration from Crimson Typhoon. This bulkier military green Jaeger actual received it’s main Arm weapon, The Huge Mechanical Flail from another Jaeger who unfortunately had little screen time, Titan Redeemer.It works with it well, Being the brute of the team, It’s heavy swings and focus on overwhelming force put it up there with Cherno, it also includes a secondary chest cockpit where The Pilot cane take control of 2 coaxial auto-cannons, which make one hell of a ruckus BTW. Making Bracer Phoenix our residence Heavy.

Guardian Bravo (Far Right) rounds off as perhaps the replacement for Striker Eureka. Bulkier than Gipsy and Saber but not as bulkier as Bracer, It’s more armored design lends well to it’s look, With two giant cannons in each wrist and a long electro-whip it has perhaps the most unique of weapons of the Jaegers but it doesn’t really stand out as much as it’s 3 comrades, but I gotta admit, it’s got a good design, probably my 2nd fave.

The Honorable mention goes to the Humble little guy, Scrapper, the Mini-Jaeger built by Amara Namani out of old Jaeger parts, small, fast and cute this Mini-Jaeger ultimately saves the day when it provides Gipsy Avenger with a rocket booster to get her up to Low Orbit and then provides escape for Jake and Amara as Gipsy crashes to earth.

Now for our Villians, First up is the Rogue Jaeger Obsidian Fury, It’s sleek jet black design and glowing orange slits and visor give it an intimidating presence, along with it’s spinning twin arm blades and shoulder missile pods it also features a back mounted communication jammer, eluding to it’s less than conventional background. This is revealed during a confrontation with Gipsy Avenger in Siberia, in which the two Jaegers battle it out with blades and fists, Gipsy eventually coming out on top and forcefully removing Obsidian Fury’s faceplate to reveal A Secondary Kaiju Brain fused into the Cockpit, and later on, the Jaeger’s entire inner workings are a hybrid of Kaiju bio-matter and Shao Industries Tech.

The Shao Kaiju-Jaeger Hybrids, These guys start out as Automated replacements for Traditional Piloted Jaegers and after the Death of Mako Mori, they are rushed into the field by Order of the PPDC’s Council, this however is a ploy against them, as The Precursor Possessed Newton Geizler has secretly added Kaiju DNA into their Processor Cores, and upon activating a Command Signal, The Kaiju Flesh rapidly grows through the Drone’s mechanical Body, creating a vicious hybrid of Human and Precursor Tech, which actually manage to disable almost every Jaeger in the Corps, and Manage to open Breaches all across the Pacific Rim, but fortunately, this plan is cut short as Dr. Hermann Gottlieb uploads a shutdown for the drones which fries the Kaiju Brains and seals the breaches, but, 3 Kaiju successfully make it through, leading to our Main Villians.

The 3 Kaiju successfully coming into our world as from Left to Right, Hakuja, Raijin, and Shrikethorn wreck Havoc in Tokyo, These individual Kaiju are not too notable, say for their unique abilities, Hakuja’s ability to Burrow underground and strike from below, Raijin’s huge face plates that can Redirect Kinetic energy into counterattacks and Shrikethorn’s ability to shoot spiky protrusions from it’s body. However they really shine when with the help of Newt’s Swarm of Kaiju-Drones

The So-called “Mega Kaiju” is the true final boss of this movie, A Massive Fusion of Hakuja, Raijin and Shrikethorn, The Mega Kaiju makes absolute Mince meat of Saber Athena, Bracer Phoenix and Guardian Bravo with it’s 6 limbs, bashing tail and vicious bite. Before the Beast makes way for Mt. Fuji in order to infuse the energy within it’s blood into the Volcano and it’s Rare Elements within in order to creative a massive world ending volcanic eruption. However this vile titan’s mission is foiled when Gipsy drops onto it from low orbit, cutting it in two and bleeding out on the slopes of Mt. Fuji

The Story of Pacific Rim : Uprising is nothing remarkable but it’s characters and action are what make it so compelling, wanting to see this young new-blood pilots duke it out with the biggest baddest Kaiju’s is what drew me in to see this movie in the first place, Robots vs Monsters, end of story. If I had to pick a highlight of the movie however it’d be a toss up between 2 scenes, the first being The Final Battle itself vs all the Kaiju pre-fusion, in which the Jaegers all show their strengths. And second, and perhaps the better one is much shorter. The scene in which The Jaeger’s launch from the Shatterdome assisted by Kaiju-Blood Fueled Solid Booster Rockets, That is the right amount of insanity to be awesome, and I myself adore it when something used Solid Fuel Rockets, they give such a visceral sense of power to whatever’s using them to fly.

If you’re looking for a Movie that will challenge your intellect, then keep walking cus Pacific Rim : Uprising is a pure and simple switch off your brain and munch your popcorn explosion filled, monster stomping metal storm that everyone who loved the first film can enjoy. I would highly recommend it to anyone who asked, a solid 4/5 from me, the only reason is’ not 5/5 is cus, once it’s seen, it’s seen, not much to re-watch, but what you do see, will leave you shaking with adrenaline at every rocket powered punch.

#Pacific rim uprising #Pacific rim #spoilers #tw: spoilers #Movie Review

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