I Watch Films: Pacific Rim: Uprising
If I had a criticism of Pacific Rim, it’s that it was too streamlined, with all the interpersonal disagreements introduced, brought to a head, then resolved swiftly (the only exception being Raleigh and Chuck Hansen who keep their animosity going throughout the entire middle section of the film).
Surprisingly it’s possible to streamline it even more. Jake Pentecost is forced back into the Jaegar corps by his sister to get him out of jail, bringing the teenage unlicensed jaeger builder he was locked up with with him. He’s just serving out his time, to the annoyance of former classmate Nathan Lambert. Then the two of them have a bit of a chat over some ice cream and work out their differences just in time for everything to go wrong and Kaiju vs Jaegar battles to kick off again.
The twist is pretty good, we’ve been misdirected to the villain. My major disappointment is that the inevitable Kaiju-Jaegar hybrids aren’t the result of a Kaiju and a Jaegar falling in love. Come on del Toro, we’ve seen The Shape of Water, the world is ready for it.
Watch This: For more entertaining giant creature fighting with amiable characters
Don’t Watch This: If you hoped they would build on Pacific Rim to make a cleverer or more nuanced film.
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