Movie Review: Pacific Rim: Uprising

Totally unexpected! Yes, Pacific Rim: Uprising was missing Guillermo Del Toro's artistic touch, but this could've been a terribly tragic sequel and it wasn't. In fact, the film had enough balls to shift the tone to something more silly and less gritty and it somehow worked.

The narrative, though frustratingly predictable, served its purpose, it was visually coherent than any of Transformers films I've seen, and the over the top ridiculousness and silliness of the second half was just an exhilarating watch. The visual effects were inconsistently good - there were a couple of moments where it was just flat out godawful - and the sound editing was mostly on point. I also appreciated the attempt to flesh out the characters - given how the first Pacific Rim was an empty human experience - but there were moments where it also came off a tad too calculated. Oh, and John Boyega's comedic timing was embarrassing.

Look, if you can't leave your intellectual high standards at the door, Pacific Rim: Uprising will disappoint you. It didn't have the deepest tale, it's silly, it's ridiculous, it's over the top, but who goes into a monster-robot mayhem type of film expecting something insanely meaningful? If you want dumb fun, here you go!