Pacific Rim Uprising is a kind of "pukpuk" for those who watch the Pacific Rim and find that the first movie is less action, less comedy, too selow, too dark a picture, or too long duration. Bak tit for tat, Pacific Rim Uprising overcame all the complaints above. I am sure he will satisfy the audience who expect all the changes. I, and (probably) all the spectators who love their first movie, are unimpressed.
The film has more Transformers elements and fewer Del Toro hands. Understandably, Guillermo del Toro is no longer directing but just sitting in the chair producer. He was replaced by debutant director Steven S. DeKnight who seemed more interested in Bayhem's Transformers formula. Not a good thing to align Pacific Rim with Transformers. Because, they are on a different spectrum. Pacific Rim is a love letter to mecha and anime culture, while Transformers .... uhm, you already know for yourself.
Pacific Rim Uprising in my opinion is what happens if the Pacific Rim is not handled appropriately. They both contain clichés, thin stories, ludicrous dialogs, and lighter action scenes. But do I think about it when watching the first movie? I was busy watching with childish enthusiasm and amazement. Special effects, cinematography, human elements, and the story itself are very involved. In the Pacific Rim Uprising, I became aware of all the bad points. In a peak battle that lasted as if it would not end where the robots gang up giant monsters, my attention began to wander.
How many losses did these giants make because they were fighting in the middle of the city? What is the fate of the citizens who happen to be there? What is the death toll of his soul? How complicated is the city reconstruction process after the fight ends? Yeah yes, I know this is a question that does not need to be asked in movies like this. But I'm tired, how dong? The special effects are excellent, but watching CGI robots grappling with CGI monster while destroying dozens of skyscrapers CGI makes us numb if it goes on and without binding stories.
Though this movie has many story points. Let me elaborate. Our main character is Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) hero who died after saving the earth in the first film. Burdened with his father's reputation, Jake prefers to spend time partying and stealing so that he is thrown into jail along with a small bandit named Amara (Cailee Spaeny).
Jake's step-sister, Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) who is now a military superior offers Jake the opportunity to escape punishment. The trick, Jake must re-join the military. In addition, Jake must also be willing to train Amara to be pilot Jaeger with other cadets. Amara is not just any kid because he is the genius who once assembled a small Jaeger nan lively named Scrapper that can be controlled by one pilot only. But Jake's problem is not just that, because at the military headquarters he met again with his rival, Nate (Scott Eastwood).
Oh, and suddenly there was one Jaeger of a troublemaker.
Uh, how come I even bablas. You still remember the term "Jaeger" right? In the past, a gigantic alien called the Kaiju suddenly passed through an antimistic portal and appeared at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to then ravage the city. To overcome this, humans created a giant robot, Jaeger. 10 years later, the crisis seems to have been overcome. The earth is peaceful again and the rest of the Kaiju skeleton now resides as a monument. But just in case, Jaeger still produced and pilots continue dikaderkan.
A Chinese company called Shao Industries brought this to a higher level. They are developing an unmanned Jaeger that is claimed to be more effective. This is actually also alarming, because as we know, Jaeger's system is so complicated it takes two humans to control it-boro-boro without a pilot. But the director of Shao (Tian Jing) keukeuh, let alone he was assisted by experts per-Jaeger-an who also mani perjuju-an from the first film, Newt (Charlie Day).
You also need to remember why two pilots seemed to move in unison in the cockpit to control Jaeger. Jaeger should be operated by two people and they must sync each other. They run, Jaeger runs; they hit, Jaeger hit; they're kinks, Jaeger kayang-the last one of course does not happen in the movie, but if it's definitely more exciting. But not just physical synchronous. The mind also, where the two share memory and feelings. This process is called "drifting".
If the first film uses "drifting" to give emotional weight, the Pacific Rim Uprising uses it as just a backstory disclosure. This film does not pay attention to the character, but he tried to introduce us to many new characters, especially the cadets. We do not really care about the fate of this unimpressive group. So it's quite surprising also when the movie stalling time by showing Amara is bullied by his team or Jake who tease each other with Nate whose edges are also not ending important.
Finally, we will arrive at the climax battle. I will not tell you how we got there, but I can tell you that this fight involves 4 Jaeger versus 3 Kaiju and later on 4 Jaeger will gang up 1 Kaiju great. The fight was done in broad daylight so we could see everything clearly. This sequence no longer feels awful. Although his choreography and CGI are competent, his actions seem weightless. In the first film, Del Toro emphasizes on the scale while building the atmosphere with the surrounding conditions (eg, heavy rain or night mood), thus creating a spectacular sensation. We are pounding every time Jaeger or Kaiju appears, let alone a fight. DeKnight did not have that kind of touch. You can feel when a movie only makes special effects as a technical parade.
Although directed by an auteur, Pacific Rim is basically a movie for kids (or a soul-spirited child). Pacific Rim is a children's movie where they are fascinated with the cool of the robot universe and the gigantic monster. Pacific Rim Uprising keeps kids movies too, but the kids are different. They are no longer easily amazed children; they prefer to see robots hit each other with robots or with monsters.
Many elements that make the movie Del Toro as a unique robot film even abandoned, so Pacific Rim Uprising feels more generic. Who likes Pacific Rim most likely will not like this movie. But the box office figures prove that fanaticism alone is not enough to make the films in demand. So hopefully this one is a commercial success, because the studio had been hoping for a lot to make it a franchise, as it was flicked through the final scene. One thing is for sure, the enthusiasm of waiting for the sequel will not be as big as it used to be.
