Guilty Pleasures #54 - Pacific Rim: Uprising

There’s something about giant robots fighting giant monsters that’s just awesome. It’s why shows like Power Rangers, Transformers, Voltron and various anime still last till this day. I said I’d be awaiting this sequel with interest, and so here we are. Pacific Rim: Uprising.

Pacific Rim Uprising had a troubled development, there was a dispute over something or another (likely budget) between the distributors Universal Studios and the production company Legendary Pictures that lead to production being delayed by a year. Guillermo Del Toro, although instrumental in getting the film off the ground, was not directing this one (he was doing The Shape of Water, he got the better end of that deal) and a rewritten script by Steven S DeKnight (who also directs), Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder (no relation to Zack or Scott Snyder) and the soon to be infamous on Rage Issues T S Nowlin

The film had a budget of around $190m and made $270m at the box office, a significant downgrade on its predecessor and likely a financial failure for the studios. Critics and audiences gave it a mixed response with 44% and 41% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes respectively with average scores of 5/10 and 3/5. So, what is it about this one where people drew the line where they didn’t last time? Let’s take a look and find out.

We open with the military fighting the Kaiju in what’s essentially a recap of what happened last time. So, here’s my recap. Big vagina in the ocean spews out monsters called Kaiju, humanity spend billions on giant robots to stop them as opposed to creating literally anything else. New info, apparently the Kaiju were sent by an alien race called the precursors, this is news to me, and I only recently rewatched the last one. So is this like After Earth where the aliens sent their pet monsters. Anyway, they detonated a massive bomb, closing the rift, with the sacrifice of Stacker Pentacost.

Of which we meet his never before mentioned son… and seriously? This is Jake Pentacost (John Boyega) and he’s at a pool party and narrates that it’s been 10 years since the events of the first film, most large cities have rebuilt but there are a few that remain abandoned with Kaiju skeletons resting atop them.

Turns out he’s in one such a city, presumably has power, water treatment, you know those things that usually you wouldn’t have in an abandoned city. Around these parts money isn’t used, and food is traded for goods and valuables. The Pan-Pacific Defence Corps, the one that created the Jaegers, usually looks the other way so long as you keep out of there but salvaged Jaeger parts are worth, I dunno, a big mac and fries around these parts so Jake and a small team are going in.

Turns out Jake here is a bit of a swindler and owes a sort of debt to his compatriots, so when the part they seek is already taken, they’re not happy. Jake pursues the part but shuts the door behind him, buying him time for an action scene. He’s cornered but he clearly knows stuff about the Jaegers, including convenient trap doors they have for some reason.

The thief drives away on a motorcycle and is chased by the Pan-Pacific Defence Corps, but Jake’s tracker is more sophisticated than a military organisation and he manages to find their hideout and sneak in. He sees that the thief has been creating a Jaeger and then sees that she’s a little girl. Jake wants to sell the Jaeger in parts but she’s rather defensive of it. The Pan-Pacific Corps arrive and the girl heads into the Jaeger. It’s apparently small enough to only require one pilot.

Not really sure if it was the size of the machine that was the problem with the original Jaegers but benefit of the doubt… Jake insists on taking over to which the girl tells him to p*ss off, can’t say that I blame her but they soon run into a full sized Jaeger, November Ajax, they pull off some cute stunts but it’s not enough, and she turns to Jake for advice.

They use a power core to shut November Ajax down but it doesn’t last long, and neither do they without a second power core. They’re soon both captured.

In the police cell, Jake asks what she plans to do with the robot. Turns out she believes the Kaiju will return and thought her pathetic excuse for a Jaeger could do… something. Jake is taken to the interrogation room, where we see a hologram of Mako (Rinko Kikuchi). Because of his history, she’s can’t get him out scot free, but she’s arranged for him to come back as a trainer, with the girl as one of his first recruits.

He’s not happy but ultimately agrees, being piloted to the Shatterdome Base in China. Turns out the girl’s name is Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) as introduced by Jake’s former partner, Nathan Lambert (Scott Eastwood) who doesn’t seem pleased about Jake’s presence.

Amara gets to geek out about every f*cking Jaeger she sees, it’s a little annoying. We’re introduced to the new ranger cadets… Moving on…

Amara’s first round of training goes badly and she’s chewed out for it… is drift compatibility not a thing any more? That was a major thing in the last movie (most of the time) only certain people could mentally connect and pilot a jaeger together. Apparently it’s easier when you’re children and that’s why they’ve started to form drift connections with children, something I’m calling bullsh*t on.

Jake argues they’re being a bit harsh and it is her first day, so Nathan is a grade A dick for this. Later, they agree for Jake to just nod and agree so that in 6 months, when the recruits are graduated, he can return to whatever it was his normal life was. It’s said that may be coming sooner as they’re looking at a new drone programme that could render the Jaegers obsolete.

On that note, we’re introduced to Shao Liwen (Jing Tang), head of the corporation making the drones, she’s joined by a returning face in Dr Geizler (Charlie Day) the head of R&D for the company. He makes himself known to Jake and gushes over his relationship to Stacker, something I suspect is paramount to the cause of the chip on Jake’s shoulder.

And we’re reintroduced to Dr Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), who’s still working the with PPDC. He tells Geizler that he’s been working on a way to increase troop deployment times using jet boosters and Kaiju blood as fuel. Dr Geizler tells him that’s irresponsible and with the drone programme soon to be in effect, obsolete.

Shao asks that he does not make contact with Gottlieb again, unable to afford a misstep until the vote is passed. The drone programme is essentially a remote link, so that one person can pilot a Jaeger from a distance, removing the need for drift compatibility and loss of life in the field, sounds like a win to me but it gets everyone in the room a bit riled up. Mako has one valid point, a remote link could potentially be hacked and because she has the highest rank in the council, she can overrule their judgement.

Jake says he’ll be there for moral support and she reveals she wants Gypsy Avenger (the new version of Gypsy Danger) there, it’s the Jaeger he and Nate used to pilot. We cut to Sydney where there are protesters who worship the Kaiju? Why? No seriously, why? Thing is if 2016 told me anything is that there are people who are that stupid.

Oh look, they have turrets, something that’s probably a lot cheaper than a Jaeger. The objective is for Jake and Nate to just stand there, but as they drop, there’s some issue drifting, for a few moments but it comes back together. Make continues to study a report on the drones as a load of birds start flying inland, another Jaeger is inbound and it declares its intent by firing missiles and causing property damage, Gypsy Avenger manages to save people

After destroying the turrets, the rogue Jaeger then manages to block phone communications. Why would a Jaeger have that ability, it’s not as if the Kaiju communicate via cell-phone. The two Jaegers scrap and it’s evident quickly that Gypsy Avenger is outmatched, they deploy swords, but the rogue Jaeger has two of them, and they’re ablaze. In the chaos, Mako’s helicopter is hit, Gypsy Avenger uses a cool weapon to throw a ton of cars at the rogue Jaeger, buying them time to just miss catching the helicopter.

Jake runs out to Mako, leaving the Jaeger in operable, the Rogue Jaeger is back up but seeing more Jaegers inbound decides to retreat back into the ocean. Later, he leaves a photo of her, him and Daddy Pentacost at her memorial. And maybe it’s me, but it’s been a while since we caught up with Amara, who we find is still having issues with drifting, even with the brain they have to practice with.

Jake offers to help her by drifting with her, and we begin to see her origin, a memory she’s struggling to move past. She was with her family when a Kaiju attacked during the first war, they were separated when the Kaiju killed them. This leaves her a little upset but at this point Jake is called away for grown up business.

As the helicopter was crashing, Mako was trying to send a file, the base received fragments of it, and because Gottlieb is a genius when the plot demands it, he’s able to reconstruct some of the data, revealing something looking like a Kaiju. At Shau industries, Dr Geizler arrives and is informed by Shau that the council has approved drone deployment. Geizler finds the timing a little suspect but Shau says she was there, and what happened could’ve been fixed if the drones weren’t there.

Funny thing, by now you’d expect me to have a nickname for this obviously evil company and their obviously evil drones. Except you’d be wrong on both counts, the drones and the company are not evil, their drones will become evil but it’s not the fault of the company. The person whose fault it actually is we’ll discuss later.

Shau tells Geizler that the council expects deployment in 48 hours. Geizler returns home to his ‘loving wife’ and we see here that it’s a Kaiju brain. Why they spoiled this here, I don’t really understand but we’re 2/3 returning faces not doing very well, one is killed off and the other brainwashed. It’s something that Gottlieb is the character that fares the best.

The kids discuss things, Rachel and Amara fight for reasons that aren’t worth getting into, I forget who the rest of the kids are, Nate gives a speech and they’re called away. This scene accomplished nothing other than reminding us the kids were still in the movie. Ermm…. Thank you?

Turns out the data they recovered was a map, to a location in Siberia where they used to produce Jaeger power cores. Gipsy Aveger is deployed to investigate and is immediately attacked by the rogue Jaeger. Using some clever tricks, the terrain and the more open space, they’re able to destroy the rogue jaeger, uncovering a Kaiju brain being used to control it.

Gottlieb’s analysis tells us the Kaiju was engineered on earth using flesh left over from the previous invasions. Time for Amara to do something really stupid and decide to go and take a look at the Rogue Jaeger, called Obsidian Fury, some other kids follow along… I still can’t remember any of their names. One of the kids gets acid dripped on him when Amara attempts to cut a wire.

This gets Amara kicked out of the programme and it’s Jake that has to break the news to her, whilst giving some insight into his character. He joined up with the programme hoping to see more of his father, he and Nate got into an argument about something stupid and Jake tried to pilot a Jaeger on his own, made it about 2 steps before blacking out. This stunt got him kicked out and further estranged from his father, who would die in a year. She implicates Shau industries based on the direction of their wiring, which she knows about thanks to her scavenging.

They inform Gottlieb and ask him to talk to Geizler about it. Cut to Shao industries, Shao gets an alert but we don’t know what and she just says she’ll be in her office. Cut back to Amara packing her things. I think she might’ve earned Rachel’s respect… I wish I cared… She gets escorted out and Shau industries have completed drone deployment, but their remote pilots appear to be shorting out.

The drones about to land at Shatterstar base, growing suspiciously Kaiju-esque features, drop down into the field; an alert is sounded and everyone is sent to the Jaegers. Geizler is about to report to Shau when Gottlieb grabs him, having gotten in during the chaos. Everything explodes in slow motion around Amara, as her escort I guess has gone to pilot more Jaegers or something.

Gottlieb and Geizler are apprehended by Shau’s security as a Jaeger falls to the drones. The kids all rush out, only to be told to rush back in again. As the staff are rushing to shut down the drones, Gottlieb and Geizler escape the security team, grabbing one of their guns and now Geizler is using it to clear out the control room. He then activates a subroutine and reveals he’s secretly been planning to end the world. This would’ve been a more effective reveal if we didn’t have that scene earlier.

Drones begin grouping and blasting the seabed, creating breaches for the Kaiju. Yeah, turns out Geizler’s attempt to drift with a Kaiju gave him a link to the Precursors who have been controlling his mind. Again, all of this would’ve been much more of a shock if it wasn’t revealed to us earlier. Gottlieb tries to get him to fight back and thank god he doesn’t. The trope of talking someone out of mind control is a little stale.

It’s not looking good at Shatterstar base, the commanding officer was killed by missile blasts as he activated a lockdown but now the lockdown doesn’t look set to last long either as the drones break through, making matters worse the kids are still about, their route to their quarters has been blocked by debris. Shau confronts Geizler and is about to shoot him with Gottlieb stops him, believing Geizler might still be saveable

Shau tries to use the subroutine to regain control but it doesn’t seem to be working, and making matters worse the breaches are beginning to open, and Kaiju popping out of it. She is eventually successful however and her feedback loops shuts down all the drones, closing the breaches. However, it turns out 3 Kaiju got through, 2 category 4s and a category 5, just like in the last movie.

Only Gypsy Avenger somehow survived the attack in one piece, and a lot of dead and injured pilots litter the place. Jake reinstates Amara to do repairs, so the whole subplot about her being kicked out was entirely pointless. A fleet of ships from Shao arrive to assist with the repairs, with new intel, we get a retcon, apparently the Kaiju weren’t attacking cities, they were attempting to get through them to Mount Fuji. Because of the rare earth elements found there, if the Kaiju arrived at said location, they would ignite, sending toxic gas across the entire earth.

Essentially, they’re terraforming the earth for the Precursors (Where's Jak and Daxter when you need him). And they’re too far away to stop them in time unless they use the Kaiju blood booster rockets. The kids begin doing the repairs since none of the adults are skilled enough I guess, and soon we have 4 Jaegers operational, except only the cadets are capable of piloting the other Jaegers.

Jake gives his speech… it’s not as good as Stacker’s, but even he acknowledged that. So, I’m relying on Wikipedia here, but we have Gipsy Avenger in blue (Jake and Nate), Guardian Bravo in Greyish geen (Suresh and Ilya), Bracer Phoenix in Green (Amara, Viktoria and Jinhai) and Saber Athena in green (Renata and Riochi) got all that? NO? Me neither, let’s get to the climax.

They launch and Ilya plays trolololol to relax? What the f…

The Kaiju are in Tokyo, home of classic monsters and are crushing their way through the city, naturally in way where we don’t see any human blood. The first shelter is closed so they have to move quickly. I guess they did because the next thing we hear, the city’s successfully evacuated.

The Kaiju seem to able to redirect energy but the team quickly adapt. For some reason Newt is in Tokyo and and unleashes some cyber thingymabobs that Ahau developed or some reason, they attach themselves to the Kaiju, forming a sort of armour around them, repairing their battle wounds. And erm… morphing them into a single, more powerful machine?

The Jaegers fire everything but shockingly doesn’t seem to work. Guardian Bravo is still powered up and idiotically tries to take the monster alone and gets its ass kicked. Ilya survives but Seresh is dead and the Jaeger is down. They plan a new attack, aiming for the monsters’ 3 secondary brains but Saber Athena is downed and Bracer Phoenix is also, they’re forced to eject, only barely making it out before the Jaegers is torn apart

Gypsy Avenger has a bit more luck but Nate is hit and brought out of drift. Amara comes aboard to help. They plan to launch a high altitude drop on the Kaiju but requires recovering a thruster. Fortunately Mako arrives in Scrapper, the robot Amara made, she brings the device to them and attaches it to the arm, it launches but Scrapper gets stuck on the arm in the process. They reach a high altitude. There’s some drama regarding an escape pod malfunction but Scrapper manages to provide them an escape just in time.

The impact doesn’t seem to kill the Kaiju until it does… terrific. Geizler is about to launch a plan B but Nate punches him in the face. Snowball fight because why not? We get a pre credits mid-credit sequence where Jake says they’re coming for the precursors in that totally gonna happen sequel. Maybe the Netflix animated series might pick up on that but for now, this book is closed.

This is not a good film by most standards. The characters are all paper thin or forgettable, and much of the better elements of the last film, specifically Ron Perlman’s character and Pentecost Sr are gone here. In terms of new stuff, we do see more variation in fight locations rather than just an off-shore city but that comes at the cost of more dated special effects.

Still, if you’re looking for the rush of giant robots fighting giant monsters, you could do a lot worse. It’s relatively short, there are plenty of fight sequences and the pace is relatively brisk.

But then you’re back to the story. The children are forgotten about for long stretches, which undervalues their overall importance and cheapens the tragedy when one of them dies. There’s very little chemistry between any of the leads. Nate and Jake particularly suffer here, they never came off like estranged friends.

I’m glad they didn’t go with the evil corporation but how did Dr Geizler manage this project on his own, and why didn’t they save that reveal to be an actual shock moment?

This isn’t as good as the first, it provides exactly one pleasure, watching giant robots fight giant monsters and for what it is, it’s perfectly fine at that

Rating -35%