Review: Pacific Rim Uprising Fell Below Our Expectation
When Pacific Rim first appeared on the cinema, it was like all science fiction fans’ dreams came true. Built around the premise of a monstrous creatures called Kaiju that arose from the depth of Pacific ocean, mankind build giant robots called Jaegers to contain it. It was directed by a director who could envision fantasy stories perfectly, Guillermo Del Toro. For you who haven’t watched the first installment of this movie, we’d highly suggest you to watch it. If you are too lazy to spend hours watching the film, prepare for the spoiler. In the end of the first movie, it was said that the human race won the fight against Kaiju and sealed the Breach. Hannibal who was thought to be dead after being devoured by an infant Kaiju turne out to be alive and made his way out of it. The second movie “Pacific Rim Uprising” wasn’t directed by Del Toro anymore, but Steven S. DeKnight took over instead. It started in 10 years after the first event, but even though the Kaiju had been defeated, the threat of it might come back again never went away. John Boyega played the role of Pantecost’s rebelious son, John Pantecost. His father (played by Edris Elba) had set an incredible record as Jaeger pilot, but the son failed to live up to his high-profiled career as he became criminal and scavenger.
Rinko Kikuchi reprised her role as Mako Mori who was a high ranking PPDC member (Pan Pacific Defense Corps). This time she wanted her adoptive brother, Pantecost to set the record straight and became a great Jaeger pilot like his dad used to be. Joining the new Jaeger forces, a selection of new candidates trained hard to be a Jaeger pilot to keep the peace on earth. All the while, an enemy emerged in Sydney in a form of Jaeger called ‘Obsidian Fury’. The battle then turned into robot vs robot that eh…um… reminded us of….Transformers anyone? We believe that DeKnight wanted to translate a post-war situation with this film, so the audience could relate to the film better than the first one. We saw the consequences of war in Pacific Rim Uprising and it gave a new perspective. But still, the premise of the robots battle might not look or sound attractive to pull the interest of the movie’s fans. As a standard sci-fi movie based on the CGI, battle, or effects it is as good as any other box office movies, but it isn’t enough to satisfy the five year-long wait. The twist in the end might be a nice surprise, so you might want to watch it in the cinema as it is being screened nationwide.
Reviewer: Audy Prasetya/Editor: Novita Widia
