⚡tombs⚡so pacific rim uprising seemed to be a worse version of the first movie
I thought the first 15 minutes or so were promising, but the rest of the plot turned out to be... Not Good
Just kinda all over the place
Animation: the animation was good, but the jaegars didn't feel as big as the first movie. I think they lost their weighty feel, and that's really important to the illusion of making them seem like giant robots. The fight scenes were cool, but they weren't backed by any real character motivation or anything, really. They felt really devoid of meaning.
That said, i have to go back to the first 15 mins. I think the first jaeger chase scene did all that stuff right! The big jaeger felt big, and the small jaeger felt small. I think that if someone re-wrote the script from about 13 minutes onward, you could make a really good movie.
There are some spots in the movie where you can tell the people working on it aren't taking it that seriously, which I think is a good thing in this case. John boyega is just having fun, and some of the dialogue feels like it was either improv or was written by someone who wanted to have some fun. Like when herman responded to someone telling him to go get newt by saying really excitedly "I have a mission!"
Acting-wise, it was fine. I didn't notice anything particularly bad, but nothing outstanding either. I liked the leads, though.
Have I talked about the plot yet? It's a mess tbh. At first I thought it was going to be a movie like "the corporation got out of hand and created kaiju-jaegers," but it turned out that newt sabotaged them because the alien-brain fucking was brainwashing him. I was looking forward to having a villain who was like, not the mysterious alien race or a pawn of some kind. And when it's revealed, herman is like "no don't shoot him he's brainwashed!"
It just felt like the director or whoever else was in charge wanted to put in an m. night twist instead of making a good plot and it shows. Honestly before the reveal, it could still have been a decent movie. the scene where gipsy avenger takes out obsidian fury in siberia and you see the kaiju brain inside??? Despite how lukewarm the actual fight was, that brain reveal was very cool.
charaters: the characters are okay. Amara is cool and I live for her mech-junker aesthetic. Jake (john Boyega) is cool enough. classic "I'm not like my dad" archetype. seems like an asshole but really cares. Nate (the other ranger guy) is cool. I think that the interactions between him and jake are actually pretty good, i really enjoyed watching them interact. I like watching characters who used to be close but went their own ways reconcile (especially when it's written well).
The cadets were forgettable. one of them had a feud with amara because she didn't work to get in the program and then when amara's kicked out it's like, suddenly okay between them? there is literally zero character development in ANY character in this movie.
Conclusion: The end result looks good enough, but a not-good plot and general writing drags it down. However, pacific rim uprising is very obviously a passion project for those involved and I personally don't think it needs to be judged on this kind of critical level. The people making it seem to have had a good time, and I don't think anyone really has the right to shit on it in that context.