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Pacific Rim Uprising (2018)

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Disclaimer: I don't actually like the first one all that much. But I enjoyed this a lot, because I had no expectations. John did a good job, loved the opening sequences.

 

You could cut out a bunch of characters (That random "love interest" the random white kid who I didn't know was there until the end of the film, hell -)
 

You can even cut out Scott Eastwood himself. More like Eastwooden face.

 

Spoiler

"Oh no, he might be mortally injured" was met with a resounding "WHO CARES?"

 

I hope he does not come back if we get a third one, and Newt is upgraded to a major character to be evil and mind controlled. 

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This was a lot of unexpected pure unadultered dumb fun, not unlike King Kong Skull Island last year. Finally, daylight brawls (giant robots vs evil giant robots/giant robots vs kaijus/giant robots vs MEGAKAIJU) up the wazoo!

 

It pains me to say it but DeKnight really nailed the right tone to handle that kind of juvenile material juggling anime-like action/corny one-liners/wacky characters and cheesy cliches, more than Del Toro, making the most with a severely slashed budget that didn't benefit from the same production luxury as its predecessor. But still, it actually delivers the genuine fun that Del Toro was promising 5 years ago without the arty pretention, boring middle belly of uninteresting "character development" and muddied atmospherics drowning the screen in darkness interspeced with fluo shit.

 

Also the "twist" cracks me up that it enraged PR fans, that was a welcome wrench spicing up the proceeding and Day had a leggit justification to ham that shit up. (I just wished they didn't off Mako, PR's heart and soul, so abruptly in the first act, she could have lived until the end of the second act to sacrifice herself like her adoptive dad did).

 

Boyega is clearly a more animated and lively protagonist whose character actions actually matter in this than in The Last Jedi.

 

(And I kinda enjoyed this more than Black Panther?!)

 

B-

 

 

Edited by dashrendar44
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27 minutes ago, dashrendar44 said:

Boyega is clearly more animated and lively protagonist whose character actions actually matter in this than The Last Jedi.

 

 

Yeah I was thinking "Wow, this is as if someone respected his character, no matter how corny this is." but I didn't want to say it and open a Sarlaac Pit of worms.

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Day gets to do some Nic Cage-levels of mega acting here. 

 

Anyway I enjoyed this one more than the first movie. Yes it lacks Del Toro's world building/directorial quote "auteur" touches, but DeKnight actually indulges in that sandbox much more. I ended up digesting this like a weekday/Saturday morning mech anime like the sort it was emulating after. 

 

Also unlike the first movie, this knows what to do with a bland boring white character: don't make him the lead, sideline him as a supporting character which makes him slightly more tolerable. (God, Scott Eastwood can't act worth a dent.)

 

I give this 7 out of 10. 

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See, this is a prime example of a film with huge robots, great special effects, and aliens/big beings that Transformers should look at. I was pretty impressed, it’s no way a great film but I’d say good and even a lot of fun. I liked the characters in this, the main ones at least. I think the biggest weakness of the film is the “villain” that weirdo white geeky dude where he just came off really bad acting wise to me. It just fell flat to me in that regard plus I was confused what exactly happened to him? (I did not see the first PR) 

 

However this is leagues upon leagues better than any Transformers film easily, and it shows you can make a pretty decent/solid film even if it is robots vs monsters if you invest enough in the characters enough for the audience to care. Strong B for me, 7.7/10

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What if, just hypothetically, we took a season of a mecha anime, and then condensed it down into two hours?

 

No, it doesn't matter which mecha anime. Really, just pick one. Or pick them all. It REALLY doesn't matter, because, what you'll find by putting 13 odd hours of TV into fast forward so you can see it in two, that you'll only get the broad strokes, the tropes, and the big action sequences, with little else.

 

That's Pacific Rim: Uprising, in a nutshell.

 

This isn't a criticism, mind, or praise. It is what it is. And while the process to create the film was unlikely to be an attempt to answer the above question, it exists as an answer just the same. And that's probably not a question that really needed an answer, but there are budgetary needs to tell certain types of stories, such as giant robots going rock-em-sock-em on giant monsters, and the only venue to tell said stories is in two hour films that cost roughly $1m-$2m a minute to make.

 

So we're left with a film that's passably enjoyable, but ultimately unmemorable. It's got a few thrills, a few laughs, some nice action sequences and staging, but in the end there's little about it that says "watch me again" or even "remember me at the end of the year.

 

It's interesting to consider it contrast to the first Pacific Rim, because despite the fact that Uprising is a sequel, the films feel very different. The first film was delightfully engaging, earnest in its love for the source inspirations, and really lovingly crafted to be a visual experience. It was cheesy as hell, but the way it was presented invited audiences along for the ride.

 

Uprising is also cheesy, and also pretty earnest, but it seems to miss much of what made the first film really work. It's still fun, but in a more distant way. And it seems preoccupied with throwing so much at the viewer, to buy into the "Bigger is Better" mantra, that it loses sight of the smaller, quieter moments that flesh out the characters to make them really engaging. Without the sparring session between Raleigh and Mako, we don't care enough about them later. If we don't get to see Ron Perlman's delightful Hannibal Chau, we don't get a real sense for the depth of the world and society that exists in it. Those little things make the entire movie, as ridiculous as it is, feel more real.

 

The second film lacks those moments, and so it feels like a veneer, rather than a fully actualized thing. And so, in our hypothetical high speed mecha anime, it jumps from major story beat to major story beat with little time to rest, and leaves the viewer little time to digest what is happening and to feel for the characters.

 

In a sense, Uprising seems to fall prey to what plagues many big budget productions. It's a film that wants all the payoff without working on the setup. And worse, it's relying on another film to deliver that setup. Despite having very few characters reappear from the first, there is little about this film that would make sense to a neophyte viewer. It might still be enjoyable, but it would also be largely incomprehensible.

 

Mostly, it seems to indicate how difficult it is to pull something like this off. The first Pacific Rim might be flawed, but it worked in so many ways to really click with some people. And the recent spate of superhero films that have drawn in big audiences, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther, all managed a similar earnestness that seems effortless but is apparently very difficult to pull off. If you miss just a little, you might come off as flat, insincere, or just not quite right.

 

So what we're left with is a movie that definitely isn't great, but it probably wasn't reaching for great in the first place, but it's not bad, either. It's a fun way to spend a couple hours, to munch on some popcorn or to wind down after the buzz from a few birthday cocktails.

 

3/5

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I have no interest in seeing this in the theater, not a fan of the first. I'm sure I'll Netflix it one night later this year though. 

 

Here's the thing. I want the site to make your vote public. I'm all for an 'F' vote if you feel that way but back it up. 

If not, they should be deleted, vote invalid.

 

Whoever is IMDB'ing our 'Rate' forum is childish. 

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2 hours ago, Captain Craig said:

I have no interest in seeing this in the theater, not a fan of the first. I'm sure I'll Netflix it one night later this year though. 

 

Here's the thing. I want the site to make your vote public. I'm all for an 'F' vote if you feel that way but back it up. 

If not, they should be deleted, vote invalid.

 

Whoever is IMDB'ing our 'Rate' forum is childish. 

You can see who gave it a F. 

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he got mad at me for giving Death Wish an F in the RTM thread.  i accidentally clicked on it and can’t remove it without changing my grade to another artificial rating so it’s stuck there until I actually see it lol whoops

 

On 3/25/2018 at 5:34 PM, Dexter of Suburbia said:

Somewhat decent first and second act followed by a terrible third act.  I am going to be nice and give it a C-

 

tbh I’m kinda the opposite.  I was really only enjoying the fights and Charlie Day in this one, and most of the first two acts were ungodly boring for me.  Once Charlie Day says “I’m ending the world” it gets a lot better for me.

 

Also I hope someone else shares my sentiments when I say the lighting in this film fucking sucked.  It’s lit like a low quality TV show and it hurt my eyes to look at a few times (especially in some of the darker scenes).  jesus.

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Positive

- Jaegers vs Jaegers/Kaiju fight scenes were cool and well done for the most part. (Siberia fight was my fav)

- Boyega was a much better protagonist than Hunnam. Dude carried the entire movie as far as human characters go. 

- Charlie Day was ridiculous in this but I still thought it his character was great. 

- Liked the Kaiju/Jaeger hybrids when the drones got taken over. Some nice designs. 

 

Negative

- Makos death was lame. Would have been an actual character relationship with Jake people cared about especially if she got to pilot again. 

- Every other new character was uninteresting and forgettable. Wasted screen-time that could have been used for more Kaiju fights. 

- Chinese pandering while expected was still off the charts (The Chinese actress they got was terrible and had way too much screen-time). 

- Final fight was a bit of a letdown. Preferred the earlier fights. 

 

Overall its some mindless giant Robot vs Monsters fun in IMAX. They tried to develop a plot but it fell flat. (6/10) C

 

Wheres Ron Perlman at?

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Full Disclaimer: I love the first movie.  It never pretends to be anything it's not; which is a movie about giant robots v giant monsters, with a lot of heart thanks to its stellar cast of characters and brilliant director.  I also knew the plot ahead of time. I only went to see it because it was the cheap day at the theater, and I wanted to support John Boyega without giving the movie a full ticket price.  So, onward:

 

This movie?  This?  This is G A R B A G E.

 

Those motherfuckers fridged Mako Mori.  It was TEXTBOOK!  Her death was COMPLETELY POINTLESS.  The editing was TERRIBLE.  It made the whole thing seem like an afterthought of "oh, yeah, she needs to die."  The helicopter looked safely out of harm's way -- until PLOT means it needs to be in the action.  I knew it was coming and watching it on screen is so much worse.  The Helicopter legit blows up IN THE BACKGROUND.  She doesn't have a storyline!  HOW?  How does Mako Mori NOT PASS the Mako Mori Test?  What BULLSHIT is this!

 

Two of the three new female characters (Amara and Liwen) BARELY pass the Mako Mori Test, which is good for them, because Jules doesn't even pass the Sexy Lamp test.

 

It's so dirty.

 

Other stray thoughts:

 

  • Eastwood is SO BAD that it’s DISTRACTING.  It also doesn't help that his character is the cliche male archetype that Raleigh Becket so beautifully subverted.
  • I signed up for giant robots v giant monsters.  Not giant robots v giant robots.  Uncool.  Even more uncool: the new robot and kaiju designs were a SERIOUS downgrade from the first film.
  • Newt and Hermann, also, got royally fucked.  The only reason I didn’t walk out was the inevitable Newt and Hermann confrontation!!!  I needed Hermann to either end Newt or snap him out of it!  Why did you spend all press tour talking about them being ex-boyfriends to not give me an emotional (but not explicit, cause, you know, China) scene in the third act!  You didn’t even give it to me in the end credit scene!  Do the writers understand story beats at all!
  • The only time I got excited was when they cued the theme song.  Then I got immediately sad, thinking about how the sound and score in this movie are just so average and really loud.
  • John Boyega is a movie star, and I hope him the best.  He’s really great in this. The first fifteen minutes of the movie with him are a blast.  He ALMOST saved this. But as a friend of mine pointed out: “As a Pacific Rim movie?  Bad.  As a movie where John Boyega uses a robot to beat up aliens wth his boyfriend and baby sister? Good.”  The problem for me is I wanted a Pacific Rim movie.  

 


 

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