Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) Blu Ray


by Adam Thorn

Tagline: “Rise Up” No. Sit down, switch off and perhaps you'll make it through.

Premise: Idris Elba was too expensive so his “son” is the focus of a film which just reeks of an aggrandised budget. There's monsters and robots and frankly, chances are you're already not reading this review. Tits! Bottoms! Yeah, sex sells.

Delivery: Despite being a huge Guillermo del Toro fan, I didn't like the original Pacific Rim initially, but I confess it did grow on me a little. I realise that's ever so slightly a fucking hypocrisy from me as all the Transformers films I've all scored ten out of ten. OK not really, but I still have some of the Transformer toys somewhere. Why? Because they're intricately designed, clever pieces of plastic for children to learn assembly with you cretin! Intricately designed, clever pieces of plastic which just happen to be based on Autobots and Decepticons: who are badass. What I'm saying is that Pacific Rim should be exactly my kind of thing. Moving on.

The film picks up some years after the original, I'm not sure how many and can't be arsed to check, but apparently CGI has grown less convincing. John Boyega play Elba's son, and is good value, in fact he carries the first half of the film, which was quite enjoyable. The cast are clearly having fun, Charlie Day is also good and Scott Eastwood I have liked previously, and I like him here, which isn't really what I get the impression you're supposed to do. He's set up as the bad guy. Maybe I'm the sociopath. However, when Elba's son meets a fifteen year old who can build and pilot her own robot they get recruited to some weird robot pilot school which apparently has no safeguarding policies and places the girl child in a dorm with adult men.

To be honest, I fell out of love with Pacific Rim 2 at about the halfway point. It was a love built only on the desire to be entertained, and when the fun stops, I normally stop. I kept at it based entirely on my desire to spit venom at the celluloid. My notes convey a confused, weird sense of enjoyment. There was clearly something about it. At one point Boyega eats ice cream while drinking beer. What kind of a fucking psycho can eat ice cream with a beer? This is a man with no sense(s) left, he's perfect for piloting a fucking city wrecker, yeah let the guy who's lost his mind and palate do that humanity saving task. It's nuts. It's a dichotomy and it is the film in microcosm.

Bedsit it? This might be your cup of tea, but bear in mind Transformers is mine, and I didn't like Pacific Rim: Uprising. I did sit through it though, which as I get more cynical is less common. Second half alone I'd score 2/10, but the first half a 6/10 which tells you how bad the second was. 4/10

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