[rating=7.00]
If we accept the notion that all narrative is simply the making, and subsequent keeping, of promises, then the Pacific Rim series has one of the easiest jobs in narrative history. The 2013 original film from Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro and its new sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, make one promise and one promise only: giant monsters and giant robots will punch each other.
Judging the films from this perspective creates an argument that these two films are among the most successful narratives of all time. That’s unnuanced, certainly, and there are plenty of other elements of both films that would undoubtedly lessen any assertion you might make in that regard; but even then, we’re left with the cold truth that, goddamn, these films know how to keep a promise.
We do indeed see giant robots and giant monsters locked inside of mortal combat, engaging in destructive, awe inspiring fisticuffs that level cities with the same aplomb as they raise heart rates. Any critique I could lob at either Pacific Rim or Pacific Rim: Uprising bounces off the well-constructed conceit of the film. “Character? Story? Pfffft. This ain’t that movie, friendo. Here, we punch monsters. Save the namby pamby bullshit for awards season.”
Fair enough. With that as my critical guide I can state that Pacific Rim: Uprising delivers its goods like a 100-ton punch straight to the face. It is audaciously itself, making no real attempts to serve as anything but a vehicle through which we can view that sweet, sweet robot vs. monster action. Is it dumb? Intently so. They’re banking on the fact that it doesn’t matter if they are. What’s more is that it’s a safe bet.
Subtlety would ruin the appeal of Pacific Rim: Uprising, perhaps even more so than it would the original. Like its predecessor, it basks in its own base idiocy, reveling in the B-movie monster pics that inspired it while making no attempt to elevate the form in any meaningful way. (I mean this all to be complimentary, for the record.) While the flair of del Toro is certainly missed—never do they attain the level of madcap awesomeness of the moment in Pacific Rim which found that one giant robot using a cargo liner as a bat against that one giant monster—Uprising still leans into itself delightfully.
Taking place a decade after the events of the first film, Uprising follows Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) from the first movie. An apostate of the Jaeger (giant robot) pilot program, he fills his days making money in the criminal underworld, reveling in the kind of nihilism you’d expect from a world that narrowly avoided apocalypse by monster. His criminal dalliances lead him to cross paths with a young street urchin named Amara (Cailee Spaeny) with designs of building her own Jaeger. Unfortunately, they are arrested and given a choice: prison or the Jaeger corps, which is inexplicably still in place all these years after the monsters disappeared. Good thing, too. For soon the monsters return.
Uprising never quite reaches the point of winking or nodding at the audience, but it does seem to wear a subtle, wry grin. It knows why we’re here, and every single one of its moments works towards either taking us to that point or by tantrically teasing us, delaying our gratification in order to enhance it once it’s delivered.
Every hammy subplot or hackneyed turn of development is delivered with its almost-straight face. It’s as if the movie is saying, “Bet you’re ready to see some intense, hardcore monsters-getting-punched-by-robots action, huh? Probably wondering how we’re going to top ourselves, right? I feel that. Here’s some character development instead. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.”
It’d be easy to call it bad—and it is—except it kind of works. Every minute you spend without seeing either a robot or monster getting their clocks cleaned adds a degree of pressure begging to be released that increases exponentially. The movie knows we don’t really care about emotional weight or narrative development, but it knows that the longer it makes us wait for the title match the more satisfied we’ll be.
And, boy, does it satisfy. Admittedly, it doesn’t need to do much to do so. Monsters getting punched + robot getting punched = fuck yes. And yet, they don’t hold back when the climax finally hits. It’s an all-out brawl on the streets of downtown Tokyo and in the shadows of Mt. Fuji and they do nothing but go for it. All of the character triumphs both major and minor pale in comparison to seeing these monstrosities of science fiction excess pound each other to bloody pieces.
If that’s all you’re looking for then you’re gonna have a good time. Why you’d be looking for anything else is beyond me. Pacific Rim: Uprising, like its predecessor, is the most take-at-face-value movie that it could have been, and if the idea of robots and monsters punching each other doesn’t inherently appeal to your sensibilities then be sure to stay far away. For the rest of us, though, we’ve come to see some promises get delivered. And goddamn, are they ever.
Pacific Rim: Uprising is now punching playing in theaters everywhere.
