Other than the fascinating giant co-piloted robots, Pacific Rim Uprising is also an interestingly entertaining movie for its action, impressive actors, and engaging dialogue. A 2018 film that I would love to see its sequel.
Turned out that Uprising is actually a sequel to the 2013 film Pacific Rim. Realising that made the premise in the beginning of the film make more sense. But not having watched the prequel didn't make Uprising any less enjoyable. Uprising in fact would have been fine even without the prequel.
What piqued my interest the most about this film was the giant robots piloted by humans for combat against aliens. But I even found the idea of two people co-piloting by linking up their minds more interesting, and I wanted to see just how they would pull that off.
Here's how the story goes: Kaiju, giant aliens from another dimension, came in through a breach and invaded earth. Earth formed a defence system against the Kaiju called the Jaeger Program, where humans are trained to use giant robots built to fight them. The giant robots called Jaegers, however, put too much strain on the mind for control, and so two co-pilots combined minds to pilot them.
Apparently, the war against the Kaiju ended 10 years ago with humans winning with the Jaegers and sealing them off from the breach. Out of nowhere in the present, Kaiju shows up suddenly, but the world is unprepared this time.
How the film begins with casual yet comic interactions between the main characters was such a good start. The son of the leader of the Kaiju War [that paid the ultimate sacrifice 10 years ago] encounters with a young, ambitious lady that managed to build her own Jaeger, although illegal. They both get off on the wrong foot but turn out to become key players in the second war against the Kaiju. The transition was mostly a hilarious journey, as well as inspiring.
The highlights of the film for me were the fights between giant robots and the Kaiju. It was mostly like watching Godzilla and King Kong, with the giants fighting and using the entire city as their battleground. But because they were robots instead, other than the Kaiju, there was a lot more drama in the action with all that tech.
Moving away from the action and robots for a bit, the film was also interesting because of the characters and how well the actors played them. Most of the main characters were young, so it was cool to see them give their best and give life to the film. And while the dialogue was "designed" for the type of film, it was just fine and also helped keep the film enjoyable.
I hardly thought about how or when the film would end, as I was mostly in the moment enjoying the film, yet it was a fine one. The climax of the whole drama was in the ending, and it turned out satisfactory.
If this sequel was this good for me, it makes me really want to enjoy the original film from 2013. It had Idris Elba in it, an actor that's popularly known for his dynamic acting in action films, so maybe I'll talk about it soon enough. Notwithstanding, Pacific Rim Uprising was a classic sci-fi film for me.