Pacific Rim 2 - Part 1

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

I really enjoyed it.

Although in some ways it's not as great as the first, in other ways, it's better, or at least different and fresh.

 

[psylockolussus]

Such a meh movie.

 

[Sithborg]

Saw it again. Really enjoy it.

 

[Grootster]

Just got back from seeing Uprising a second time, and I'm still loving it!

It didn't blow me away quite as much as it did the first time around, but that's to be expected since I already know the spoilers. This time I actually noticed some clever setup and foreshadowing throughout the movie, things that I didn't pick up on the first time. I honestly think it's a really well-put together movie. It's obviously not an Oscar-winning masterpiece, but I'd argue it's a step or two above of a lot of other "big, explosive" blockbusters. Almost prefect blend of dumb fun and interesting plot. I really hope we get a third movie, it would be a shame to end the series without finishing the story.

 

[Web-Head]

It was alright, kinda fun. Felt really rushed though and I don't think there was much of a plot

 

[sirmarkus]

Saw this last night and it was a hell of a lot of fun. It won't win any critical awards or anything, but I'm always down for Giant Robots fighting Giant Monsters. I thought it was well paced and thoroughly entertaining. Totally worth checking out.

https://sirmarkussite.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/film-review-pacific-rim-uprising/

 

[Spider-Fan]

Just saw this movie. Pacific Rim for me was a 3.5/5 experience. The movie looked great and it was awesome....when we had robots and monsters fighting. I feel like it was too slow for what the appeal of the movie was and it got too bogged down in the science and a plot I didn't think was amazing.

I walked into this expecting a 2/5 type experience. Maybe my low expectations factor in, but this I enjoyed more than I thought. Pacific Rim is better basically in every regard, but I would call this a solid 3/5 experience. Pacing was faster and the plot was passable. Overall, decent movie. Not great and has numerous issues, but overall...it's a fun, dumb monster vs robots movie.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Finally managed to catch this today. It doesn’t have the visual styling of the first movie, but my old eyes appreciated daytime fights so I could follow the action. Boyega is very good, got a few chuckles out of me. Spaney and Sakhno were the standouts among the cadets, and Charlie Day was pleasantly goofy. You can see most of the plot coming a mile away but they did sneak a twist or two in on me. Too bad it fizzled at the box office, I could watch one of these every year or two and be quite happy. 7/10.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Finally saw this, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. Boyega was an awesome choice as the lead and he delivers in spades. Right away you root for him and the more you find out about him the more you like him.

Same with the main kid Amars who thankfully wasn’t annoying. I had spoiled myself silly before seeing it but I still liked the execution of a lot of the stuff I was expecting to dislike. However, I still hated Mako dying, they should have had Raleigh and Hercules Hanson in that role and kept Mako alive.

I did like the Kaiju controlled Jaegars though, and the Jaegar vs Jaegar fights were something new in the franchise and visually great. Loved them, especially the one in Siberia. The CGI was pretty damn good at times, but lacking in others. However they always seemed on point in the fights. I would argue this movie has a better finale than the first movie had also, however nothing here is as good as the Tokyo battle in the first movie.

I think GDT would have made a better movie out of this script, but DeKnight surprised and did well. He certainly has an eye for action, and did well in a lot of the character moments also. I did think it got a bit too kiddy at times. But overall I would love if we got the 3rd movie teased at the end.

7/10.

 

[Deck Rickard]

First Roxy in Kingsman 2 now Mako in Pacific Rim 2. I'm detecting a pattern.

I liked the movie but it can't touch the original. The daytime fights were a nice addition.

Going a little farther back, Marie in The Bourne Supremacy.

It's all the "Girl in the Fridge."

There's also a rumor about another upcoming movie doing the same thing that I hope isn't true.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

So who did people prefer out of Gypsy Danger and Gypsy Avenger? I preferred Danger myself, but I did think Avenger was a good Mach II type deal.

 

[Grootster]

I can't say I really get the complaints about Mako's death. I've heard some legitimate critisisms about it, but most of it seems kind of knee-jerk. It's actually kind of ironic considering both leads were generally considered the weakest parts of the first film. People went from being "meh" about Mako's character to mad that she got killed.

I have a feeling people are upset because "that new director killed a character I know", not because it was a legitimately bad death. If Del Toro had done the same thing, I don't think people would be complaining as much. It seems like there's always a knee-jerk reaction when a new storyteller kills an established character.

First Roxy in Kingsman 2 now Mako in Pacific Rim 2. I'm detecting a pattern.

I liked the movie but it can't touch the original. The daytime fights were a nice addition.

A pattern? Characters have been dying in stories ever since stories have existed.

If Uprising hadn't killed Mako, I guarantee people would complain that the movie was too "safe" and should have killed someone.

Going a little farther back, Marie in The Bourne Supremacy.

It's all the "Girl in the Fridge."

There's also a rumor about another upcoming movie doing the same thing that I hope isn't true.

It's been a while since I've seen the Bourne movies, but didn't that character die within in the first 15 minutes of the movie? Mako lasted a good amount of time into Uprising. I can't say for sure until I have it on home video, but I'd venture to say Mako dies around the halfway mark (maybe a little earlier). Not to mention she has a role in the plot. I don't think these are comparable.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I honestly wasn't attached to any of the major characters enough to care if they killed them in this one. By and large, the story in Pacific Rim I found fairly generic and the characters not that interesting. What I liked about it was the visual style and the robot/monster battles. Those I can watch endlessly. The rest was just serviceable. So, when Mako died, I didn't feel much.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Mako/Rinko was one of the highest praised cast members from the first movie, by both fans and critics. Raleigh was the one people had a problem with, her story was a big part of the heart there as well. So this love of the character and people being angered at her death hasn't just come out of no where.

I enjoyed the sequel a lot, but that part just wasn't necessary.

 

[HKpowerup]

SPOILERS

PR Uprising had its moments and was entertaining, but was missing a lot of what made the first movie good.

- Boyega was okay, he wasn't given rich material to work with though.

- Cailee Spaeny was good as Amara, but I found her child prodigy character to be annoying. She has some serious acting chops though.

- The twist with Geiszler's mind being taken over by the aliens was interesting, but Charlie Day's performance was awful.

- The action was really good, as good as the first.

- The charcters were all flat, with the exception of Amara.

Overall, a 6/10 from me.

 

[HKpowerup]

I did like the Kaiju controlled Jaegars though, and the Jaegar vs Jaegar fights were something new in the franchise and visually great. Loved them, especially the one in Siberia. The CGI was pretty damn good at times, but lacking in others. However they always seemed on point in the fights. I would argue this movie has a better finale than the first movie had also, however nothing here is as good as the Tokyo battle in the first movie.

7/10.

The Siberia fight was awesome.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The Siberia fight was awesome.

Agreed, the location added a lot to it as well.

 

[Grootster]

Steven DeKnight, the director of Uprising, has been answering fan questions on Twitter over the past few days.

He acknowledges that Mako's death wasn't as dramatic or sad as it could have been. Apparently she was more important to the story in the original cut, but the studio removed a lot of those scenes, which makes her death feel more pointless. It sounds like the director shares this complaint with the fans.

Mako was supposed to have been injured by radiation during the end of the first film, which explains why she gave up piloting.

There was also supposed to be more dialog explaining the Kaiju's plan. Apparently the Pacific Ocean is the only place Kaiju can come through, hence why they don't just open a portal above the volcano.

 

[Grootster]

Despite all of this being cut, I still love the movie. In fact, I think a lot of these cut scenes were probably good decisions. As it is there was already a good amount of exposition and technobabble in the movie, I don't think it really needed any more. I love the pacing of the final film, and feel like it's probably more important than explaining nitpicks about the Kaiju's plan. I didn't even think about that sort of thing until it was brought up by the director. As I've said before, I was fine with Mako's death in the final film, and didn't need the extra scenes.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Steven DeKnight, the director of Uprising, has been answering fan questions on Twitter over the past few days.

He acknowledges that Mako's death wasn't as dramatic or sad as it could have been. Apparently she was more important to the story in the original cut, but the studio removed a lot of those scenes, which makes her death feel more pointless. It sounds like the director shares this complaint with the fans.

Mako was supposed to have been injured by radiation during the end of the first film, which explains why she gave up piloting.

There was also supposed to be more dialog explaining the Kaiju's plan. Apparently the Pacific Ocean is the only place Kaiju can come through, hence why they don't just open a portal above the volcano.

Hopefully they add those Mako scenes back in for the home release as her death was handled really poorly. I enjoyed the movie a lot but hated that part of it. Wish they would have mentioned what happend to Raleigh also.

 

[#root]

I actually enjoyed the film. Very different from the first one. They didn't even try to imitate del Toro's style which I guess is good. Better to do it differently than doing a bad imitation. Really wish Mako had a bigger role though. Her storyline was my favorite in the first one.

 

[venom892]

Caught this on Redbox and as a fan of the original, I was dissapointed. The Charlie Day twist was absurd to me and what they did to Mako was awful. The CGI in this was also weaker than the original and while the original didn't have the strongest characters or plot, it was at least well crafted. This was a bunch of blockbuster clinches chucked in a blender. Boyega was ok, but this movie does him no favors. The designs were also bland and uninspired compared to the first and the score pales in comparison to the first. Just a misfire on every level for me. 4/10 and that is generous.

 

[Grootster]

Just saw the deleted scenes on YouTube. Unfortunately there weren't any scenes of Mako. There really wasn't much significant stuff at all.

There was one scene with Amara taking to one of the other cadets. I honestly kind of wish it stayed, one of my only complaints about this movie is the lack of screentime and development the other cadets get. Outside of that, I was fine with most of the scenes being cut.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I actually loved the Charlie Day twist. Once that was revealed, it gave the movie some much needed flavor. So much of this movie is fairly standard and generic, but at least all that stuff was fun.

 

[kguillou]

So, I finally saw this. Boy, was this disappointing. From the very beginning of this movie something just felt...off about it. I cannot quite articulate it, but the movie just didn't "feel" as big, and epic and grand as Del Toro's original. The movie felt extremely rushed, like it felt like there was easily 30-40mins cut out of it just so they can get to the battles faster. As a result, I didn't care about ANY of the characters. Boyega was doing his best to use his charm and charisma to carry the movie but he just couldn't. I had my issues with Charlie Hunnam's performance in the first one but at LEAST i bought Hunnam's chemistry and comradery with Mako and the other pilots. There was zero chemistry onscreen between Boyega, Eastwood and all those kid pilots whose names I cannot even remember. Again, I feel like there has to be lots of chaarcter development scenes that built relationships that were cut because, like Justice League, they wanted this movie to be a quick wham, bam thank you ma'am actionfest. And as a result it lacked the soul of the first one.

And even the action felt off. There were some cool visuals and cool moments but all in all it lacked that visual grandeur Del Torro brought to the first one. All of the daytime battles looked so blah.

This whole movie felt blah. When it ended, it just...ENDED and you're like "thats it?" You could definitely feel something went horribly wrong in post production behind the scenes with this one. Steven D Knight is responsible for some of my favorite tv series of all time (Spartacus and Daredevil) and I'm surprised that this is what came from him. It wasn't BAD but just so unremarkably blah. Its a movie you're going to forget as soon as the credits roll.