Will admit to enjoying the first 'Pacific Rim'. It wasn't great or perfect as an overall film, and somewhat of a case of style over substance, but it entertained and did well on delivering on its objectives. The involvement of Guillermo Del Toro and Idris Elba are reasons enough to see the film

Really do wish that the same can be said for its sequel 'Pacific Rim: Uprising'. The trailer was not good and the reviews not great (one of the weaker received films of those released so far this year),but saw it anyway due to liking the first film enough and wanted to see something that was pretty much the same sort of thing quality-wise (and perhaps with improvements). No such luck. 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' turned out to be a dull and soulless sequel and film, and one that comes over as pointless at the end of the day.

Starting with what 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' excelled with, which sadly is not much, much of the cinematography and editing are slickly atmospheric, the production design is gritty and audacious and some of the effects are top-notch.

Some of the action and spectacle is exciting, they're big and over-the-top but appropriately so. John Boyega is a reasonable and charismatic lead and the only actor to come over well.

On the other hand, nowhere near as good a job is done with the direction, nowhere near as in command of or at ease with the material the action, making for a film that tries to be both silly fun and taking itself seriously but fails at both and neither gels. The film doesn't know what it's trying to be, it can be dully paced and target audience is not easy to figure out due to the film's muddled done.

Boyega aside, the acting is very bad, especially from Charlie Day and Burn Gorman who are as irritating as they were before. 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' also has some cringe-worthy, childish and vomit-inducingly inane dialogue and paper thin stereotypical characterisation (enough to tick off the long list of cliches one by one in quick succession) where not much is done to develop the characters and make one properly care for them. There are clumsy and unnecessary references to the first film too and there is too much exposition that really bogs things down.

Although there are instances of them being good, other effects are cartoonish. A lot of the action doesn't work, not very inventive and not always cohesive let alone exhilarating. A big case of a lot of noise and attempted style but not a lot of brains or soul. Worst of all is the story, which is dull, ridiculous, barely coherent and with a cobbled together glued badly feel and a complete lack of emotional investment.

Concluding, a mess apart from a few good things. 3/10 Bethany Cox

UPRISING is the sequel to Guillermo Del Toro's PACIFIC RIM but the director chose no to return, busy making THE SHAPE OF WATER instead. Boy, do you miss his presence here. This is more of a generic, child-friendly production which the Chinese have massively contributed to in terms of dollars, so it's full of cheesy CGI action that becomes quite repetitive after a while. The story sees the aliens of the first returning in a different form, but it all leads to the usual cliches and tired genre tropes. Most of the original cast are missing and they're replaced by newcomers going through the motions. There's no real vision here, just repetition, and the whole thing seems to be an exercise in box-ticking rather than delivering real charm.

It's been 10 years since the end of the original movie. With no more Kaiju, the world is trying to rebuild. Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) ran from his father's heroic legacy and lives on the edges of the rebuilding civilization. He deals in black market and tries to steal from a decommissioned Jaeger. He is scooped by street kid Amara Namani who builds her own mini-Jaeger. They get arrested and his stepsister Mako Mori recruits him back into the program. Amara joins the other young cadets training to be pilots under Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood). Ruthless industrialist Liwen Shao is pushing for Jaeger drones controlled remotely by a single operator with bumbling Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) working under her.

The Guillermo del Toro style has been scrubbed down and transformed. Jake is a less than compelling lead which is not that different from the original. It starts with a lot attitude and a lot of fronting. Boyega does save it by his sheer charisma. The first movie is a kiddie idea taken seriously with fun. This one takes that serious take and injects some kiddie jokiness. It literally adds a Robin-like character. The attempts at jokes annoyed me. The city destruction has a sterile feel. There is still some fun to be had and it is still robots fighting monsters.