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Pacific Rim Uprising review round up: Here's what the critics are saying

It's a mix-bag for the follow-up to Guillermo del Toro's robot vs monster mashup

Jacob Stolworthy

Wednesday 21 March 2018 09:10 GMT

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Pacific Rim: Uprising - Trailer 2

The sequel to Guillermo del Toro's globally successful Pacific Rim has arrived.

Titled Pacific Rim Uprising, the follow-up - this time directed by first-timer Steven S. DeKnight - sees John Boyega take centre stage for yet another large-scale story essentially about robots fighting monsters. Taking place ten years on, the film sees Boyega's Jake Pentecost - son of the character played by Idris Elba in the original - leading the charge against the evolved Kaiju as well as a rogue Jaegar named Obsidian Fury.

It's fair to say the critical consensus is mixed with some reviews branding it an overall tedious watch while others are praising the film for knowing what it is: fun, goofy entertainment.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

Show all 14

1/14Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Kicking us off is Phil Lord and Christopher Mille’s bizarre animated film about a scientist who creates a machine that transforms water into food. So far, not too crazy, but then the machine gets stuck in the sky and it starts raining food. Everything goes wrong and Flint Lockwood must save the day by flying up to the machine and kicking fried chicken butt. Yeah, a pretty crazy premise, but a fantastic film.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

2. Frank

Michael Fassbender may be one of the most bankable stars of the moment - having starred in the likes of Steve Jobs, X-Men and Macbeth - but in 2014, instead of flaunting his face, producers decided to make him wear a weird papier-mâché mask for the film’s near entirety. The plot see’s Fassbender’s titular character front a rock band, play SXSW and make ‘likeable’ music. It’s all just a bit strange.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

3. Groundhog Day

Almost anything with Bill Murray in it is a win in my book, but when you say the premise of Ground Hog day out loud - a weatherman who must relive the same day over and over again - it sounds quite boring. What transpired was one of Murray’s funniest films.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

4. Star Wars

With Star Wars being so prevalent in pop-culture, it’s hard to imagine a time when no-one except George Lucas knew what a Lightsaber was. Producers must have been shocked when this young director came into the office trying to sell a script about Luke Skywalker, R2D2, Darth Vader, Chewbacca and Stormtroopers. Thankfully, they believed in his vision and now we have one of the best sci-fi sagas of all time.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

5. Incepetion

A dream, within a dream, within a dream. Even those who watched Inception were left confused, let alone those who only heard what the film was about. Christopher Nolan’s final flick, however, was a masterclass in storytelling and one of the best films of the last ten years.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

6. Speed

The high-concept Speed is quite ridiculous really. Keanu Reeves can’t let a bus go below 50 miles per hour or it will blow up. It’s quite amazing how Jan de Bont managed to make his debut 116 minutes long in the first place, let alone making it a decent film in the process.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

7. Edward Scissorhands

Tim Burton is a director who could fill this entire list up. While he may have chosen to reboot numerous films in the past few years (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the upcoming Dumbo 2) it was his original concepts that set him apart from everyone else. In Burton’s head, the love story of a man with scissors for hands and a young woman made complete sense, while for everyone else - from just the premise - it seemed entirely weird. Luckily, he was given the opportunity to make the film and a cult classic was born, all while Johnny Depp’s ability to play the outsider was solidified.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

8. Mrs Doubtfire

Post-Hook and Aladdin, Robin Williams was on a role. One of his standout performances was as Mrs. Doubtfire, the father-turned-drag-housekeeper. As a premise, dressing your lead male as a woman wasn’t exactly new (see Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie), so the filmmakers ran the risk of it all seeming like an overdone joke. Luckily, Chris Columbus managed to pull off the ridiculous plot (how wouldn’t the kids know it’s their father, really?) leading to one of the funniest films of the 90s.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

9. The Lobster

Like Burton, most of Yorgos Lanthimos’s films could probably feature on this page, but we’ve gone with The Lobster. The film tells of a hotel where residents must find a suitable partner within 45 days otherwise they will be turned into an animal. Try to run away and the other residents will hunt you down with tranquillisers. The result was one of the best love stories of 2015.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

10. Ant-Man

Some comic book superheroes should not be adapted to the big screen (*cough* Howard the Duck *cough*). Ant-Man is not one of them. Against all the odds, Paul Rudd and Peyton Reed managed to make a compelling film about a man who could shrink down in size and control ants. What’s incredible is that - somehow - the film quickly became one of Marvel’s most beloved films. Of course, everyone knew Marvel could pull off weird, having knocked it out of the park with Guardians of the Galaxy the year before.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

11. Beetlejuice

Two ghosts living in their old home want to scare away the alive people who now live there. Unfortunately, the new home-owners can’t see them and so the ghosts have to call upon a deranged Michael Keaton to help them out. Add one of the strangest afterlife scenes in film history and you’ve got a brilliant film.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

12. Forrest Gump

While not an obvious contender like Star Wars or Beetlejuice, when you think about it, Forrest Gump is a weird idea. A below-average intelligent man, sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus, telling strangers about all the famous moments in history where he observed/effected. Thanks to Tom Hanks, Gump was a magical film of love and hope, winning over the hearts of thousands and becoming an instant classic.

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

13. The Lego Movie

Another film from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, The Lego Movie shouldn’t have worked. Making a beloved toy into a film; it was all just a bit silly. Thankfully, Chris Pratt’s turn as Emmett (and a catchy song in “Everything is Awesome”) the film was a huge hit with critics and fans alike, and now we have a cinematic universe of Lego movies to come. Awesome?

Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did

14. I’m Not There

“Let’s get Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw to all play Bob Dylan in a single film”, Todd Haynes said. While you would think that would be overkill, the result was stunning, with Dylan himself eventually praising the film in 2012.

The Independent, Geoffrey Macnab - 3 stars

Still, if you like films that are very noisy, very brash and have storylines that revolve around prolonged meaningless wrecking sprees, Pacific Rim Uprising won’t let you down. It has a likeable, tongue in cheek quality that you don’t find in Michael Bay’s horribly bombastic Transformers movies. In amid all the general headbanging havoc, Boyega lends a human touch. He is not taking the film too seriously and nor should we.

The Guardian, Benjamin Lee - 3 stars

The film in general moves at a sleeker pace, with more of an actual plot to match the shiny visuals. It’s strange given that del Toro, a newly minted Oscar-winning director, couldn’t make a more entertaining film than Uprising director Steven S DeKnight, whose credits lie solely on the small screen. If anything, del Toro’s overexcitable ambition muddied the focus, while the sequel plays more like the solidly entertaining A-list B-movie we all wanted the first time.

Variety, Nick Schager

Pacific Rim Uprising delivers plentiful CG mayhem, first between rival Jaegers (thanks to a mysterious rogue sentinel), and then between Jaegers and a trio of kaijus with transformative skills of their own. What it lacks, though, is both del Toro’s trademark Lovecraftian imagery (all slick tentacles and dank subterranean locales) and the sense of thunderous heft that the Mexican auteur bestowed upon his titans.

Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty

The follow-up feels like a flat cocktail of tedious mayhem, amateur-hour Starship Troopers-level acting (minus the tongue-in-cheek irony), and plot holes so gaping that a 20-story radioactive iguana could rampage right through them.

IndieWire, David Erlich - C-

[It's] a movie that has nothing on its mind but getting from start to finish in one piece — a movie that wants to plug the hole in a sinking ship in order to strengthen the Pacific Rim brand and set it sailing towards a climactic final chapter. Depressingly, “Uprising” is never better than when it’s setting up another sequel.

Pacific Rim Uprising is in cinemas 23 March

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