As for a character arc, there really wasn’t much of one, but I wasn’t really expecting much out of him. John Boyega’s charisma certainly saved this character from being super bland, but it was entirely his delivery of the sub par lines that were the saving grace. The main character Jake, son of Stacker Pentecost from the first film, was pretty likable, no thanks to the writing. The characters in this film were surprisingly a bit better than the first Pacific Rim. A bit of a swing and a miss, but overall not horrible. I’m not a huge fan of the direction they chose to go with it, but they went out on a limb and tried, so I’ll give them credit for that. While the rest of the film was terribly predictable, the ending took me by surprise a bit. However, I wasn’t expecting much, so what I was given worked just fine. Similarly to the first film, it felt like filler until the punching started and it wasn’t very compelling in any way. The story itself was barely interesting and not enough to carry the film. Unfortunately, a lot of the potential felt wasted, as “running fast” was the most distinguishing characteristic of any of the Jaegers. On one hand, it was neat to see Jaegers with new looks, fighting styles, and weapons.
Throughout the film we’re introduced to a host of new Jaegers, which was both a pro and a con in this film. We get to see a bit of robot-on-robot action (as seen in the film trailers) which is way cooler than I thought it would be, but it doesn’t play as much of a part in the film as I would’ve wanted. It was cool to see some world building within the universe were giant monsters and giant fighting robots exist. We meet partiers and thieves and the people living on the outskirts of society. One of the better aspects of the film that I noticed early on is that we get to see a bit more of the world beyond Jaeger pilots. I wasn’t looking for much out of the sequel other than to have a fun time watching a bit more of the same, and to some degree, Pacific Rim: Uprising achieved that goal. Not a thought provoking film by any means, but good lord is that film fun. Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) is the follow up to the childhood dream of a film Pacific Rim, which showcases giant robots beating the ever loving life out of giant monsters. Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots, including rival Lambert and 15-year-old hacker Amara, against a new Kaiju threat.