Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

I think I watched a different film to all the critics.

I missed the original Pacific Rim in the cinema. I did buy the Blu-Ray when it came out - thought it was okay, but it wasn't quite the amazing film that I had been hearing about. I think the lack of a huge screen probably didn't do me any favours.

So when I saw Uprising, I picked a cinema with a large screen and then sat at the front so that I had to look up to see the top of the screen. I don't know if that made it a better experience, but it certainly didn't seem to hurt.

To some regard, the story reminded me a little of Independence Day Resurgence - it shared elements around the world having rebuilt itself, the social scars left by the war, the military screw-up leading the fight. Like ID4 2 (or whatever it was abbreviated to), there's enough of a hint of the post-post-apocalypse world to make it appear intriguing, but soon enough we're back with the military and the glimpses of the larger society are just glimpses.

Much of the movie actually appears to be something of an assembly from other similar films (there are bits of Transformers DNA in there too), but overall there was nothing that screamed "I don't work" at me.

The characters could have been more original, the story could have been told better (although it does take some interesting turns), and some of the fight scenes could have been more coherently staged (I had to work at figuring out who was in which Jaeger (Giant Robot Suit) for a start), but it was entertaining, it held my interest and I didn't feel the need to close my eyes and take a nap - so all of those are good things.

Overall not as good as the original (how many sequels are?), but as a piece of big, dumb fun entertainment, it works well enough.