Five years ago, legendary director Guillermo Del Toro released a movie that could easily be compared to Michael Bay's Transformers films. The film centered around the fight between Jaegers (Giant Expensive Robots) and huge aliens named Kaiju's. The film was full of action, and included a dumb, long subplot centered around the idea of having to be "drift compatible", which was a complete waste of time to the audience and the film. Overall, the premise of Pacific Rim and Transformers were very similar, except Pacific Rim was actually good. While Del Toro couldn't stick around to direct the sequel (he decided to follow his passion project: The Shape of Water), the Universal team decided to release a sequel under a new director. Right from the first trailer, you could tell that Pacific Rim: Uprising was not going to be like the first film. At all. To me, Pacific Rim: Uprising is if the first film and a Transformers film had a baby. Because, at the end of the day; it is uncomfortable and forgettable experience that takes way too long and is way too horrible to be any fun. The film tells the story of Jake Pentecost, a soldier-turned-criminal who robs old Jaeger building facilities for a living. Once he is caught, he is forced to teach young cadets how to operate giant robots. The kids start to become pilots, and Jake starts to get more sympathetic of the world he lives in. Also, remote operated Jaegers are being made, which people have a problem with; and the odd scientist from the first movie has gone crazy. Besides those events, not a lot of important stuff happens in the movie, which just shows how forgettable this mess is. In my opinion, they should have left the filmwork to Del Toro, because the way he set out the Pacific Rim universe to be is this dark, dystopian place where the world is fighting for their lives. In comparison, Uprising is filled with bright colors, people who don't belong or seem to care about the film at all, and a series of events that are completely forgettable, and honestly, horrible. The only thing that saved this movie, and it barely did, was the fact that the action was just dumb to watch, but it was entertaining, which (at the end of the day), is fine. But, Pacific Rim: Uprising was already a bad movie, but the fact that it is the follow up to the first film just makes it ten times worse. Because, Uprising just doesn't belong. In the theatre, in the series, or anywhere else, for that matter.
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