I am a huge fan of the inventive yet simple first film. It is a guilty pleasure of a film that includes giant robots and monsters, but has enough development of characters that I have something to latch onto. It also helps that Del Toro's imagination helps build not only some fantastic beasts, but a great world to have the action focus on. This sequel, while almost stand alone, doesn't have as much in any of those departments. The characters are pretty flat. The relationships between the characters are barely developed (like between Pentecost and Lambert, or Pentecost and Amara). The film lacks any heart or soul to it. Yes, there is lots of action, lots of Jaegers fighting Kaiju, but it almost feels rote. While the fight scenes in the original film are masked in night and rain, the fight scenes in Uprising take place mostly in the bright day light. I figured that would make for something exciting, but the action mostly falls flat. Maybe, it's because there aren't any memorable touches in the fight scenes like the original such as the Newton's Cradle or the funny items falling out of cargo containers used as weapons. Even with this said, I did enjoy the film for what it is, a film that aims high, but falls quite short of its original. The film is carried by John Boyega whose charisma makes the film very watchable. The casting of newcomer Cailee Spaeney was also great, she has a future ahead of her. I didn't much care for Scott Eastwood who doesn't emote anything other than "stern" or "annoyed". The story for the film was pretty thin, except for the twist which sets off the big fight in the third act. I actually thought the twist of [spoiler]flipping Newt to be the bad guy was brilliant since Newt is the last guy I would think could be a bad guy[/spoiler]. I do wonder what happened to some of the other characters that survived the original film. What happened to Raleigh Becket? How come he's not with Mako Mori who shows up in this film? How come Herc Hansen is not leading the Shatterdome? And where in the hell is Hannibal Chau? The script doesn't bother to fill us in on these interesting characters from the first film. The score was taken over by Lorne Balfe and was fairly forgettable until he uses Ramin Djawadi's original Pacific Rim theme in the third act.

Felt like a kids movie. Magic that made the first movie spectacular is not found here anymore. Very disappointing.

First movie was a visual masterpiece and a great story told by Guillermo Del Toro genius. This one has nothing to do with Del Toro and you will notice it right from the beginning. If you are into disney 6 yr old kiddie movies like the new Star Wars, you might even like it, otherwise don't even bother. Youngsters are getting into giant robots because... Because fuck you, that is why. Nothing in this movie is making any goddamn sense and whole picture basically aimed for 6yr old kids entertainment. I am still trying to forget Josh Boyega's cringy acting attempts. Cant figure out the difference between him and Jaden Smith, remind me how are those guys are even getting into the business? Charlie Day's performance was probably the only thing in that picture worth watching. But with the 10 minutes of a total screen time you can't really do much. Do us a favor, just bury this series. No need to fuck with the corpse no more. Just let it go. We already have Transformers big screen TV show, another one will simply be too fuckin much.

Ok...so I kinda loved the first one and was very much looking forward to this one. Did it live up to my expectations??? Not really... Pacific Rim: Uprising is by no means a dud, but for some reason, it lacks a certain "grandness" that the first one had. The story is less interesting ( and to be honest, way more cheesy than the first one), the acting leaves a little to be desired, and the effects seem somewhat subdued. The "anime" feeling of the first one is also kind of missing. Does that mean that this is an unwatchable mess? No...If you liked the first one, you should get some enjoyment out of this one as well. It just isn't in any way as entertaining as the first one. It's a bit more "family friendly " as well, but that never hurts when it comes to these kinds of movies. These are one of those movies you just have to watch and make up your own mind. In my book, it's passable as an evenings entertainment.

The characters in this movie are so bland and cookie-cutter that Rinko Kikuchi (as Mako Mori) seems Oscar-worthy. Not sure why John Boyega is as big of a deal as he is and Scott Eastwood looks like his Dad, so there's that. The group of cadets in this movie are sickeningly spunky and angst-y. Only ten-year olds could possibly be interested in them. The story is dumb and even with all the ridiculous tech on display, I still refuse to believe the feisty teenage cadet (Amara) could have designed, much less assembled, her Jaeger "Scrapper". When Jake and Amara are reentering Earth's atmosphere inside of a red-hot Gypsy, why didn't they burn up? The front shield is busted out. The city destruction action loses all of its impact because the jaegars themselves destroy skyscrapers with reckless abandon. Something else lost is scale. The jaegars and kaiju are big but the shots of them are too tight. Pull the camera away from the city and show the beasts from a distance (like the shot of Surtur destroying Asgard in "Thor: Ragnarok"). The quality of the CGI effects were definitely better than most movies, and the jaegar designs are inspired. The kaiju creations were few and far between and were not the focus of the action as in Del Toro's original. I have to give an extra star for a twist that occurs with a main character that I didn't see coming. I'm a big fan of giant monster movies, even though they are usually pretty bad. "Pacific Rim: Uprising" is better than the worst of the genre, but the choice to make it super kid-friendly has pretty much leveled the world Del Toro created.