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Pacific Rim: Uprising

7/10

Stars: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Rinko Kikuchi, Adria Arjona, Karen Brar, Wesley Wong

Director: Steven S DeKnight

Better attention to the structure of the screenplay, as well as more emphasis on character and personality, help to make this a superior sequel to the 2013 original, even if, considering the thousands of technicians credited at the end, the effects generally aren't really that special.

The Kaiju monsters have been vanquished and Jake (Boyega), son of a hero who died in that war, is into scavenging spare parts when, after a narrow escape from gangsters, he encounters diminutive teenager Amara Namani (Spaeny) who has built her own jaeger (giant fighting machine). Soon, both find themselves dragooned into the current hi-tech robot programme in China, as a new menace looms on the horizon (or, rather, lurks in the Pacific depths).

Boyega gets some fun hip dialogue - 'You gotta make a good connection,' he tells loquacious cadet Amara. 'You can't do that if you're yappin' yer gums' - and he and the rest of the cast energetically provide clear-cut characters that almost make us forget that this is basically more of the same. Pacific Rim 3 is clearly foreshadowed in the final scene.

David Quinlan

Australia/USA/China 2018. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour by Company C.
106 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 27 Jul 2018

DVD review