Pacific Rim: Uprising – Worth the Watch?

As an avid movie watcher, I run through about two movies a week. Having watched most of the latest released movies, I find it hard to find good current movies. While I was searching for a movie, I stumbled upon Pacific Rim: Uprising. I had watched the previous movie (Pacific Rim) in the series, so I decided to watch this one. Throughout the movie, I was in awe of the amazing CGI and acting, as well as the carefully crafted plot. In my opinion, Pacific Rim: Uprising has surpassed its predecessor.

Pacific Rim: Uprising follows Jake Pentecost, the son of a military general who sacrifices his life to save Earth from the monstrous aliens, called Kaiju. To start the movie, Jake is introduced as a young man trying to make money. In his struggles to make money, he gets caught up in criminal business, and is then arrested. Instead of going to jail, he is sentenced to teach new Jaeger pilots how to operate the large robots used to defend Earth from the Kaiju. When a new Kaiju approaches, Jake and one of his students hurry to defeat it before it reaches Mount Fuji and sets off the dormant volcano. 

Pacific Rim: Uprising has many scenes that are largely made up of CGI and special effects. Its success depended largely on its CGI and it didn’t disappoint.

The editing was seamless and made the giant robots and aliens seem so real. Though its effects are not on the level of other well-known films, like Jurassic Park or Avatar, they are good enough to seem realistic, which is what matters in the end. 

Pacific Rim: Uprising also had amazing character development that kept me interested throughout the movie. Jake was introduced as a criminal with a no friends policy. But after he is arrested and forced to teach in the Jaeger pilot training academy as part of his sentencing, we see that he changes to a gentler person who teaches the students with all his heart and gives them life lessons to carry.

Amara is another prominent example of character development. She starts out as a criminal, thieving to create her own Jaeger so she could protect herself. She gets arrested and convicted for her crimes, but instead of serving time in jail, she is sent to the Jaeger pilot academy and taught by Jake. Her potential as a Jaeger pilot would benefit Earth more than her wasting away in jail. After vigorous training, Amara throws away her old mindset of just protecting herself, and instead opts for protecting the world when she fights the Kaiju with Jake. 

Dr. Newton is also another well-rounded character. He starts out seeming innocent and clumsy, as we had known from the last movie, but later he shows his true colours. However, Dr. Newton was being controlled by the aliens the entire movie. The Kaiju were able to take possession of the doctor because of his repeated delving into the brain of a Kaiju. 

The characters in Pacific Rim: Uprising are also inspirational to children. Amara was just a child, but she built her own fully functional Jaeger and later used it to save the world. This conveys the classic theme that you can do anything you put your mind to. 

Jake Pentecost is inspirational because he does something out of his comfort zone, teaching children. Though he was forced into it, he still stepped up from teaching unenthusiastically to teaching from the heart and forming bonds with his students. Jake conveys the theme “to grow sometimes you need to get uncomfortable.”

This theme can be applied to almost anything and can help to motivate young people to explore the unknown, rather than stick to the same old patterns. Most movies are solely for entertainment, but Pacific Rim: Uprising is also motivational, making it stand out from other similar movies, like Transformers. 

The plot of Pacific Rim: Uprising excelled at keeping me on the edge of my seat and contained a good balance of action and drama.

The training phase at the academy was long enough to show character development, but short enough to keep movie goers entertained. The movie also contained a riveting plot twist that hooked me in and left me wondering what would happen next. Though it is a sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising’s plot is well crafted and independent from that of its predecessor, Pacific Rim.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is an awesome movie with excellent CGI that made fictional creatures and robots seem real, great character development with inspiring characters that went from underdog to hero, and a great plot that kept the audience hooked. In my opinion, Pacific Rim: Uprising is a great movie and should serve as a lesson that sequels aren’t always worse than the original.