Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots, including rival Lambert and 15-year-old hacker Amara, against a new Kaiju threat. – (Source)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 47% (Critics) / 59% (Audience)
MetaScore: 44 – Mixed or average reviews
Directed By: Steven S. DeKnight
Written By: Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, Steven S. DeKnight, T.S. Nowlin
Starring: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Tian Jing and Charlie Day
Studio: Universal Pictures

The Good:
John Boyega is bursting with charm and swagger as Jake Pentecost the ne’er-do-well son of Idris Elba‘s Stacker Pentecost from the first PACIFIC RIM. He outshines the rest of his castmates in every scene.
Steven S. DeKnight does a really good job helming this overstuffed film and while he doesn’t have Guillermo del Toro‘s visionary flair behind the camera, DeKnight does embrace the silliness that is inherent in this franchise’s premise and leans into that wholeheartedly by making a movie that recognizes just how goofy all of this stuff really is.

And the copious amounts of giant robots and monsters causing massive amounts of destruction is right up my alley. Honestly, that was the entire point of PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING and once it was established that this movie was going to get the Jaegers vs Kaiju battles right then I was able to relax and enjoy the mayhem.

The Bad:
Aside from Boyega all the other actors were different levels of bland and that blandness was reflected in the characters they played.
Also the big reveal that the monsters main purpose for coming to Earth was to make it to an active volcano so they could jump inside of it and cause some giant eruption that would end all life on Earth was dumb as hell.

The Ugly:
I am a Charlie Day fan and he was a decent bit of comedy relief in the first PACIFIC RIM so I was happy to see him return for the sequel but having Day (in a bit of a twist) end up being the villain of the movie was a mistake because Day was not believable in that role even a little bit.

Final Verdict: A loud, silly and self-aware movie that delivers on the giant robots vs other giant robots vs giant monsters action while also providing a lead character that viewers actually want to watch pilot a giant robot as it fights giant monsters. The perfect movie to check your brain at the door for 2 hours and just enjoy the mindless fun.

Grade: B-