Film review: Pacific Rim: Uprising and Ready Player One

Yes, it’s a twofer. I really don’t have time to write lengthy expositions on these movies, much as one of them might need it.

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

Where do we start? John Boyega (you may know him from such films as Attack the Block and Star Wars episodes 7 and 8) is awesome, being the blasé street-boy, the reluctant ex-pilot and the regretful son (and brother) all in one. Relative newcomer Cailee Spaeny is also good as the street kid who’s smarter than a lot of her peers and has an aptitude for building tiny jaegers that can do the job of a much larger piece of kit. Son-of-Clint-Eastwood, otherwise known as Scott Eastwood, is an excellent foil and wingman for John Boyega, and of course we have the return of Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori, Burn Gorman as lovable daftie Hermann, and Charlie Day as oddball Newton. Joining us this time round is the very talented Jing Tian (景甜) as the robotics boss Shao Li-Wen (who you may know from such films as Kong: Skull Island, The Great Wall, and the Donnie Yen actioner Special ID). She stands out as a character to be reckoned with right from the start, and has a very interesting story arc of her own. You may also recognise Zhang Jin (張晉) of Ip Man 3 fame - watch out for his spin-off film Ip Man: Cheung Tin-Chi coming later this year.

So now we have all the people assembled, what of the story? Basically the ending of the first Pacific Rim film worked; the rift is sealed and no more kaiju are appearing to try to kill everyone on the planet. The point is raised well; if we didn’t know what they were really after in the first film, how can you say we’ve won? The story rolls on and we finally get all of our questions answered. Along the way, John Boyega will face tough decisions, Cailee Spaeny will have to Scully-up and deal with things she doesn’t like, and a lot of people will be misunderstood and ignored at everyone else’s peril. It’s a solid story and it's told well; there’s a light-hearted tone to most of this but of course it’s dealing with the end of the world (again), so it’s not without its moments of Epic Action. This is not a bad thing by any means - we not subjected to overly long and boring action set pieces of CGI (unlike Transformers) and there’s a point to everything people do. Yes, at times it’s predictable, but then you have a few twists and a few turns that make you second-guess yourself. It’s not meant to be a thriller or a psychological drama - this is all-out, balls to the wall action underpinned with well-placed and well-considered characters doing what they think is best.

There were lots of giggles to be had here, courtesy of some good chemistry between John Boyega and Scott Eastwood, and some satisfying moments of UP YOURS courtesy of Burn Gorman being at the top of his game, and Jing Tian showing the world who’s boss. I have to say there was not one character I disliked - and that’s rare. The film ends with a promise I hope they make good on, as this movie was a highlight of the week for me.

Verdict: 9/10; fun, no time wasting and it didn’t pretend to be anything other than an entertaining action romp with little twists. Recommended viewing.

Ready Player One (2018)

I have to confess, I’ve had the book of this on my shelf for months and I still haven’t got around to opening it. Which is a shame, as now I’ve seen the movie I’m really wishing I’d read it first.

What we have here is Stephen Spielberg mining all of our childhoods in a way that makes you think you’re stuck in Jumanji or The Mummy (1999) - it’s a feel-good film about heart-warming endings where the good guys win and the bad guys are dealt with fairly and humanely.

On the way you’ll see a lot of game culture references - all the different consoles you can name since the 80s, avatars dressed as characters from Stephen Spielberg films wandering around, the main character’s avatar driving a De Lorean - it’s all here. (Not to mention the music was written by Alan Silvestri, so a lot of the time it sounds like a homage to Back to the Future.)

There are Star Trek and Star Wars references, and of course the two camps of protagonists. One camp has grown up playing versions of these games and understands them all and the deep and meaningful reasons for the way the games work. The other camp has no clue but has studied them inside and out like faithful students and although they know all the details and minutiae about all of them, they haven't really lived the games and therefore don’t really understand them the same way.

While it does skip along and it does make you like certain characters, I found it hard to warm up to the main lad and it didn’t seem particularly hard for them to obtain the keys they needed to get to the end of the ‘game’. The actual group of players they assembled was a good one, and the way the end of the game was handled was nice. Overall though, I have to say I was a bit disappointed in it but I can’t put my finger on why.

Special shout-out to Hannah John-Kamen of Killjoys fame for being awesome as always.


Verdict: 7.5/10; good memory-lane material and fun references to all kinds of games and pop culture, but ultimately a young-adult movie trying to speak to grown-ups about the games they used to play in the 80s. Which is just weird.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Hopefully there will be more coming soon.

Soopytwist.