They just released the first full trailer for Pacific Rim: Uprising and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It seems like the entire aesthetic developed by Guillermo Del Toro in the first film has been thrown out in favor of bright, shiny, colorful, and unabashedly CGI. That isn’t to say that we should just dismiss the film off the bat, but it does take a little bit of the bloom off the rose.
The story clues that we are being given in the trailer are also a big departure from the world we left behind in the first film. It seems now that the Jaegers are being used as tools of individual countries against each other in the absence of a larger threat. Now, with the re-emergence of the Kaiju, they’ll be forced to come together again. Is it the most inspired or original idea? Not really, but the first movie was so good, that I’m really hoping it gives us more than it looks like it wants to.
The globe-spanning conflict between otherworldly monsters of mass destruction and the human-piloted super-machines built to vanquish them was only a prelude to the all-out assault on humanity in Pacific Rim Uprising.
John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) stars as the rebellious Jake Pentecost, a once-promising Jaeger pilot whose legendary father gave his life to secure humanity’s victory against the monstrous “Kaiju.” Jake has since abandoned his training only to become caught up in a criminal underworld. But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed to tear through our cities and bring the world to its knees, he is given one last chance to live up to his father’s legacy by his estranged sister, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi)—who is leading a brave new generation of pilots that have grown up in the shadow of war. As they seek justice for the fallen, their only hope is to unite together in a global uprising against the forces of extinction.
Jake is joined by gifted rival pilot Lambert (The Fate of the Furious’ Scott Eastwood) and 15-year-old Jaeger hacker Amara (newcomer Cailee Spaeny), as the heroes of the PPDC become the only family he has left. Rising up to become the most powerful defense force to ever walk the earth, they will set course for a spectacular all-new adventure on a towering scale.