I recently rewatched ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’.

When I first saw it, I didn’t think it was terrible, but it was still a substantial disappointment. My opinion hasn’t changed.

My main criticisms about this film stay the same too, which involves Mako dying in such a pathetic note, the tone being all over the place at times, especially with how Suresh died, and the score felt like it belonged in a Gundam film. Now that I think of it, isn’t Steven S. DeKnight a pretty big Gundam fan? Because if he is, then it kind of makes sense why the film felt weirdly dark or even disturbing at times, which was a bad idea from the start since, from what I’ve heard, Gundam is nothing like Pacific Rim and is actually a lot darker and more cynical.

The sad thing is that the film’s aesthetic choices actually make sense to a degree considering that this is set 10 years after the event of the first film. Cleaner Jaeger interior? Check. Holographic “early warning” systems? Check. “Magnetic” floor(?) in Jaeger conpod? Check. Shatterdome looking much more polished? Given the increased funding after PPDC regaining the trust, check. Agile Jaegers? Striker Eureka set the example, so also check. Sadly, the film’s execution wasn’t convincing enough to show that these were simply natural progressions.