'Pacific Rim: Uprising' Review

In the decade since the Pan Pacific Defense Corps sealed the inter-dimensional breach and ended the Kaiju War, humanity has continued developing Jaeger technology as a contingency to combat Kaiju. Pacific Rim: Uprising drifts alongside Jake Pentecost, a once-promising pilot-turned-petty scrapper whose father heroically sacrificed himself to ensure the monstrous Kaiju would be defeated once and for all. When Jake is caught with fellow scrapper Amara Namani, the two are presented with the choice of either joining the corps or going to jail. They choose the former, so Jake is then tasked with training a new generation of Jaeger pilots (including Amara) alongside rival ranger Nate Lambert. However, everything changes once a rogue Jaeger bursts onto the scene and prompts a Kaiju resurgence.

Did that plot synopsis seem needlessly convoluted? Well, I made my best effort to streamline the plot and that long-winded paragraph was all I could conjure... Pacific Rim: Uprising is in fact needlessly convoluted, which is actually odd when considering its predecessor (Pacific Rim) met the criteria of a unique flourishing franchise by being simultaneously stylish and simplistic. Visionary director Guillermo del Toro was largely responsible for that film's success since he was passionate about the project and well aware of the reality he was making a "B" movie centered on mechs fighting monsters. Unfortunately del Toro didn't return to direct Uprising, so the sequel sorely lacks the creative spark that made the first film special. Instead, Steven DeKnight took command of the franchise for his feature length film debut while del Toro went on to win a few Oscars for his work on The Shape of Water. Not a bad trade-off on del Toro's end, but del Toro's absence lead Uprising to become a far less interesting, commoditized imitation of the original so it was franchise fans who wound up suffering. On the bright side, The Shape of Water got made!

In case you couldn't already tell, Pacific Rim: Uprising pales in comparison to Pacific Rim in just about every way imaginable. While I'll admit that John Boyega's a bright spot in the cluttered cast, the visual effects are noteworthy, and the action sequences can be fun at times, Uprising's plagued by an onslaught of issues that had me dreading the possibility it was covertly Transformers 6. Michael Bay wasn't involved in this production whatsoever, but I'd have totally believed anyone who told me he was because this film is full of everything people dread about the latest Transformers installments. The humor's very juvenile and painfully unfunny, the fight sequences amount to bots bashing monsters through skyscrapers, there was occasionally a heavy emphasis on slo-motion, and they even incorporated a young girl determined to join the fight just like in Transformers: The Last Knight. Transformers wasn't the only film franchise that came to mind while I was watching though... There were several startling similarities to Independence Day: Resurgence and Power Rangers (2017) that I won't go into for the sake of length...

Now, lets take a second to talk about the sloppy script written by Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, T.S. Nowlin, and Steven DeKnight. The general turn of events was pretty predictable, but there were numerous occasions where DeKnight and the screenwriters presented an interesting subversion of expectations only to turn around and surprise the audience again by going along with precisely what you thought the "twist" was all along. I wouldn't mind this if it only happened once or twice, but it happened fairly often and simply grew annoying. The characters were also written fairly inconsistently as they'd frequently act differently than they did earlier without any underlying development or growth to explain why. The writers established mental roadblocks setup for the characters that weren't really dealt with at all, and one was a direct rip-off of the first that I won't expand upon to avoid spoiling anything for you. 

If there was one thing that made the entire experience unbearable though, it would have to be the cringeworthy attempts at comedic relief. One prime example is an entire scene which takes place in a kitchen where John Boyega's character is making himself a bowel of ice cream and adding various toppings while speaking to Scott Eastwood's character. It was one of the strangest scenes I've seen in a theater so far this year. The ice cream itself wasn't what was weird though... Sure, it felt out of place and unnecessary by itself, but the way it was heavily incorporated into the scene to cheekily function as a comedic device was really awkward in execution. It was laughably stupid, so I guess it achieved its purpose? Don't even get me started on the dreadful dialogue sprinkled throughout though... 

Anyways, I had no idea that a battle between monsters and mechs could become so uninteresting so quickly, but Steven DeKnight proved it's possible. Uprising's aesthetic isn't very dynamic from a visual standpoint since the film has a very flat color palette, so the fight sequences became stale quite quickly. While the action fits the fun formulaic mold audiences may be satisfied with, it's all incomprehensibly edited and I was never awestruck by any radically cool visuals, so the action is also a step-down from the first in terms of impressive spectacle. With that being said, I'm not a big fan of the sleeker Jaeger design compared to the previous rough, rugged look and the Kaiju creature design seemed to be uninspired in comparison as well. Another troublesome component was that the ending was poorly paced. In the third act, everyone takes their sweet time to really react while the world is on the brink of destruction, so you're left wondering how the Kaiju didn't successfully destroy the world in the time it takes for them to act.

As a charismatic lead, John Boyega is undoubtedly one of the sole saving graces of Pacific Rim: Uprising. It's such a shame he was stuck in such a crummy film though. Surrounding Boyega are a bunch of actors who are either obviously inexperienced or remarkably bland. Scott Eastwood's Nate is as stale as can be. Newcomer Cailee Spaeny seems to have potential to emerge as a quality actress in the years to come, but I found her character to be kind of annoying. Just about every other cast member proved to be unmemorable due to lacking development or screen time.

One thing I won't be forgetting about Pacific Rim: Uprising anytime soon though was how obnoxiously over the top Charlie Day was in the role of Dr. Newton Geiszler. I think the writing's largely to blame for this since such his character went in such a strange direction carrying over from the first film. Day did what he could with the material by trying to ham it up, but there's only so much one can do to try and save a sinking ship.

I'm sure many may be interested in seeing Pacific Rim: Uprising purely to watch Jaegers and Kaiju duke it out, but if that's the case, you'd be better off staying home and watching the first film. Pacific Rim: Uprising appears to be another attempt to commercialize a promising franchise in hopes of setting up several sequels. If that's the case, a more apt title would have been Pacific Rim: Downfall because my interest in future franchise entries is now at an all time low.

Film Assessment: D

'The Fate of the Furious' Review

The Fate of the Furious flips the Fast & Furious franchise on its head when Dominic Toretto suddenly betrays his team in the midst of a non-sanctioned operation. The crew then are assembled by Mr. Nobody and must partner with an unexpected ally, former foe Deckard Shaw, if they have any hope of stopping Toretto and the cyberterrorist organization behind his shifted alliance. 

If you told me that Fate of the Furious was directed by Michael Bay, I'd probably buy it due to Straight Outta Compton filmmaker F. Gary Gray's decision to switch gears into full Transformers territory. The two franchises might as well cross over at this point because they've both got slo-mo, explosions, choppy editing, and shaky cam galore! 

Gray and his technical crew absolutely deliver on piecing together ridiculous action set pieces comprised of a standard street race in Havana harkening back to the roots of  The Fast and the Furious, an absurd chase through the Big Apple involving thousands of remotely controlled auto-driven cars, and the gang casually skidding over the frozen tundra and a nuclear submarine in efforts to stop World War III to name a couple. 

Despite Fate of the Furious' best intentions at delivering a commercialized blockbuster, the film feels devoid of the energy that bolstered previous entries (possibly due to Paul Walker's absence). Now I can suspend my disbelief of nonsensical action and overlook the bad dialogue provided I'm reasonably entertained, but Fate of the Furious never quite found that niche. I can't fault the film itself for this but Universal's marketing department plastered the coolest moments everywhere on the internet so Fate of the Furious never took me by surprise. I occasionally laughed at the senseless situations the crew found themselves in or the cheap one-liners but I was rarely invested in the insanity. 

Furious 7 tied up all the loose ends of the series nicely with a neat, little bow but veteran F&F screenwriter Chris Morgan returns to unravel that with his sixth consecutive F&F screenplay. Fate of the Furious can't help but feel like an extraneous extension of the saga because of how nicely Furious 7 wrapped things up, especially when minimal character growth occurs over the 136 minute runtime and the ending seemingly leaves little room for anywhere I could conceivably see the franchise headed. One thing that especially bothered me was that there were no lasting consequences or any aftermath from choices made by these characters. It doesn't help that the characters are virtually invulnerable either, these people are practically superheroes at this point. 

On top of that, the formulaic nature of these F&F movies is becoming more and more apparent with each new installment and I'm convinced the last four or so practically have the same ending. However, two things I can credit Morgan for are writing decent hamstrung one-liners and constructing a convincing motivation for Toretto to turn on his family (probably the only surprise in the movie). Aside from that I was awestruck at how easily entertained the people around me were, they audibly gasped and aw'ed at predictable clichés I saw coming from a mile away. 

For the most part, the cast fill out their prescribed duties but it's noticeable the material they're given is rather lackluster. Vin Diesel gets to tread new waters as Dominic Toretto explores the inherent internal conflict that accompanies betrayal. Diesel demonstrated more range in this film that I feel was missing from some of his previous performances in this franchise and lent itself well to the precarious position his character found himself in. Michelle Rodriguez's scenes opposite Diesel provides the soap opera-esque relationship drama for Letty and Dom, which is incredibly melodramatic and over-the-top but somehow works thanks to the chemistry between the two. 

Amongst the supporting roster, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hams it up as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham's Deckard surprisingly steals the show now that he's on the good guy's side (watch out for his plane sequence that's an absolute delight and demands a spin-off). Statham and Johnson's verbal sparring turned out to be a highlight as both get a few good insults while Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson serve as supporting comedic relief with their characters Tej and Roman competing for the affections of Nathalie Emmanuel's Ramsey. Emmanuel gets to spout technical know-how and hack plenty of databases in the same vein as her role in Furious 7 but sadly has little else to do. Kurt Russell returns as the franchise's Nick Fury, Mr. Nobody, and he's brought Scott Eastwood and accomplished actress Helen Mirren along with him because clearly the ensemble wasn't crowded enough already. 

In the antagonistic department, Charlize Theron enters the fray and you'd expect a certain level of gravitas to accompany an Academy Award winning actress like Theron in a villainous role. However, Theron absolutely phones it in as Cipher, making her the blandest foe the team have come across yet. Cipher doesn't ever trade blows with the crew, which is incredibly disappointing when you take her stint as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road or the trailers for her upcoming action flick Atomic Blonde into account (both of which serving as sufficient evidence she can handle an action sequence). It's probably worth mentioning to keep an eagle eye out for cameos since there were a few familiar faces I didn't expect to see and there's no post credits scene so you can race out of the theater once it's over. 

When it's all said and done, I'm not really sure Fate of the Furious was a necessary addition to the franchise. It feels driven towards financial rewards rather than furthering the characters or story in a meaningful way. Legitimate fans and casual viewers of F&F who have loved each installment and are simply seeking a good time will be more than satisfied with Fate of the Furious, but anyone hoping for an interesting continuation of the F&F family story will probably be let down. The Fate of the Furious has just about everything longtime viewers of the series have come to expect; outrageous vehicular stunts, cheesy quips, and a strong focus on family, but it fails to deliver an engaging adventurous atmosphere for our characters.

Film Assessment: C-

'Snowden' Review

Snowden is a dramatic biopic detailing Edward Snowden's decision to leak classified government intelligence that revealed the National Security Administration's illegal surveillance methods and his journey towards that choice.

Oliver Stone directs the film adding another political drama to his filmography about controversial figures in history, dramatizing the real life events quite effectively. The film's best moments were the transitional scenes narrated by Joseph Gordon Levitt's monotone Snowden that championed interesting visualization of website data, media clips, and NSA data collection in order to express what the CIA and NSA were up to at those points in time.

Unfortunately, the screenplay written by Stone and cowriter Kieran Fitzgerald leaned heavily towards Snowden's viewpoint failing to show the other side of that coin and restricting the viewer insight into the real controversial bits of the narrative. Snowden breezes through substantial chunks of Edward Snowden's life in the service and has some odd pacing for the first two-thirds and the non-chronological storytelling adds to the somewhat jarring viewing experience as the film will occasionally jump back to the present day. The screenplay also tosses around some relationship drama between Snowden and his girlfriend which are imperative for the purposes of understanding Snowden and also manage to clout the film, as though there's two different types of narratives within Snowden; a romance and a triller.

Joseph Gordon Levitt provides a very strong lead performance as Edward Snowden and helps the viewer maintain focus in the film's dull moments. Levitt not only looks like Snowden but he manages to mimic his voice quite effectively while expertly portraying Snowden conflicted nature.

Shailene Woodley gives one of her best performances to date as Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills and exemplified great chemistry opposite Levitt. Snowden also features name talent in supporting roles of varying sizes including Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, and Zachary Quinto who are all great in the capacity used.

In conclusion, Snowden is an insightful and informative look at government surveillance that's both well directed and well performed, but it's one-sided stance cripples the effectiveness of it's message.

Film Assessment: C+