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VFTV: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker Review

rise of skywalker review

View From The Vault: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker Review

Welcome to GeekVault’s review of Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker. The end to the Skywalker saga! The long beloved and heatedly debated series. Is it a fitting end? Does it live up to the billing? All will be discussed. We were lucky enough to see an early screening of the showing on Tuesday the 17th of December before it hits cinemas Thursday 19th, which was truly a privilege, so we’re giving you the early scoop. Firstly, full disclosure, we were not fans of either The Force Awakens nor The Last Jedi, under the belief it was only getting worse, so went into this screening without many expectations. However we do love the Originals and the Prequels, alongside Rogue One, Solo and The Mandalorian. Just to give you a better understanding of where our head-space may be in comparison to yours.

The First Order (Spoiler Free Review)

So we don’t think The Rise of Skywalker is bad, but it’s not good either. It’s not much of anything really or just too much of everything. The story is about the return of Emperor Palpatine, whilst both the good guys and the bad try to hunt him down. So there is some good, enjoyable stuff in this movie, which occurs mainly in the second half of the film, notably the ending isn’t terrible.

I do believe they did the best they could to wrap up a story that has truly gotten out of hand. That said the first half of the film and a majority of the rest is just so rushed. A play by play, A to Z, predictable mess. So much of TROS is trying to subtly rewrite what The Last Jedi did. The entire film ends up holding your hand and telling you exactly what they are doing the entire time, which came off as very cringey.

Visually, as always, it’s stunning, the sets, the costumes, the CGI are all great, especially the puppetry but those things alone can not make a movie. No scene or set seems to last more than a minute, which gives it its rushed feeling. Though scenes lengthen out nearer the end. It seems as though they packed two or three movies into one. Ultimately I think this film will divide a lot of fans again, I don’t see you liking this if you don’t like the other two and you won’t hate this if you did, however I think some TLJ fans will be upset by this film. All said and done this may be our favourite of the sequel trilogy, but that isn’t saying much. Skip past the spoilers to get our final score.

The Rise Of Spoilers (Spoiler Review)

If you have not yet seen The Rise of Skywalker, turn back now, unless you really don’t care about spoilers. Last warning!… So sufficed to say this film did not save the trilogy, though they certainly tried. The opening title scroll reveals that a broadcast was sent out from Palpatine and we just jump right into it as though he was never gone, it is quickly revealed that Snoke was just a clone and The Emperor was in charge and controlling the voices in Kylo Ren’s head all along, so mystery solved, happy days, Snoke was no one. Although Palpatine does weirdly compliment Ben that Snoke has trained him well which would surely mean Palpatine just praised himself.

The first half was like getting dragged through the mud, JJ clearly had so much he wanted to do that got ruined by Rian Johnson that he kind of crams it into this film, whilst also very obviously trying to appease fan criticisms. Such as when we first see Rey who is just floating there amongst some rocks. I guess we just have to accept she’s powerful for no real reason, except because she’s a Palpatine, shocker. She was related to a famous character after all, suck on that I guess Rian, but also her parents were nobody because they chose to be! Must please everyone.

Rey is reaching out to the past Jedi and fails, so not that powerful after-all I guess. Then just kind of awkwardly rolls to the ground before running a training course, just to please everyone. I don’t want to complain that we see her training but again it’s just so rushed they clearly want to get it out of the way and over with.

first order

“I Have A Bad Feeling About This”

It is continuous. We move on from one place to the next, making everything seem so pointless, meeting new characters who do nothing. There is a giant slug creature on the falcon at the beginning that could be cut entirely for doing nothing. Keri Russell’s character, Zorii Bliss, pointless! She has her own poster and is in the film for less than two minutes, she effects the story in no way! At least Del Toro’s DJ did something. So it seems a lot of that happens. Dominic Monaghan was made a fuss of in the build up and was purely there to explain why we don’t pull “Holdo moves” on everything. Again very cringey.

So it seems a lot that got leaked was true. Most notably perhaps Hux being a spy, but only after the death of Snoke. Richard E. Grant basically replaces Hux, who is killed off so nonchalantly I almost like it, and does a great job as an Officer of the Empire. There is clear conflict between TROS and TLJ, the ending which opened up the possibility of new Jedi was dropped just as hard as Force Awakens thread-lines as some kind of revenge. Rey is the last Jedi.

Knights of Ren and back but still mean nothing and do nothing, except as Kylo’s proxy praetorian guard. Though it doesn’t stop a lot of fuss being made over them. Rey’s parentage means something, she is important. She is Rey Palpatine! They don’t go into how The Emperor had a son about the same age as Luke. I like to assume he’s a clone that wasn’t force sensitive.

 “May The Force Be With You!”

Now you may be wondering what I actually did like about the film. Firstly I liked the cohesion of the main cast of characters in this film, which wasn’t present in Last Jedi. I liked Adam Driver mainly, and Ben Skywalker’s redemption arc although as most things, it was rushed. Though I did enjoy seeing good guy Ben and his last fight at the end. Chewie actually reacting to Leia’s death was good, capturing the emotion that he is outliving all his friends. Plus the ending had me feeling some sort of way, I will always be in Star Wars hooks, so when a bunch of spaceships show up and you hear all the Jedi speak to Rey, I enjoyed it. Han’s return was a nice surprise, though he wasn’t a force ghost which was a shame, more a force memory. That was about it.

Rose Tico and Billie Lourd’s character (Carrie Fishers daughter) both get sidelined in this film which was a waste and the promise of this being Leia’s movie falls flat in comparison to Last Jedi. The Sith Trooper’s do nothing, I don’t remember really seeing them. This film could be summed up by a lot of people not doing anything. There is a lot you could probably really get your teeth into and tear apart. Seeing Rey use the force to try and pull down a ship was cool, after accepting her all mighty power. I like that they decided to kill Ben and not keep him alive. Whilst the force healing powers seemingly come out of nowhere (it would have been well suited to show Leia training her on that) it does actually function throughout the story. So I forgive any discrepancies for that.

“Your Journey Nears Its End”

The ending was also kind of bittersweet, it was nice to go back to where it all started. However and this is my biggest qualm with the film and perhaps trilogy as a whole, we don’t get to see Chewie, Han, Luke and Leia all together again. They failed in TFA and had the perfect opportunity to rectify in this film but failed again. At the end we see Luke and Leia together as force ghosts, all I’m asking is to throw in Han and have Chewie and R2 with Rey! It would make sense for Ben to be there too, and who cares if Han wasn’t a Jedi, the force is everywhere.

There was a lack of Force ghosts on a whole, it would have been cool at the moment we hear all the Jedi talk to Rey and when she is “all the Jedi” actually have them stand behind her! A serious missed opportunity. Also Palpatine’s face was too smooth for a majority of the film and Rey’s named herself Skywalker now… Anyway, there is plenty more that we could get into, However…

The Last Comment (Conclusion)

After all is said and done this may be our favorite of the new trilogy, it strives to be middle of the park and certainly achieves that. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing. There are parts of this movie for everyone to enjoy, such as Babu Frik! Plus plenty people will complain about. If you hate the sequels this won’t change your mind. If you enjoy them you will probably like Rise of Skywalker too. Either way you look at it you will find TROS to be a fitting end to the latest trilogy.

GeekVault Score:

5/10

Let us know in the comments what you think, did you enjoy it? Do you agree with us?

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View From The Vault: The Predator Review

The Predator review

View From The Vault: The Predator Review

Welcome to GeekVault’s The Predator review. Watch as The Predator returns in all it’s gory. Finally after eight long years The Predator has returned in a new movie, the fourth in the series, excluding the AVP movies. The last one being Predators from 2010, where several humans were dropped on a Yautja hunting planet. Predators generally received average reviews. However we found Predators rather enjoyable at the time. The Predator on the other hand is just awfully terrible. Anyway…

The Prey (No Spoilers)

The story is a pretty typical one. Predator crashes to Earth and is intercepted by Special Ops sniper, McKenna (Holbrook), after killing his men. They both survive the encounter and get picked up by the US government. The Predator wakes in a secret government lab before breaking free and causing havoc. Meanwhile McKenna is put on the armies loony bus. Then the hunt begins. The ragtag crew of army rejects, alongside scientist Bracket (Munn) have to save McKenna’s kid, before a new more advanced Predator arrives and changes the game entirely.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the movie is all bad, in fact I found it quite enjoyable for the first half. A ragtag crew are always kind of fun to watch. Keegan-Michael Key and Thomas Jane are especially fun. Even some of the humour wasn’t terrible. I appreciate that they were maybe going for something different for The Predator franchise in this movie, however it all became quite generic. Most jokes miss. The CGI is unforgivable for a big budget film. Plus the action is mediocre. Topped off by just a poor story. I wouldn’t really recommend seeing this movie to anyway, it’s partly entertaining but mostly rubbish. I do however always encourage people to make their own mind up about movies. So skip to the bottom to avoid spoilers and see the conclusion.

The Hunt (For Spoilers)

So basically one Predator crashes to our planet on the run from his home-world, that’s fine, almost interesting. This is obviously the first Predator we see, who, after landing, immediately slaughters the nearest humans to him. Then wakes up in a scientist lab and again slaughters everyone he can see, except a naked Olivia Munn, before escaping. However we later learn that the reason this Predator is on the run and on Earth is because he wants to give Humans a gift. Humans are going extinct, global warming, poverty etc. Thus the Yautja want to take over Earth so they can breed Human/Predator hybrids. This is what the Predators have been doing all along, find the greatest prey so the can make hybrids. It is why they take their victims spine, which is kind of neat.

It turns out the first Predator opposes this plan and wants to help the humans fight back against predators. So he’s a good guy? What?! We spend the first half of this film with the Predator just straight up murdering humans for no reason, without any apparent attempt to reason with them and explain why he’s here, but apparently he wanted to help them protect themselves? This predator is promptly murdered by the much bigger, ridiculous 11ft Predator. Then the movie becomes about the hunt for Autism. Seriously. McKenna’s kid played by Jacob Tremblay has Autism. Which obviously allows him to understand alien languages and technology. That’s how autism works, right?

Because it’s the next step in human evolution and the Predator’s want to use it. I guess it doesn’t necessarily put Autism in a bad light but it does show a lack of understanding and tact. The whole thing seems just so pointless and poorly executed (mind the pun), as the film jumps around from one scene to the next. It feels rushed. Especially at the end when they realise they haven’t killed any of the main character’s so they basically all die at once. Looking at you Nettles (Aguilara). Don’t even mention Traeger (Brown) the stereotypical bad human, evil for no reason, because he is overseeing a top secret alien project. Plus the ending with the Predator Killer suit. It’s all awful.

The Execution (Final Thoughts)

It goes from being enjoyably bad to just plain bad. The story, although new for Predator, is generic and predictable. The action is mediocre, the gore seems tacked on. The CGI is just awful, really just terrible. The references they make to past films kind of tell you all you need to know. The characters are likeable enough. The new Predator is ridiculous. At the end of it all we are left with a jumbled up mess, that feels rushed. If you enjoy it then that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. As I said I started to enjoy it but it just kept getting worse. I don’t recommend this to anyone. Let’s hope they do something better soon.

GeekVault Score:

4/10

Let us know in the comments below what you thought about this movie. Do you agree/disagree? And as always check out our awesome collection of Film & TV gear and collectables.

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View from the Vault: Deadpool 2 Review

deadpool 2 review

View from the Vault: Deadpool 2 Review

Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool is back, and better than ever, in this raunchy sequel to the hugely successful, record breaking, 2016 movie. You’re reading GeekVault’s review of Deadpool 2. So first things first if you’re a lover of Deadpool the movie you’re going to enjoy this sequel, if you weren’t a fan it’s best to back off and stay away because this is more of the same, just a little bigger and better. Ourselves here at GeekVault highly enjoyed this one. All of the humour, the action and the reference’s have been stepped up a notch.

So the story goes… Deadpool has been the merc with a mouth successfully running around killing bad guys for the past two years. Shacked up with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and occasionally kicking it with the X-Men, mainly Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Colossus. When they run into Russel (Julian Dennison), a kid down on his luck, even more so now Cable (Josh Brolin) a mutant from the future has come back in time to kill him. It’s down to Deadpool, his new X-Force team and friends to stop Cable and save Russell.

First Wall: Spoiler Free!

Deadpool 2 is a barrel full of laughs and action, with a bigger budget they decided to up the ante, with great effect too. Now with director David Leitch, of John Wick and Atomic Blonde fame, it shows that they wanted to increase the action scene stakes. Right from the get go with a brilliant mercenary montage we get to see some of DP’s greatest hits of the past couple of years. The whole thing looks fantastic and it’s easy to see where Leitch’s experience has come in to play. This is another great film to go under Leitch’s belt.

Not only has the action been stepped up but the humour and the references too. Obviously feeling the pressure from the success of the first film they wanted to recapture that popularity with even more laughs. Deadpool 2 achieves this with bigger gags and more fourth wall breaking, addressing the success of the first movie. They were able to fit in more references and greater cameos. Including more snipes at the Reynolds’ X-Men Origins Deadpool and Green Lantern movie. Let it be said not all jokes are rib-crackers and if you weren’t a fan of the first one you probably won’t be a fan of this one.

Of course one of the best parts of Deadpool were the side characters. All your favourites return including Blind Al and Dopinder. Then we got some even greater new side-characters. They were all great but of course they all need screen time. Thus we didn’t get to spend as much time with returning characters as we’d have liked to. Overall however it’s a well balanced action comedy superhero film that any Deadpool fan will love. So definitely go check it out if you haven’t already.

Second Wall: Spoiler Time!

So presumably you’re reading this as you have already seen the film or you just don’t care about movie spoilers. Otherwise turn back now!

So I loved all the cameos and what they did with X-Force, although it’s a little bitter sweet. I would have loved to seen some Terry Crews Bedlam action, with Zeitgeist and Shatterstar kicking arse. Plus watching Peter and Vanisher fight would have been pretty funny, it’s a little disappointing but it’s hard to be disappointed. As soon as Bedlam crashed into that bus everybody laughed. It was a big payoff. Of course if you’d blinked you’d have missed Brad Pitt getting burnt alive on electric wires as the Vanisher. Some cameo’s that might not be as easy to recognise were Alan Tudyk and Matt Damon, as the couple of rednecks who get there van stolen and tasered by Cable when he first appears back in time, Terminator style.

It was fun to see the young X-Men, however little it made sense for them to appear in 2018. At this point you can throw X-Men timelines to the wind. However I think I would have preferred the original cast more. For the big one, no pun intended, and my personal favourite, Juggernaut! Who was voiced by none other than Ryan Reynolds. It was just so good to see a properly done Juggernaut, however little he actually had to do in the film. I would love to see him back. Along with Big Jugs came my own personal favourite joke when Deadpool tried to do the MCU Hulk lullaby on him.

Third Wall: Sucked Balls?

OK so the story wasn’t the best or most original thing out there. Now the first one was no mind blower but it felt original in it’s approach. Deadpool 2 however could have benefited a little if they even just addressed how cliched the story was. Even killing Vanessa wasn’t as hard edged as if they had just split up or gone separate ways. Though it’s hard to complain with it all wrapped up neatly, with a little bow on it… So it’s not the most original story but you don’t watch Deadpool for story, you watch for laughs and violence both of which they deliver plenty on.

The other complaint that a few have picked up on is that they don’t really have a main villain for this film. For the first half the villain is arguably Cable, Terminator style. Half way through it’s flipped and Russell and the Juggernaut are the villains. However Juggernaut doesn’t do much villainy and Russell just needs saving from himself. The true villain you’d say is Essex house, a little nod to Mr. Sinister, the mutant correctional facility Russell is growing up in.

It would have been nice had they hinted toward some more Sinister roots to the antithesis of the Xavier school, but it’s all passed over in favour of saving Russell. They also cram in that Domino was raised there, before she fights some orderlies. It would have worked better had there been a right hand to the school principal that Domino could have fought instead. However I guess not everything needs to be an end of the world situation. Just a few things could have been touched up here and there.

Fourth Wall: Break It Down.

Deadpool continues to be great and show how strong it is as a franchise. Realistically these movies can last as long as any other property, as long as audiences don’t get tired. Along with pushing for better quality movies all round. As they rightfully pointed out, without Deadpool there would be no Logan, and that would have been a loss. We all want to eventually see a complete harmonious Marvel movie universe franchise, with the merging of Fox and Disney we’re closer than ever. Deadpool would be the character to really bridge the gap between old and new. Deadpool 2 was great fun, nothing too serious, heartfelt at moments, with awesome action and lots of laughs. Not be missed by any fan, it would certainly put a smile on your face. Here’s to number 3.

GeekVault Score:

8/10

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View from the Vault: Ready Player One Review

ready_player_one

View from the Vault: Ready Player One Review

Ready Player One is not like it’s novel counterpart and that’s OK. It is, however, like every geek and gamer’s wet dream, and that’s great. This is GeekVault’s movie review of Ready Player One. Ready? Let’s begin. For starter’s it is a visual feast, that leaves you stuffed but asking for seconds. Secondly it’s the Where’s Wally of pop culture in fantastic film format. There is something in there for everyone and Spielberg is back with a ton of nostalgia and good feelings.

So The story goes… The year is 2045 and real life isn’t looking so good. People live in “stacks” now, trailers stacked one on top the other, the height of skyscrapers. The only place to turn is the OASIS, a virtual reality, where anything is possible. People live out there entire lives there, work, learn and most of all play. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is one of those people. Living in his aunts trailer with her string of abusive boyfriends. His only escape is through the OASIS. It’s creator, James Halliday (Mark Rylance) hid an Easter egg, after his death, within his vast reality, the finder of which would get the key to his fortune as the heir of the OASIS itself.

Thus sparks the greatest hunt ever in which Gunters (egg hunters) face off against the IOI, the second largest company with intentions on being the first. After several years of no progress the interest has died down to only the most hardcore fans until Parzival, Wade’s avatar, finds the first key. Now he must battle off against the evil IOI, headed by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), and with the help of his friends Aech (Lena Waithe) and Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), find all three keys and win the egg.

Level 1: No Spoilers.

So firstly, we here at GeekVault, as geeks and cinephiles alike, absolutely loved Ready Player One. Every five seconds we couldn’t help but point out to one another a reference way off in the background, it was just utterly ridiculous fun. You just have to sit back, relax and go with it.

There is nothing new about this film, it’s your typical hero’s journey, mixed with popular teen dystopia rebellion against evil corporations. Which is still as poignant as it’s ever been. It’s impossible to be original these days, and this film doesn’t try and hide the fact that it is one massive movie and game reference. It is, in my opinion, the most successful retelling of where the future of technology, such as drones and virtual reality, could lead us, without keeping mega corporations in check and allowing everyone un-tampered access to the internet.

So this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, you can argue that it relies too heavily on other franchises to make this film work. Strip it all away and you have a typical heartfelt, everyday little guy stands up to the big bad company. You just have to accept that you’re going to get a hundred cameos shoved at you in one frame. If you can pretend you don’t recognise all the Overwatch/Batman characters, you’re left with the same feel good movie.

The performances from our main characters are great, especially considering half of it was CGI Mocap, it felt real and believable. Mendelsohn plays a great menacing villain once again. The humour is on point. You are thrust into the action straight from the get go and they never really take their foot off the gas. Allowing a handful of moments for you to catch your breathe. I one hundred percent recommend seeing it.

Level 2: Spoilers Ahead!

So as stated it is very different from the book, which is understandable to make it more engaging for a viewing audience. Right from the get go, the school planet, the only one Parzival can visit in the book is replaced with an epic and impossible race no one can win to get to the first key. The gates are wholly abandoned, I’m guessing due to time restraints all films must abide by.

Also forgoing Parzival using his new fame to make money sponsoring products. Buying his own planet. The long frustrating wait between finding the keys. In the movie it all happens rather consecutively one after the other. The War Games recreation is replaced rather ingeniously by a recreation of The Shining. In one of the best sequences in the film. As well as replacing Wade’s involvement on the inside of IOI with Art3mis. However the spirit and overall path taken were kept the same.

One thing I am rather thankful that they changed was the focus on the eighties, whilst still keeping it present. It didn’t feel real in the books, sure everyone loves the eighties, but it took away from all the great things that have been made since. Plus almost every kid from the twenty-forties being obsessed with only things from fifty years ago was unbelievable. This issue was resolved in the film with the inclusion of great things such as Overwatch, Street Fighter and a personal favourite, The Iron Giant, on top of tons more. I am at least now sated enough not to ask for an Iron Giant sequel for another ten years. What else is there to say? Except for… “It’s fucking Chucky!”

Level 3: Game Over?

The problems I had with this film are very minuscule, mainly that they didn’t touch on the school aspect of things. The idea in the book that everyone had a right to free learning and that’s where he hid the first key. Simon Pegg’s Ogden Morrow wasn’t a particularly big part, like the removal of his ball scene, that showed off his godly admin powers. Mainly I was just upset that they didn’t show the Iron Giant going full war mode. Though the Terminator sign off kind of made up for that. Really I find it hard to hate anything in this film, I mean, who ever thought they’d see an epic fight between The Iron Giant, MechaGodzilla and a Gundam? Is that the possibility of a live action Gundam movie we see in our future? We can only hope.

OK the character’s are a little flat and the story is a little typical, but what were you expecting? This is E.T. and the Goonies on steroids.

Continue…?

Ready Player One is something I have wanted to see since I was a little kid. So many of our favourite characters under one roof, in one movie! I mean that’s why we love Marvel movies right? Why we enjoy the idea of Alien vs. Predator? Seeing these character’s come together. I think, if you hate that this is one film about a hundred other films, you were always going to hate it. Frankly, why did you even bother? But if you can let go, and just enjoy seeing these character’s interact with one another, you will love it. Just be open to some meaningful light hearted fun about video games. If anything it will leave you hopeful as an insight for the future. The technological virtual reality side anyway, not the murderous corporation dystopia. This is a future Spielberg classic, prepared to stick around for a while.

GeekVault Score:

9/10

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View from the Vault: Pacific Rim Uprising Review

View from the Vault: Pacific Rim Uprising Review

What’s not to love about giant robots fighting? OK so Transformers isn’t a good example, but we’re talking Pacific Rim here! This is GeekVault’s movie review of Pacific Rim Uprising. Starting without spoilers. I was sceptical going into this after watching the trailer, which left me unsatisfied. I loved what Guillermo Del Toro had achieved in the first Pacific Rim, gritty but fun and believable giant robot versus monster action. The Uprising trailer however read like a big studio getting it’s grubby hands on a small profitable movie and twisting it into a blown up mediocre mess, as we have seen happen so often. I can tell you I was wrong.

My main worries from the trailer were as follows, why are they all children? Why is John Boyega a rich party playboy kid? Why are all the robots so shiny and indiscernible? How does this little girl have her own Jaeger? Most of my concerns were addressed directly by the film and made sense within the context, other worries just washed away when you fully embraced the cheesiness of giant robot vs. monster madness.

Spoiler Free Zone

The story goes… It has been ten years since the rift was closed. Jake Pentecost (Boyega) son of famed late ranger Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) gets reenlisted to the Jaeger Pilot program after getting caught in an illegal Jaeger with Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny). They have to stick together to try and find their place in the programme, to become Jaeger pilots. Everything is knocked up a gear when the mysterious rogue Jaeger, Obsidian Fury, attacks. They have to figure out who this rogue Jaeger is and what they want. All whilst worrying about Shao Industries plans to replace pilots with drones. Featuring the return of favourite characters such as Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) Newt (Charlie Day) and Hermann (Burn Gorman).

Ultimately if you enjoyed the first Pacific Rim you will enjoy this one, it is by no means perfect, all movies have their flaws, but this one is a lot of fun. It feels different enough to be it’s own movie and yet still with the same character and heart of Del Toro’s original vision. The kid’s aren’t bad actors, they feel real, and John Boyega puts in a good leading performance, stretching his chops outside of Star Wars. Topped off with a coherent naturally progressive story and fun giant robot action. A good enjoyable family friendly movie, worth watching.

Alert! Spoilers! Alert!

OK so unless you’ve seen the film or don’t care for spoilers turn back now. You’ve been warned.

As I said before I had some fears watching the trailer and was frankly not all that interested to go see the movie. It took some convincing. I’m happy with how my concerns were resolved. They aren’t all kids, like I thought, Jake is immediately reinstated as a ranger alongside Lambert (Scott Eastwood) and the “kids” are just cadets now that the Jaeger programme is more of a police academy. They just happen to be a focal point of the story.

Also Jake was not some spoilt party kid, instead living in half of an abandoned mansion, trading and stealing goods to get by, amongst a Kaiju/Jaeger graveyard. The little girl, Amara, has built her adorable Jaeger, Scrapper, from junk that’s lying around or stolen. It is stated that there have been other homemade Jaeger’s and that they are illegal. She’s afraid, somewhat rightfully, the Kaiju will come back and, after losing her family in an attack, she wants to be prepared for when they do. It’s all understandable and works within the film.

The Problems

The shiny new robots is something I still have a problem with, it wasn’t major and I still ended up loving Bracer Phoenix and Saber Athena, but it would have been nice to have seen more variation in design, like the first Pacific Rim. Using the Russian meme song was unnecessary. Not enough of the characters died unlike the first one, which gave a realistic edge. There was no real mention of what Raleigh (Hunnam) was doing now. Drift compatibility wasn’t as important anymore. No Ron Perlman! Unfortunately it does fall foul to the trope of “kids are the only ones left to save the day”. Also somehow only the base we had focused on was able to get any Jaegers functional to fight the Kaiju worldwide, it would have been nice for a couple other’s to drop in even to just be killed.

As I said not a perfect film.

My main issue is with Mako and her death. It felt unnecessary, she was a great character that I would have loved to see piloting a Jaeger once more. It does little more than to push Jake to stay in the programme. The real problem is the gravity sling. Right before she is crashing they initiate it, at which point I’m like “great, makes sense, that’s how they will catch her”. They just use it to throw cars at the rogue Obsidian Fury! Then jump to reach, and fail, to catch Mako’s falling helicopter. They don’t even try to use the gravity sling to save her! Other than that it’s all pretty good.

Overall

I’m glad they went with Del Toro’s original plan, to make Charlie Day’s character the villain after drifting with Kaiju brain, it was up in the air for a second there, but I was happy when they finally landed on it. Look it’s exactly what it says on the tin, giant robots fighting giant robots and even bigger monsters. There is no complex thought about it. It is cheesy. It is a megaton of fun. Just go with it.

GeekVault Score:

7/10