By itself, Uprising would probably be a pretty good Super Robot B-movie. It's got all the hallmarks — scrappy young pilots, outlandish monsters, amazing effects, even a battle in Tokyo. It's bolstered by a charming cast (special mention to John Boyega, Cailee Spaeny, and Burn Gorman, who carry this film on their backs) and dizzying fight choreography. It has an array of underdeveloped supporting characters, its fights sometimes drag, and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of character arcs or themes, but GIANT ROBOTS PUNCHING OTHER GIANT ROBOTS, AND THEN GIANT ROBOTS PUNCHING KAIJU.
The problem is that it's not a standalone, it's a sequel.
In Pacific Rim, much emphasis was placed on the Drift, which resulted in well-rounded characterization overall (except for Cherno and Crimson, RIP). This is all but absent from the sequel except for a couple of scenes with Amara, and the continuously escalating plot means that characterization is left behind, leaving all but a handful of characters two-dimensional at best.
But a Super Robot film can forgive lacking characterization. The bigger thing Uprising is missing is the sense of heart that made the first film so surprisingly effective. There's little wondrous appreciation for the technology OR the monsters they're fighting (individual Jaegers and Kaiju are not really focused on), no curated shots of the environment (uh...they're in Sydney, then Tokyo, I guess?), no undercurrent of escalating tension in the fight scenes resulting in that "oh!" moment like the first film's "Sword" (in fact, moments that would be cool are drowned out by subsequent bathos). The result is largely impersonal. What heart the film does manage to produce between its protagonists is whizzed right out by the demands of the plot, which is...fine. It mostly amounts to a bunch of cool robots trashing things over and over again that by the end (especially in that long, blurry final fight) you're just kind of numb to it, although the villains might take you for a loop.
The returning characters from Pacific Rim are also taken for a few swerves, but that's for a less spoilery day — YMMV if said plot twists are effective; I personally didn't think so.
But all is not lost — the new relationships have potential, the worldbuilding of ten years later is interesting, the Sequel Hook is something, and, well, the Jaegers are cool, even if I couldn't tell them or their pilots apart. If a third film gets made, I'll probably still tune in.
5/10
(EDIT: First wrote this review the day I saw it in cinemas — I've soured on it since then, edited a bit to reflect that)
(Spoiler-free) A decent mecha film, but not a great sequel
By itself, Uprising would probably be a pretty good Super Robot B-movie. It's got all the hallmarks — scrappy young pilots, outlandish monsters, amazing effects, even a battle in Tokyo. It's bolstered by a charming cast (special mention to John Boyega, Cailee Spaeny, and Burn Gorman, who carry this film on their backs) and dizzying fight choreography. It has an array of underdeveloped supporting characters, its fights sometimes drag, and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of character arcs or themes, but GIANT ROBOTS PUNCHING OTHER GIANT ROBOTS, AND THEN GIANT ROBOTS PUNCHING KAIJU.
The problem is that it's not a standalone, it's a sequel.
In Pacific Rim, much emphasis was placed on the Drift, which resulted in well-rounded characterization overall (except for Cherno and Crimson, RIP). This is all but absent from the sequel except for a couple of scenes with Amara, and the continuously escalating plot means that characterization is left behind, leaving all but a handful of characters two-dimensional at best.
But a Super Robot film can forgive lacking characterization. The bigger thing Uprising is missing is the sense of heart that made the first film so surprisingly effective. There's little wondrous appreciation for the technology OR the monsters they're fighting (individual Jaegers and Kaiju are not really focused on), no curated shots of the environment (uh...they're in Sydney, then Tokyo, I guess?), no undercurrent of escalating tension in the fight scenes resulting in that "oh!" moment like the first film's "Sword" (in fact, moments that would be cool are drowned out by subsequent bathos). The result is largely impersonal. What heart the film does manage to produce between its protagonists is whizzed right out by the demands of the plot, which is...fine. It mostly amounts to a bunch of cool robots trashing things over and over again that by the end (especially in that long, blurry final fight) you're just kind of numb to it, although the villains might take you for a loop.
The returning characters from Pacific Rim are also taken for a few swerves, but that's for a less spoilery day — YMMV if said plot twists are effective; I personally didn't think so.
But all is not lost — the new relationships have potential, the worldbuilding of ten years later is interesting, the Sequel Hook is something, and, well, the Jaegers are cool, even if I couldn't tell them or their pilots apart. If a third film gets made, I'll probably still tune in.
5/10 (EDIT: First wrote this review the day I saw it in cinemas — I've soured on it since then, edited a bit to reflect that)