Pacific Rim: Uprising is pure metal mayhem, says Rashid Irani

This second outing, after Guillermo del Toro’s rather lacklustre 2013 film, follows a young generation of pilots as they struggle to prevent an apocalypse. Recommended for videogame geeks only.

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

Direction: Steven S DeKnight

Actors: John Boyega, Cailee Spaeny

Rating: 1.5 / 5

When even Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) wasn’t able to spin his magic around the 2013 original, it’s hard to imagine why Steven S DeKnight — a television hack-for-hire making his feature film debut — though he would be able to do so. There isn’t even the mandatory crash-boom fun factor in this follow-up to Pacific Rim.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on some admittedly snazzy CGI effects, but clearly just a pittance from the budget went on screenplay. There are no relatable characters or intelligible action set-pieces, just a morass of metallic mayhem.

The soldiers are led by a hustler-turned-saviour played by John Boyega. The role demands a lot of clanging, the odd jingoistic speech, and little else.

The second outing follows a younger generation of pilots who are readying to save the planet from an imminent apocalypse. Cue cataclysmic carnage, monsters-versus-robots, smack-bangs and cartoonish caricatures.

The leader, a hustler-turned-saviour (John Boyega), addresses the crew with jingoistic bravado before the climactic do-or-die mission.

Extremely juvenile …Uprising is recommended for videogame geeks only.