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.

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.