The first Pacific Rim wasn't a huge smash like some thought it would be, but it gave Guillermo Del Toro his first chance to really cut loose. He indulged in childhood fantasies of smashing giant robots and giant monsters together, making it, if anything, a film that is uniquely his own. That made the prospect of a Del Toro-less Pacific Rim Uprising a little underwhelming. Would the sequel capture that same spirit with a brand new director in Steven S. DeKnight, and a mostly new cast led by John Boyega?
The first full trailer has debuted at NYCC, and it has all of the smash 'em up robot action you could ask for. Boyega plays Jake Pentecost, the son of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost, who helps lead a new generation of jaeger pilots into battle against the renewed threat of the kaiju. Somehow the apocalypse has been un-canceled, apparently. Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, and Rinko Kikuchi return from the first movie, along with new additions Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Adria Arjona, and Jing Tian who has been leaping from one international blockbuster after another. She's recently starred in Kong: Skull Island and The Great Wall, two movies that I think would make a killer crossover with Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim Uprising opens March 23rd 2018.
