Film Preview: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

Page Revisions:

(October 15, 2017) Original
(January 28, 2018) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#9-#10)
(February 18, 2018) New Trailer (#3) / New Posters (#11-#17)
(March 18, 2018) New Posters (#18-#21)

Release Date:

March 23, 2018

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots, including rival Lambert and 15-year-old hacker Amara, against a new Kaiju threat.”

Poster Rating: C+ (2) / C / C+ (5) / C+ / B- / C / C+ (3) / C- / C- / C / C / C (3)

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Review: (#1 & #2) This pair of posters put two of the film’s main characters in front of a generic Jaeger. It might have been more interesting had they been placed in front of the one they were going to pilot in the film. (#3) A simple call to arms that has lots of detail, but little of it compelling. (#4-#8) Five schematic-like views of the Jaegers in the film. These might be interesting to put on your wall, but won’t do much to sell the film itself.

(#9) It’s an interesting design, but the white background doesn’t do it any favors, and the overall essence isn’t likely to sell tickets. (#10) To fit so many big figures on one poster is a challenge, but putting on the background that you have to look through another’s legs to see is a royally poor decision.

(#11) Creating a design that looks poised rather than naturalistic isn’t an uncommon choice, but when it’s paired with mechs and everything looks a bit stagey, it doesn’t quite work. (#12-#14) This series of psychedelic posters are different enough from previous designs to be interesting, but not enough to be good. (#15) There’s a lot of wasted space in this design and the action doesn’t look particularly engaging. (#16) Looks like the start of a rather dull series of character posters. (#17) It’s nice artwork, but not an excessively engaging design.

(#18) As much as a poster of a giant robot could, this design doesn’t look nearly as realistic as it should with the city backdrop feeling particularly inauthentic. (#19-#21) These three posters highlight three of the major Jaeger characters of the film. Though they are each action-oriented, none of them feel exciting.

Trailer Rating: B+ / B- / C-

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Review: (#1) Lots of intense action, large amounts of cityscape destruction and enough callbacks to the original to tie everything together.

(#2) The plot reveals itself and I’m not that sure if it’s not a narrative that holds a lot of promise. The visuals in this trailer aren’t that appealing either.

(#3) If you could make a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters unwatchable, this trailer might be a good indication of that. A string of action sequences haphazardly connected by tone-deaf dialogue and weakly informative narrative ticks. Definitely not progressing in the right direction.