March 27, 2018 – A friend asked me if this movie is like Godzilla. It is, kinda, but not in the sense of a guy dressed in a costume stomping on a miniature cardboard replica of Tokyo, of course. This is more like a video game with giant robots battling giant dinosaur-like monsters. But yes, a giant CGI monster does attack CGI Tokyo.

The first movie, directed by Guillermo Del Toro (who recently won the Academy Award for “The Shape of Water”) was a bit more about the human characters, and less like a video game than this sequel, which is directed by Steven S. DeKnight (Del Toro is listed as a producer). This is more like a video game, and it looks like it was designed to appeal to kids and gamers.

The story takes place years after the first film, in which the Pacific rim breach to another world was sealed up by an atomic explosion which cut off access from the other world, where the giant monsters came from, to this one. It has been peaceful in the years since. Some of the destroyed cities have been rebuilt, but some coastal cities are still in ruins.

Jake Pentecost (played by John Boyega of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) is the son of legendary monster killer Stacker Pentecost, but Jake has decided not to follow in his father's footsteps. Instead, he scratches out a living in the ruins of a coastal city by stealing high tech equipment left over from the monster wars. He and another tech thief, Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) are caught by authorities and given the option of joining the military or going to jail. They join the military.

Jake, who has experience piloting Jaegers (giant robots built to battle giant monsters) becomes an instructor and Amara, who has less experience, becomes a Jaeger pilot recruit. They soon learn that Jaegers are about to become obsolete, however, replaced by Jaeger drones which can be piloted remotely. The drone plan goes awry, however, when the drones are hijacked by hostile forces and are used to attack the world.

Jake, Amara, and the few Jaegers and rookie pilots are all that remain to stop destruction of the world from the hijacked drones and the monsters they have unleashed. Despite the desperate story line, the tone of the film is light. Even the villain has a kind of funny, light edge to him.

There are a few holdovers from the first film, notably Burn Gorman, who reprises his role as nerdy scientist Dr. Herman Gottlieb, and Charlie Day, who also reprises his role as fellow scientist Dr. Newton Geiszler. They are joined by Rinko Kikuchi, who reprises her role as Mako Mori from the first film.

Unlike the first film, this is a lot less about the characters than it is about the action. There is very little character development. There are several scenes featuring a gaming-like environment, such as the battle simulators used in Jaeger training, and the remote-piloted machines.

Cailee Spaeny, an actress and singer who plays Amara Namani, makes quite the impression in this film, despite an underwritten role. She looks like she is about 12 years old, but is actually 20, according to Wikipedia. She plays an orphan with a tragic past, who has serious engineering skills. She holds her own against all other actors in this film.

This is a typical summer-type movie, a popcorn movie, as they say. There is plenty of action and eye candy. It is pure escapism. As such, it works well enough. This film rates a C+.

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