Popcorn Perspectives by Danny Minton
Week of March 26, 2019
Pacific Rim Uprising
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 46%
In Theaters
Years after the events of the first film, John Boyega (Finn from Star Wars) is a promising young Jaeger pilot who has abandoned his military career to explore a life of crime. But when he is forced back into the program, he is faced with the first Kaiju attacks since the Earth was almost destroyed the first time they came. If you didn’t see the first film, then you are probably confused by my description. But trust me – you will be more confused by the film. I saw the first Pacific Rim, directed by the now Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, maybe 3 or 4 times. But there were still things I forgot or took for granted. Surprisingly enough, here they don’t give you exposition or background – they just jump in like you should remember every little detail. Since the movie comes in at less than 2 hours, I feel a dab of exposition would have been nice. In the end though, they are treating the franchise like the silly plot doesn’t matter. All that does matter are giant robot soldiers (Jaegers) fighting giant monsters from another planet (Kaiju). Its big and silly and sometimes fun when its not tedious. Story-wise the film should have been much stronger with less predictability and a better thought-out villain. But if all you are going for is big monster battles, you will probably leave somewhat satisfied. Personally I would have loved to have seen a continuation of del Toro’s vision, rather than the vision of a studio merely trying to breathe life into a franchise. C
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%
Available on Disc and Streaming
In this official 8th Star Wars movie (not including the spin-off Rogue One of course) The Last Jedi continues the saga as we watch Rey gets some training from the unconventional teacher Luke Skywalker while Kylo Ren makes his move to take over the galaxy. Having missed the press screening, I was thrilled to find out that all of my critic buddies were stirring up all kinds of buzz. They were declaring it highly original and one of the best of the entire series. But all that buzz might have hurt my enjoyment. I started to tear it apart when I started witnessing all of the movie’s imperfections, of which there were many. I was not surprised that while the Rotten Tomatoes critics score was 91%, the Audience Score was 48%. The movie just didn’t mesh for me like I was hoping it would. That being said, I liked, but definitely didn’t love it. I was even more disappointed after seeing the deleted scenes on this blu-ray release. There were scenes that should have been left in but were instead removed for pacing and runtime. But if they were really concerned about pacing and runtime – they should have removed the entire casino heist scene with Finn and Rose, which was a long sequence of wasted space (no pun intended). Fortunately, a lot of the film did work for me and the overarching story choices, I firmly believe, will lead to an amazing 9th film. B-
