Well you can’t accuse anybody working on this of just doing the same thing twice. PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING might be even dumber than the first film, which was Guillermo del Toro valiantly attempting to get something with thematic substance out of massive robots hitting massive monsters with cargo ships. Speaking of which, can you believe GDT would prefer to win Oscars than make another one of these? New director Steven S DeKnight throws plenty at the plot, a few unexpected twists and turns, many ideas which only kind-of work and a fair few which don’t work at all, but the film moves at pace and the brightly coloured spectacle is undeniably enjoyable. Cailee Spaeny steals the show from our uninspiring leads John Boyega and Scott Eastwood and Burn Gorman and Charlie Day get a lot more to do this time to mixed success. SSP