“Pacific Rim Uprising” is the sequel that no one was really asking for, but here it is. As a sequel to the original, it does its job well here and there.
If you liked the first one where robots and monsters are fighting for most of the movie, you’ll be thoroughly rewarded, as this one offers more of the same.

This sequel stars John Boyega from the newer “Star Wars” movies as Jake Pentecost, son of Idris Elba’s Stacker from the first one. Boyega makes a living as a thief and during one of his high-priced thefts he stumbles upon a mobile weapon system called Jaegar and tries to sell it. But, he gets apprehended. He’s confronted by a group of individuals who have now taken over the Jaegers because they believe the monsters, known as the

Kaiju, are coming back for seconds and they tell him they’ll clear his record if he trains the new generation of pilots taking the Jaegars into war.
That’s pretty much all you need to know about the plot.
Jake meets up with the new recruits and they aren’t very exciting, but we do get Scott Eastwood as his former copilot and there’s immediate tension between them. Why? The movie doesn’t bother to give us a convincing reason as there are plenty of monsters to kill.
The movie does cram wall-to-wall sequences. Unlike the sequels to “Transformers,” “Pacific Rim” manages to have some fun with itself while being somewhat in the neighborhood of coherency.

Sure, the effects are fine and there’s a lot of distracting action. Not to mention, the movie does like to encourage itself to go to infinity and beyond with its relentless cheese. You’ll need a cracker or two before the end.
So, why was I left unexcited and unimpressed? Frankly, I didn’t really care. Some scenes are filled with good humor and energy and other scenes had me checking the time on my cell phone.

At the risk of repeating myself, it’s fine as far as the action and effects go, but everything else is strangely lacking. Wait. Did I just say something is lacking in a movie like this? Still, it is better than the “Transformers” sequels, so it’s got that going for it at least.
Grade: B-
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language.

Hall is a syndicated columnist in South Georgia.