Was off work on Friday with the wife, so we decided to take in a movie with my oldest son. My wife has really been wanting to see Pacific Rim 2, so we grabbed some cheap tickets and hit the local theater.

I really loved Pacific Rim when it came out a few years ago. It was a snappy monster action flick that knew it was all about the visual effects. It’s storyline was over-the-top, and was all there to facilitate more insane action between the giant mechs and monsters. It knew what it wanted to be, and it didn’t try to hide it with some deep hidden meaning.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Pacific Rim 2. I’ll keep this spoiler free, but suffice it to say, the story was poorly written, and seemed very disjointed from the overall goal of getting big giant robots to fight with monsters. There were deaths of characters that were meant to move you, but they just felt tacked on and forced. One of them in particular just seemed dumb and wasteful.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy myself. The visuals in this were amazing, and of course, seeing giant robots fight with monsters is awesome. They even threw in a small twist at the end that was hilarious and amazing at the same time. It feels like the final 3rd of the movie is where everything hit it’s stride, but that was after the monsters started showing up for the robots to battle. I feel like the early part of the movie didn’t add much, and was mostly forgettable. Which is sad, considering the great talent they had in the lead roles.

So should you go to see Pacific Rim 2? Sure, but I wouldn’t spend more than a matinee price. The visual effects are great, and the fight scenes are all that you’d expect. If you’ve got a good home theater setup, it might even be worth waiting for rental. Just don’t expect to be wow’d by the story, or frankly, even consider it more than adequate. When it focuses on being a monster bash-em-up, it’s a lot more fun.