Pacific Rim: Uprising Review - 3 Ups & 7 Downs

Almost five years after Guillermo del Toro's sci-fi action cult classic Pacific Rim first hit screens, its sequel is finally in cinemas.

To the surprise of just about nobody who has followed the film's marketing campaign, critics have been decidedly split over Pacific Rim: Uprising's merits, some championing its go-for-broke insanity and others dismissing it as a disappointing comedown from the original.

Any way you cut it, virtually nobody will claim that this is a rare superior sequel: it is, in every single department, a lesser film than what came before. Throughout there are hints at what could've been a rock solid follow-up, but instead, Uprising has an unfortunately tawdry feel to it, failing to put much paid to what came before.

Is this curtains for the unlikely franchise, or can that precious Chinese box office let it scrape through once again? The coming weeks will tell, but until then, here's what's worth knowing...