ALSO SHOWING
PACIFIC RIM UPRISING (12A) ★★ ★★★
STEVEN S DeKnight makes an inauspicious debut with a soulless sequel, bolted together using parts from Transformers and Independence Day: Resurgence.
Ten years after the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) unleashed an army of Jaegers – 25-storey tall robots operated by mind-melded human pilots – to defeat gargantuan alien creatures known as Kaiju, humanity has become complacent.
Former pilot Jake Pentecost (John Boyega, above), whose father General Stacker (Idris Elba) gave his life to protect the world, is contacted by his estranged sister, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). She asks him to return to the PPDC to go into battle alongside spunky 15-year-old cadet Amara (Cailee Spaeny) and fellow pilot Lambert (Scott Eastwood) when a new threat emerges from the ocean.
Pacific Rim’s hulking, digitally rendered hardware is impressive, but a malfunctioning script is in dire need of upgrades. A sequelbaiting coda makes it clear the Jaegers may be fired up again. Pull the plug now.
TOMB RAIDER (12A) ★★★ ★★
SWEDISH Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander, pictured, imbues acrobatic video game heroine Lara Croft with tortured melancholy in a big-budget origin story, directed by Roar Uthaug.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons’ script is reverse-engineered from a spectacular slam-bang finale, which permits Lara to show off her gravity-defying skills as CGI booby traps and collapsing floors threaten her survival. The dramatic calm before this special effects-laden storm is surprisingly pedestrian, enlivened by broad comic interludes involving Nick Frost and Jaime Winstone as bickering husband and wife pawn brokers.
PETER RABBIT (PG) ★★ ★★★
THE subterranean thumping you can hear throughout Will Gluck’s family-friendly adventure isn’t Beatrix Potter’s eponymous floppyeared creation (voiced by James Corden) and his anthropomorphic clan as they bound excitedly around their warren.
It’s the author spinning in her grave as characters are merchandised for quick and easy laughs using the same digital trickery that transplanted the fun-loving Smurfs to the present day. Peter Rabbit buries the sweet, simple charm of Potter’s books, and unearths a brash and brazen battle between country and city, laden with pop culture references.