2012’s Pacific Rim had giant battle-robots and monsters fighting each other for the future of the planet, in a film that hit several geeky pleasure buttons. Now a new generation of monsters and battle-robots will fight – led by Jake Pentacost (Boyega, playing the son of Idris Elba’s character from the first film), who teams up with his adopted sister (Kikuchi), a rival pilot (Eastwood), scientists (Day) and an untested bunch of recruits.

As luck would have it, the original film’s director, Guillermo del Toro, had to go make The Shape of Water, so instead the sequel marks the directorial debut of Steven S. DeKnight (who created the TV version of “Spartacus” and ran the first series of Netflix’s “Daredevil”).

The ultimate reason to see Uprising, however, is the giant monster fights. There might be a bit of subtle character interaction here and there, maybe even some dramatic themes or plot twists, but really, you’re here for the robot-on-monster stuff. And there are certainly a whole bunch of those as cities become battlegrounds for the fate of mankind. Sci-fi punchfest fun for the geek inclined.

Director Jack Arnold built a solid and even well-respected career out of B-grade monster flicks and Creature from the Black Lagoon remains a classic of the genre. The plot is fairly basic: a group of scientists explore an Amazonian lagoon after finding a fossilised clawed webbed hand from the Devonian era. Unbeknownst to them, at least one of the species is still alive. None too impressed with its visitors, it starts hunting them down, except for the one female scientist which it pursues like a lovelorn puppy.

If this sounds pretty corny, don’t worry – it totally is. It’s also a lot of fun. The melodramatic acting borders on camp and the fight scenes with the creature are outright hilarious. However Mr. Arnold definitely knows how to deliver genuine suspense, and there are plenty of admirable well-sprung moments throughout. Especially the underwater scenes which are surprisingly good.

Made over sixty years ago, Creature from the Black Lagoon is also worthwhile for its historical value – to see both its influence on later monster films (such as this semester’s The Shape of Water) and how far special effects and monster films in general have come.