在吉尔莫·德尔·托罗2013年的大片《环太平洋》中，人类为地球而战，而在续作《环太平洋：雷霆再起》中，世界再一次处于危难之中。这部新作由斯蒂文·S·迪奈特执导，片中机甲与怪兽展开了高科技的对决，战火从洛杉矶蔓延到悉尼、东京以及西伯利亚，整个世界等待着重建。
The story is set some ten years after the events of the first Pacific Rim. John Boyega plays Jake, the son of the first film’s hero, played by Idris Elba. Having abandoned his military service to pursue a more lucrative career scavenging Jaegar parts, Jake is summoned back into action by his sister Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). Rejoining the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, or PPDC, Jake is soon fighting alongside Lambert (Scott Eastwood), his friend and rival pilot; Jules (Adria Arjona), whose romantic affections both men vie for; and Amara (Cailee Spaeny), a spunky teenage hacker who’s built her own Jaeger from parts left over from the last cataclysmic battle.
故事发生在前作《环太平洋》大战结束的十年之后。约翰·波耶加饰演前作主角（伊德瑞斯·艾尔巴饰）之子杰克。杰克曾放弃军旅生涯，干起了回收机甲部件这一更赚钱的行当，但后来被姐姐森麻子（菊地凛子饰）召回部队。在重回环太平洋联合军方部队（PPDC）后，杰克迅速投入了战斗，与他并肩作战的还有好友兼死对头的机甲师兰伯特（斯科特·伊斯特伍德饰）、与两人陷入三角关系的朱尔斯（亚德里亚·霍纳饰）以及充满干劲的机甲迷少女阿玛拉（卡莉·史派妮饰）—— 她曾用上次大战后废弃的机甲零件，造出了自己的机甲。
A major plot element involves a Chinese company developing a new breed of unmanned Jaegar corps — a business plan that, needless to say, doesn’t sit well with the pilots. The Cadets are soon forced into apocalyptic combat with both the rogue Jaegars and the newly returned Kaiju.
剧情主线中还包含了一个开发新型无人机甲的中国公司 —— 毋庸置疑，这一商业计划并不受到机甲师们的欢迎。而军校学员们很快也不得不加入末日之战，与暴走的机甲和新回归的怪兽展开较量。
A commendably diverse cast helped "Pacific Rim" find huge success outside the US, particularly in China. Such casting continues, with more main and supporting roles for Japanese, Chinese and Latin American actors, placing "Uprising" alongside "A Wrinkle in Time", "Annihilation" and "Black Panther".
值得称誉的多元化的演员阵容令《环太平洋》在美国本土之外的国家，尤其在中国大受欢迎。而续作也沿袭了这样的演员阵容，邀请了更多日本、中国以及拉美演员参演主角和配角，让《环太平洋：雷霆再起》这部电影的演员阵容能和《时间的皱折》、《湮灭》以及《黑豹》比肩。
But "Pacific Rim Uprising" goes further than usual by having a whopping seven Chinese actors on board and filming several of its scenes in the coastal resort city of Qingdao, in east China’s Shandong Province.
但《环太平洋：雷霆再起》的做法比以往都更进了一步：剧组中中国演员多达7位，并在中国山东的沿海旅游城市青岛取景拍摄。
One of the actors is "Kong: Skull Island" actress Jing Tian, who also took on a leading role in Zhang Yimou’s "Great Wall". She plays Shao Liwen, the highly intelligent CEO of an international group, who the director DeKnight described as "extremely smart, brilliant, not very good with people - really a Chinese tech billionaire."
演员阵容包括曾参演《金刚：骷髅岛》的景甜，她也曾在张艺谋的《长城》中担纲主角。影片中她饰演一个跨国集团的高智商总裁邵丽雯，导演迪奈特形容这一角色“极其聪明、优秀，但并不十分友善 —— 是真正的中国科技界亿万富翁。”
However, not all the Chinese elements work and the Chinese audiences’ reactions are complicated. The film got only 5.8 points out of 10 on local movie platform douban.com, while on online ticketing platform Taopiaopiao, the viewer’s rating stands at 7.8 and nearly 360,000 people added the film to their to-see list.
然而，并非所有的中国元素都奏效，中国观众的反响也褒贬不一。电影在豆瓣上的评分只有5.8分（满分10分），而在淘票票上，观众们的评分达到了7.8分，将近36万人表示想看该片。
But the box office is a different story. Box Office Mojo reported that "Pacific Rim Uprising" grossed a solid 2.35-million US dollars from screenings late on Thursday night. It is expected to top "Black Panther" at the weekend box office, ending its five-weekend streak at No. 1.
但票房的情况却截然不同。根据票房网站Mojo的数据，《环太平洋：雷霆再起》周四深夜首映后，便收获了235万美元的票房，有望在周末票房超过《黑豹》，终结其连续5周问鼎票房冠军的记录。
