Pacific Rim Uprising director Steven S. DeKnight revealed in a new interview the biggest changes to the sequel that came after test screenings. DeKnight took the reins from Guillermo del Toro to make his feature film debut, and delivered another action-packed adventure pitting giant robots against the Kaiju threat. And in this one, for new stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) and Scott Eastwood (The Fate of the Furious), the threat they have to confront is much bigger and more sinister.

Boyega's character Jake Pentecost, son of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost from the first Pacific Rim, starts the sequel as a black market trader who steals Jaeger parts and sells them illegally. But soon after the start of the movie, he gets wrapped up in the same Kaiju conflict that his father did. His transition from junk dealer to PPDC trainer was long part of the plot, but the way the movie literally began was not. Now we know when DeKnight decided to include a pair of scenes that weren't in the original cut.

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Speaking to Collider to promote Pacific Rim Uprising, DeKnight explained what he learns from test screenings in general, as well as what he learned about this particular movie. He acknowledges the difficulty of judging a CGI-heavy movie with "rudimentary" effects, but also that he was able to see what worked and what didn't in terms of pacing, plot, and characters. He revealed why the prologue was added, instead of starting the movie off with Jake Pentecost in a scrapyard:

"When we tested the movie, one of the biggest comments we got was, 'I don't know where I am in the world. I liked the first movie, but I saw it five years ago. I don't really remember it.' So we talked about just doing a crawl, words on screen. But we thought, 'Yeah, I think we can do better than that.' So we came up with an idea of a fun introduction to Jake and his life, so we ended up doing that as additional photography."

Another scene that wasn't in test screenings but was added for the final cut is a kitchen scene between Boyega and Eastwood (who plays Nate Lambert) that explores more of the characters' history with each other. As estranged ex-co-pilots, the pair have plenty of friction. DeKnight felt after test screenings that it was necessary to add the kitchen scene to flesh out their dynamic more:

"We felt like their characters never really got a chance to explore their relationship and show that. Although they were butting heads, they still cared about each other. They were old friends. But they still needed something there, because without it, it was just two guys bickering with each other."

Ultimately, the two scenes added some depth to the story and certainly didn't take away from it. Much like Black Panther director Ryan Coogler added a prologue after test screenings to make more sense of Wakanda, DeKnight believed it would better serve the world and characters of Pacific Rim Uprising to quickly establish them with an opening montage. It's hard to argue with the results commercially, as Uprising is expected to dethrone Black Panther at the domestic box office and is already performing big in China, leading to a reported $150 million worldwide gross in its opening weekend.

Unfortunately, Pacific Rim Uprising may not see much more commercial success beyond the original's $411 million worldwide total. Between middling reviews and a Kaiju-sized plot hole, it'll be hard for the sequel to really take the franchise to another level. But that's not necessarily the fault of the added scenes and DeKnight's changes post-test screening, which ultimately helped make the movie's narrative more cohesive overall.

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Source: Collider