I have a really good idea for a Pacific Rim sequel. Bear with me for a second because, for some reason, this is really hard for Universal/Legendary to wrap their minds around: in a universe dominated by giant robots fighting giant monsters . . . you ready? Why don’t we make a film with a bunch of giant robots fighting a bunch of giant monsters? Whoa!

Wait—you want to first make a Pacific Rim installment featuring a bunch of boring lore and bad character development, and exactly one giant action sequence? Are you sure that’s what you want to do?

That’s exactly what we have here, and it makes absolutely no sense to me. That’s inexcusable and it’s tough to look past this horrific miscalculation. Even if you do, there’s not much to keep anyone engrossed in the sequel to 2013’s Pacific Rim.

I enjoyed the first film, though I think it’s a tad overrated. But at least in the original Pacific Rim we had a significant amount of giant action sequences featuring robots and monsters, which were, amazingly, the best part of that movie.

What’s funny is that the marketing team behind the film understood the draw of Pacific Rim better than the studios did. After all, they marketed the crap out of the one giant action sequence we did get. Yes, there are a few other sequences of robots fighting other robots, but we, the audience, are here for robots fighting monsters. That’s it! You had one job, and you couldn’t do it.

So, what do we get instead? A lot of boring world-building. The lore of this film is not very interesting, sadly. Early on there’s a few good moments, particularly around the introduction of Amara, played admirably by relative newcomer Cailee Spaeny. She’s a pretty awesome female protagonist that reminded me a lot of the badass Izabella from Transformers: The Last Knight. Unlike in Transformers, where the young protagonist is uncomfortably objectified by some of the men of the film, Amara is just . . . there. Never once did someone remind her that she was a woman. Never once did someone hit on her in a really uncomfortable way. She was just the protagonist alongside Jake Pentecost (John Boyega). I really appreciated that, so kudos to director Steven S. DeKnight and company for writing Amara the way they did. Sadly, though, they couldn’t break free of this trend completely, as one of the other three women in the film, Jules Reyes (Adria Arjona) is only there to be ogled by the male leads.

I did also love John Boyega’s performance; he tries as hard as he can to carry this film. Hopefully he decides to pursue the action star route outside of Star Wars. The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable.

When we did finally get to the giant monsters vs. giant robots action sequence, I had a ball of a time. It’s fun seeing a big-budget action film with giant robots fighting giant monsters in a huge city (Tokyo, in this case). At one point one of the robots (though I’ve already forgotten which) uses some gravity weapon to bring down skyscrapers on a Kaiju, and I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. In order to get to that awesome final sequence, you have to sit through what basically amounts to 90 minutes of dull dialogue and lazy lore. Is it worth it? I say no. Wait until the final action sequence hits YouTube in a few months, and just watch it there. Otherwise, don’t bother with this garbage.