'Atlantic Rim: Resurrection,' The Knock-Off Version Of 'Pacific Rim Uprising,' Is Already Out

With every blockbuster movie, there is always a low-budget knock-off version waiting on-demand to confuse your elderly relatives. The victim this time around: Pacific Rim Uprising. The culprit? The people behind the Sharknado movies.

The low-budget production company The Asylum isn't even waiting until the Pacific Rim sequel hits theaters to release their similarly titled copycat, Atlantic Rim: Resurrection. It's everything you love about Pacific Rim (aliens, robots, spunky robot pilots!) but without everything that made Pacific Rim good. In other words, a perfect movie to drunkenly watch on a Friday night.

Who knew that the business of knock-off movies that barely skirt copyright infringement was so lucrative? The Asylum did. The production company behind low-budget fare like Paranormal Entity and Snakes on a Train has made a killing off of confusing people who are bad with movie names — or people who genuinely enjoy B-movie schlock — releasing more than 100 "mockbusters" since 1999.

And their latest release is no different. In fact, it's a sequel to the first Pacific Rim knock-off they produced on a dime, 2012's Atlantic Rim. Now Atlantic Rim: Resurrection is available digitally, before Pacific Rim Uprising hits theaters in March.

I, for one, love how shockingly low-budget the mech pilot set-ups are. That's literally a fancy office chair with a seat belt and an elaborate contraption built for the eye. Everything else in the trailer pretty much fills in the check-boxes for an Asylum production: aliens that look like they were whipped up in 5 minutes on After Effects, women in low-cut tops screaming, and hilariously wooden acting.

It really makes you appreciate the trailer for Pacific Rim Uprising. I haven't been as keen on Steven S. DeKnight's sequel as I was for Guillermo del Toro's love letter to mecha anime, but John Boyega really does wonders for the movie. Hey, maybe that was Asylum's intention all along: appreciate the blockbusters you have. Because one day, you may type in the wrong title while searching for an on-demand movies and end up watching Atlantic Rim instead.

Atlantic Rim: Resurrection is out today. Pacific Rim Uprising hits theaters on March 23, 2018.