Summary
Pacific Rim: Uprisingwas a disappointing sequel toPacific Rim, and one key difference is what makes the Guillermo del Toro version fantastic and the sequel not nearly as good. Guillermo del Toro’sPacific Rimfranchise featured one of the most exciting films to be released by the acclaimed director, with it promising to create a massive blockbuster series. However, when the sequelPacific Rim: Uprisingmoved forward without del Toro, it raised a giant red flag that was later proven true as the sequel missed one of the best creative choices from del Toro’s originalPacific Rimmovie.
Pacific Rim: Uprisingwas a downgradewhen compared to the originalPacific Rimin several ways.Pacific Rim: Uprising’s story and characters weren’t nearly as good as del Toro’s original, with the sequel feeling far more generic than its predecessor. A variety of behind-the-scenes factors led toGuillermo del Toro’s unmadePacific Rimsequelgetting shelved in favor of a del Toro-less replacement, and the lack of the director’s filmmaking talents can really be felt in one major area.
Every Pacific Rim Movie & TV Show, Ranked Worst To Best
The Pacific Rim series boasts two movies and an animated series made for Netflix. Between all three entries, one is the best in the Kaiju franchise.
Pacific Rim’s Sense Of Scale Is Much Better Than The One In Uprising
Uprising Is Missing The Original’s Cinematography Trick
Although bothPacific Rimmovies focus on giant robots fighting Kaiju,the sense of scale is much better in the originalPacific Rimthan inPacific Rim: Uprising.In the original film, a lot of care was put into making thePacific Rim’s Jaegers and Kaijufeel grounded. One of the most important ways that this was achieved was by putting the camera in places that it couldrealistically be. The camera was often on the ground or a rooftop, and when they did need to do aerial shots,Pacific Rimmade it seem as if the camera was on a helicopter.
Sadly,Pacific Rim: Uprisingthrew this cinematography trick out the window, with the shots instead being much more bland and traditional. The camera can often be seen flying around with the Jaegers and the Kaiju, with the digital shots losing the grounded feeling that was prevalent throughout the entirety of the original film. This led to the sense of scale inPacific Rim: Uprisingbeing completely thrown off, as instead of looking up at the giant robots and monsters, the camera was far back enough that they didn’t look colossal.
Pacific Rim Ending Explained
After giant Kaiju from another dimension attack Earth, the Jaeger program is formed to build giant robots to fight back before it’s too late.
They Don’t Feel As Heavy
Another thing that contributed to the Jaegers andKaiju feeling real in the originalPacific Rimis that they had weight. However,Pacific Rim: Uprisingwas missing this. In reality, larger things are perceived to move slower than smaller things. Because of this, our brains notice that something is off when a film shows a giant monster moving at the same speed that normal-sized humans would. This is why the action scenes inPacific Rim: Uprisingfeel so strange, aseverything in the movie moves far too quickly.
InPacific Rim,when a Jaeger throws a punch, it almost feels like the giant mech is moving in slow motion.This is because this is how a giant, immensely heavy machine would move. The motion inPacific Rim: Uprisingfeels like it should be for the Transformers in the Michael Bay movies, not for Jaegers in del Toro’sPacific Rim. The lack of weight inPacific Rim: Uprisingcombined with the poor sense of scale makes the sequel not feel nearly as big as the original movie, which is one of the main reasons why it isn’t as good as its predecessor.
Charlie Hunnam’s 1 Condition For Making Pacific Rim 3 Would Fix The Sequel’s Major Problem
Although Charlie Hunnam has recently expressed his interest in making another Pacific Rim movie, he’ll only do it under one very specific condition.
Getting The Sense Of Scale Right Is A Big Challenge For Giant Monster Movies
The MonsterVerse Struggles With This Too
Pacific Rim: Uprisingisn’t the only film that has had this problem, as getting the sense of scale right has always been a big challenge for monster movies. It was almost impossible to pull this visual trick off in the old stop-motion monster movies, but some more modern films have gotten it right.Michael Bay’s firstTransformersmovie,Cloverfield, and the 2014Godzillafilmall managed to give their giants weight and a sense of scale that actually worked.
However, even these franchises have struggled to pull off this trick in their later films. For example,later MonsterVerse movies have had a faster pace than the 2014Godzillafilm.Having slow-moving monsters clashes with the later films' speed, which is most likely why theMonsterVerse monsters don’t feel as tallor slow anymore. When comparing something likeGodzilla x Kong: The New Empireto 2014’sGodzilla, a lot of parallels can be found toPacific Rim: Uprisingand Guillermo del Toro’s originalPacific Rim.
Pacific Rim
Cast
In a post-apocalyptic future, Earth battles a deadly race of alien monsters called the Kaiju, who have begun arriving on the planet through an interdimensional portal in the Pacific Ocean. In an attempt to combat the Kaiju, humanity has created Jaegers, giant robot suits powered by at least two pilots that can match their enemy for size and strength. When the Kaiju begin to become too strong, however, a washed-up Jaeger pilot must return to the program to participate in one final mission to save Earth for good.
