Summary

• Pacific Rim's sense of scale and weight in giant robot battles sets it apart from the disappointing sequel, Uprising.
• Director Guillermo del Toro's cinematography tricks and attention to detail elevated the original Pacific Rim's cinematic experience.
• The challenge of capturing scale and weight in monster movies extends beyond Pacific Rim, seen in other franchises like Godzilla and Transformers.

Pacific Rim: Uprising was a disappointing sequel to Pacific Rim, and one key difference is what makes the Guillermo del Toro version fantastic and the sequel not nearly as good. Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim franchise 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 sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising moved 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 original Pacific Rim movie.

Pacific Rim: Uprising was a downgrade when compared to the original Pacific Rim in 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 to Guillermo del Toro's unmade Pacific Rim sequel getting 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.

Pacific Rim’s Sense Of Scale Is Much Better Than The One In Uprising

Uprising Is Missing The Original's Cinematography Trick

Although both Pacific Rim movies focus on giant robots fighting Kaiju, the sense of scale is much better in the original Pacific Rim than in Pacific Rim: Uprising. In the original film, a lot of care was put into making the Pacific Rim's Jaegers and Kaiju feel grounded. One of the most important ways that this was achieved was by putting the camera in places that it could realistically be. The camera was often on the ground or a rooftop, and when they did need to do aerial shots, Pacific Rim made it seem as if the camera was on a helicopter.

Sadly, Pacific Rim: Uprising threw 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 in Pacific Rim: Uprising being 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’s Jaegers & Kaiju Had Weight (& That’s What Uprising Was Missing)

They Don't Feel As Heavy

Another thing that contributed to the Jaegers and Kaiju feeling real in the original Pacific Rim is that they had weight. However, Pacific Rim: Uprising was 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 in Pacific Rim: Uprising feel so strange, as everything in the movie moves far too quickly.

In Pacific 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 in Pacific Rim: Uprising feels like it should be for the Transformers in the Michael Bay movies, not for Jaegers in del Toro's Pacific Rim. The lack of weight in Pacific Rim: Uprising combined 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.

Getting The Sense Of Scale Right Is A Big Challenge For Giant Monster Movies

The MonsterVerse Struggles With This Too

Pacific Rim: Uprising isn'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 first Transformers movie, Cloverfield, and the 2014 Godzilla film all 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 2014 Godzilla film. Having slow-moving monsters clashes with the later films' speed, which is most likely why the MonsterVerse monsters don't feel as tall or slow anymore. When comparing something like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to 2014's Godzilla, a lot of parallels can be found to Pacific Rim: Uprising and Guillermo del Toro's original Pacific Rim.