Netflix’s Pacific Rim Sequel Is So Good, It Makes Pacific Rim: Uprising Even Worse

by

I immediately fell in love with Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim when it came out in the summer of 2013, and so did many other teenagers who loved monster movies. While the story itself is pretty standard sci-fi – it uses familiar ideas from countless other films – del Toro’s incredible visual style transformed it into something special and thrilling.

The world of Pacific Rim – a post-apocalyptic landscape overrun by massive creatures called kaiju, where humanity fights back with giant robots – seemed ripe for a huge franchise. While the first movie received good reviews and earned a lot of money, it hasn’t really taken off. A TV show prequel is stalled, and the 2018 sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, didn’t live up to expectations.

The first Pacific Rim film excelled in showing the massive scale of the battles between humans and kaiju, but the sequel, Uprising, failed to capture that same sense of epic size – it felt like the fights were happening on a small set. While Guillermo del Toro’s original movie had visually interesting and varied cinematography, Uprising relied on standard techniques and lacked visual flair.

The animated series Pacific Rim: The Black is a surprisingly strong follow-up to the original Pacific Rim films, and makes the previous sequel, Uprising, look even less impressive. Released on Netflix in 2021, the show successfully captures the visual style and thrilling action of Guillermo del Toro’s first movie. After two seasons, many fans consider it the sequel the Pacific Rim franchise always needed.

Pacific Rim: The Black Is The Sequel Pacific Rim Deserved

Pacific Rim: The Black takes place in the world of the Pacific Rim movies, but tells a brand new story. The show follows two teenage siblings whose parents disappear while battling giant monsters called kaiju. They find an old training robot, called a Jaeger, and set off on a journey to find them. Many viewers feel this series delivers the sequel that Uprising failed to be. The story focuses more on the characters and their feelings, making it even more compelling than Guillermo del Toro’s first film, and a significant improvement over Uprising.

A major weakness of Uprising is that it lost the rough, realistic feel of the first Pacific Rim movie. The original film had a gritty, worn-down look, similar to Alien or Star Wars, creating a sense of a society that had crumbled and was struggling to survive in makeshift settlements while hiding from invading creatures. It was a dark and desperate world, full of rainy nights and bleak days. Uprising, however, felt too polished and clean, with many of its battles taking place in bright daylight. The Black successfully recaptures that gritty atmosphere, along with offering diverse visuals and a grand scale.

One potential drawback of Pacific Rim: The Black is that it doesn’t have the same sense of humor as the original Pacific Rim movie. Director Guillermo del Toro is often known for darker, more serious films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone, but Pacific Rim was his fun, large-scale attempt at a crowd-pleasing sci-fi action film, filled with memorable jokes and funny lines – like Idris Elba’s iconic delivery of “We are cancellin’ the apocalypse.” While Pacific Rim: The Black might lack that comedic element, it still delivers everything else that made the first Pacific Rim so enjoyable.

Read More

2026-05-31 00:38