Stompy Robot Time: Pacific Rim

[Srelex]

First trailer is up.

Well, it's got massive robots in it, so I'm sure as hell game.

[Stark]

The most desirable part of the film is how heaps of people will inevitably miss the point. :V

[Mr Bean]

Wait let me guess, it's the fact that watching giant stompy robots fight giant monsters is simply a good time?
Or do you mean the vague (insert message here) about the evils of (insert villainy of preference).

As Srelex said, it's got robots I'm game.

[General Zod]

Maybe it's just me but the way they're controlling the robots in there really reminds me of G Gundam. I'm already sold.

[Vendetta]

Y'know, if they do this right it will be as clever as people say Neon Genesis Evangelion is.

Of course, if they do it wrong it will be as silly as people say giant robits are.

But, y'know. Can't win em all.

[Stark]

There's a small chance it'll be as interesting as those dozens of other robit businesses that already exist. :V

Whatever the mix of action and plot, however, I'm not sure people will be happy.

[Galvatron]

Needs more Gary Graham.

[Stark]

It has Idris Elba, so it doesn't 'need' anything else. :V I mean a powerful and moving story with robits being a tool to retell age-old stories of man vs nature and man vs himself would be sweet too, but to be honest there's so many of those I'd die before I watched them all anywway.

And NONE of them have Idris Elba!

[Galvatron]

I have a snarky comment about how Idris Elba didn't save Prometheus, but I think Stark might verbally abuse me for it.

[Crossroads Inc.]

It has the voice of GLADOS in it... Ye Gods this is going to be so much fun...

[Guardsman Bass]

Jesus. It's got fucking GlaDOS as the computer voice, giant robots that look like WH40K Space Marines, and monsters from the sea. It's like 95% purity Geek-Crack, which means it could do very well, or flop like Dragon Wars or Suckerpunch.

[madd0ct0r]

I'm going with flop.

[phred]

I'm going with flop.

...But I'll go watch it anyway. It can't possibly be as bad as Dragon Wars.

[Terralthra]

Yeah, I was amused by GlaDOS's voice in the trailer too.

[FSTargetDrone]

The best part is the elbow-mounted rocket assisting the punch.

[khursed]

Looks like fun, whats the worst that can happen?

[hongi]

I...I think I'm in love.

Even Guillermo's worst movie, Hellboy 2, had great visuals and great ideas, even if he didn't pull it off very well. I've gone to watch shit movies with worse directors at the helm. So I'm definitely going to give this a chance.

[TithonusSyndrome]

I've never fully understood all the Guillermo-love; he's certainly good, but earlier on in his career his films were marred by fairly basic technical gaffes and nothing he's ever done has really blown me away, not even Pan's Labyrinth which I'm baffled to see people put in top 10 of the 00's lists. This trailer looks like the first thing he's ever done that I could get excited over, if only because I'm a daikaiju freak in withdrawal and I haven't been allowed to see any footage of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla teaser and Idris Elba please have my babies, et cetera. One thing I noticed right away was how the robots extremities seemed to sway and "jiggle" more with reaction force when making certain movements, which reminded me of how early in the development of Transformers ILM was trying to show the robots motions as being physically consistent with their size and mass before Michael Bay axed it in favor of more nimble-looking robots; I'm definitely more in favor of this movie's approach based on what I've seen, for what that's worth.

[TOSDOC]

My wife's already questioning having pilots for these mecha vs drone warfare. I just want to know what it's rated so I can take the kids. We love kaiju here.

[Vendetta]

If it lives up to what the trailer says about us "Creating monsters", it's because the story is actually about how these soldiers degenerate as human beings due to the stresses of the situation they're in and/or the massive power at their control.

Which I'm sure has probably been done with robits before, but not for the benefit of english speaking audiences so no-one noticed.

Otherwise it's just robits punching godzillas, and the pilots are because people like to have people in their stories.

[Terralthra]

My wife's already questioning having pilots for these mecha vs drone warfare. I just want to know what it's rated so I can take the kids. We love kaiju here.

The mecha are pretty obviously remote-piloted, just like drones are today.

[Vendetta]

My wife's already questioning having pilots for these mecha vs drone warfare. I just want to know what it's rated so I can take the kids. We love kaiju here.

The mecha are pretty obviously remote-piloted, just like drones are today.

No, the pilots are in the head. You can see the layouts with them included, Also here.

This apparently functions as an ejector mechanism as well, but it's pretty silly, given that it's one of the least armourable and protectable areas of a robit. On the other hand, there's a nuclear reactor in the chest, so possibly they wanted to put the pilot not near it.

[Terralthra]

My wife's already questioning having pilots for these mecha vs drone warfare. I just want to know what it's rated so I can take the kids. We love kaiju here.

The mecha are pretty obviously remote-piloted, just like drones are today.

No, the pilots are in the head. You can see the layouts with them included, Also here.

This apparently functions as an ejector mechanism as well, but it's pretty silly, given that it's one of the least armourable and protectable areas of a robit. On the other hand, there's a nuclear reactor in the chest, so possibly they wanted to put the pilot not near it.

Oh. Well, never mind then. That's pretty silly. I thought the two pilots being right next to each other meant they were piloting two mecha from afar, and that they were near each other implied they were remote-piloting because they were so close. My mistake.

[madd0ct0r]

I...I think I'm in love.

Even Guillermo's worst movie, Hellboy 2, had great visuals and great ideas

Oh, it's a Guillermo. I might actually check it out then. Hellboy 2 was actually fun, I was scared this was a 'Transformers' style thing.

[Alkaloid]

So yeah, I was intially sceptical about this, I assumed it was just a cash grab off an almost guaranteed audience, but then I was like, wait, what, Guillermo del Toro? Idris Elba? Rinko Kikuchi? These are like, legit film people. Then I heard how del Toro was deliberately not filming or converting to 3D because 3D would ruin any sense of perspective about how massive the robots and the kaiju are and would essentially have to reduce them to human scale to build any sort of depth, so it would ruin the movie. Then I heard it was being converted to 3D and del Toro would give any reason why "beyond I changed my mind" and my hopes plummeted.