Another trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim has been released, just in case you’re not already on board. The thing is, there’s not a whole lot that’s different about this new spot and the WonderConone we saw at the end of last month. You’ve got giant monsters battling giant robots in the sea and on land. You’ve got Idris Elba doing his best audition for the next rousing speeches supercut. You’ve got the tagline telling us to “Go Big or Go Extinct.” And you’ve got little bits (littler this time) of the likely comic relief characters played by Charlie Day and Ron Perlman.
Honestly, I’d like to see more of the character stuff. Or something else besides big creatures and the kind of action that could just as easily sell a Michael Bay movie. At least the previous trailer hinted at some themes involving the humanity inside the robots. That which make them different from the monsters in spite of them initially being noted for their equal measure – big bad weapons of defense to go up against big bad weapons of offense. Knowing Del Toro, the big ideas are probably there, but of course that stuff doesn’t sell a movie to most people the way explosions and fighting behemoths do.
Personally, I need more assurance, especially after the “fun” but dumb summer movies we’ve gotten as of yet this year in only a matter of weeks. I’m just not sold yet and maybe I won’t be until I just see it, because I’ve never been a member of the Del Toro fanbase and to me this just looks like dark, mindless fluff no better than Robot Jox meets Battleship. Please feel free to point out what I’m missing after watching below. Let’s form a mind-meld like the one in the movie so I can undertand.