The film has everything an epic robot action film needs: robots, an enemy to fight, kick-ass heroes and excellent visual effects. What it lacks however is an original story, character development, realistic dialogue and the desire for a sequel.
Let's start with the story. There really is nothing new or interesting here. The film is basically about aliens attacking earth (seen that before), humans working with giant robots (Michael Bay's got that sorted) and trying to save the earth (I wonder if they'll succeed?). It's not that I don't expect plot points to be borrowed across the board, it's just that I expect a new spin on them. I went into the film expecting something interesting, fresh, different, because that's what critics have been writing about it. I was disappointed to find a film that didn't offer anything new, and instead missed out on some opportunities to flesh the story out and create intrigue and suspense.
The film's biggest flaw lies in its lack of character development. Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Beckett and Rinko Kikuchi's Mako Mori have very simple back stories that give us some kind of insight into their personalities but not enough to create a link between the audience and their protagonists. At some point near the end of the film I wasn't sure whether or not our heroes would make it, and I realized that I didn't really care. I never really got to know them. Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost was probably the most intriguing character, but this had more to do with Elba's talents as an actor than with his role in the story. There are two actors in the film playing father and son duo Herc and Chuck Hansen. Max Martini is from The US, and Robert Kazinski is from England. Both play Australians. I have no problem with actors playing characters from different countries, but please, please make sure you get the accent right.
That brings me onto the dialogue. The film goes out of its way to not be a typical American blockbuster and then it falls into its own trap. There is of course the classic line "today we're canceling the Apocalypse," as seen in the trailer, and unfortunately it doesn't stop there. One of the reasons we don't get character development is because 90% of the dialogue is exposition, making it impossible to move beyond the very linear structure of the plot.
The marketing campaign of this film has to be one of the worst I've seen in a long time. The trailers offered nothing about characters, relying on the robots and special effects to be the selling point. It didn't work. The marketing team ended up having to release a final trailer that showed the characters more. Except it didn't really add anything. As I watched the film I realized that it's because there was nothing to add. What you see in the trailer is what you get.
I can't end on a bad note though. As disappointing as the film is there are some positives. The visual effects are incredible, visually it's a stunning film. The varying ethnicities amongst the characters is refreshing for a blockbuster, even though some of the accents are a little suspect. And then there's the...the, okay I'm out of ideas. It's got giant robots though and it seems, for some, that's all a film needs.
