Other Robot Shows

[Mako Crab]

Ron Perlman plays a minor supporting character, that doesn't even show up until an hour or more into it. And even then, his screentime is limited to maybe 15 minutes tops - and he shares all that screentime with the other actors.

And for the record, this movie is so much better than EVA could ever hope to be.

[Almighty Unicron]

often times he acts like a crazy,OCD,pumped up,over macho lunatic,with a Superiority complex.

[Onslaught Six]

Ron Perlman plays a minor supporting character, that doesn't even show up until an hour or more into it. And even then, his screentime is limited to maybe 15 minutes tops - and he shares all that screentime with the other actors.

And for the record, this movie is so much better than EVA could ever hope to be.

This; he's got what amounts to a cameo appearance. Honestly, you could pretty much cut him out of the movie entirely and lose next to nothing; his appearance there feels very superficial. Not that he isn't funny and awesome in his appearance, but yeah. Dude's in maybe a ten minute stretch of film, and not even in every scene in that.

Anyway, regarding Pacific Rim/Evangelion: Del Taco hasn't seen Evangelion, period. So that should shoot any of those arguments right in the dick.

I dunno, something's still not doing it for me about Pacific Rim. I think it's just too...straightforward? I keep waiting for the hook, like "It's giant robots punching monsters...and?" That can't be all there is to it, it CAN'T just be generic giant robots punching generic giant lizard-monsters for two hours, I've seen that sort of thing millions of times. Just last week I saw a mechanical plesiosaur turn into a spaceship, fly into space, then turn into a humanoid robot to rocket-punch a comet monster. So it's like, what in the hell is so special about Pacific Rim that it's getting so goddamn hyped?

Okay, you say you see that kind of thing "all the time," but the mainstream American audience doesn't and when they do, it's never done this well. Pacific Rim's success isn't just that it does what all those other shows do, it's doing what other American movies fucking don't. Every character is important. No plot thread is randomly dropped. The main character isn't spouting off American jingoisms every ten minutes and bleeding red, white and blue--he's an actual character and he isn't about to just beat the shit out of everybody to solve his problems. He only has one physical fight with another Jaeger pilot and it's not because the other guy's an asshole--it's because he starts insulting the Asian copilot lady.

Let me put it this way: Nobody in this film says "HOOAH!" and that's a fucking accomplishment after the Transformers movies. Del Taco specifically said that he was avoiding "car commercial, army recruitment aesthetics" when he designed the movie, and if that doesn't sound like a dickslap in Michael Bay's face then you aren't looking hard enough.

The major female character isn't just there to look sexy--in fact, in the movie she is never sexualized at all, and there are absolutely no bullshit romantic subplots through the entire movie, something that the otherwise perfectly good Marvel action films fail at. Her relationship with the main character can be described as platonic at best--they are copilots, not lovers, and her relationship with Idris Elba can only be described as "surrogate father" (spoilers). If anyone is sexualized in this movie, it's the main dude, who we see shirtless more often than we see the chick shirtless. (I seriously don't think we see her with less than a tanktop and shorts the entire movie.)

If it sounds like I'm harping on those points, it's because they need to be harped on--it's a movie that doesn't fuck around with trying to suck you in with bullshit fringe crap that you don't give a single shit about. It's a movie about dudes who pilot giant robots and fight monsters. And while you might be saying "And?" I'm saying "Fucking finally." It felt good to walk out of a theater having just seen a giant robot movie and not feel like I was insulted. I didn't have to deal with any drug jokes, masturbation jokes, racism, homophobia, or sexism, and I didn't walk out feeling like I was just told for two hours to buy a Camaro or join the fucking Marines. That's why people are going on and on about this movie.

[Mako Crab]

If it sounds like I'm harping on those points, it's because they need to be harped on--it's a movie that doesn't fuck around with trying to suck you in with bullshit fringe crap that you don't give a single shit about. It's a movie about dudes who pilot giant robots and fight monsters. And while you might be saying "And?" I'm saying "Fucking finally." It felt good to walk out of a theater having just seen a giant robot movie and not feel like I was insulted. I didn't have to deal with any drug jokes, masturbation jokes, racism, homophobia, or sexism, and I didn't walk out feeling like I was just told for two hours to buy a Camaro or join the fucking Marines. That's why people are going on and on about this movie.

I'm snipping your post, but everything you said was right on the mark. This is a feel-good movie in the purest sense.