I just saw a preview for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, the giant robots vs monsters movie. It’s definitely the theater I attended, the picture and audio was not good. Perhaps one of the projections was slightly off, but it made the 3-D worst (one of the worst 3-D experience I had).

Even with the technical difficulties, I found it hard to actually enjoy the film. Let me point out the good stuff first, I am of fan of Japanese giant mechas (Gundam, Robotech, Voltron, etc), and I like the visual look of giant monsters (Godzilla, Gamera). I thought the different country’s mechas (the Siberian robot looked very tank-like) and the Ron Perlman character (Hannibal Chow), but neither of those things get a lot of face time.

Now for the bad: semi-predictable story of a has-been “robot jox” pilot who return to save the day against the invading Kaiju monsters. The cheesy dialogues, the science (did that two-person pilot system made sense to anyone?) and the over-the-top characters (the “buddy” scientists) â€¦ Is this a sci-fi movie or a comedy? Because when you have characters being kooky or funny, suddenly I cannot accept the truly serious danger the pilots are in.

One thing that everyone would agree on is that it’s visually fun to watch. I think if you are a child, this may be the most amazing thing you’ll ever see.

Pacific Rim opens up in wide release, next, next Friday, July 12, 2013, via Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.