So there's a new Pacific Rim trailer out. It's not a whole lot different from the last one that was released, and, like the last one, it leaves me with one big suspension-of-disbelief problem.
I can't say I'm a student of the whole Gundam/Jaeger/Voltron school of big bad-ass mechanical suits, but every time I see the scene — that's been in both trailers — in which two side-by-side soldiers operate the legs of the fighting machine by running in place, I have to ask, why would any defense contractor build a weapon that would requite more than one independent-thinking individual to operate it? I know that there's some kind of neural piloting system called "pons" that keeps everyone in the Jaeger operating as one, but, I mean, those soldiers look pretty strapped in place. What if one of them gets a cramp?
It looks like Guillermo Del Toro is going for a Real Steel meets Fritz Lang's Metropolis by way of Michael Bay's Transformers-type vibe, but I keep thinking that, on a logical level, operating one of these Jaegers would be a coordination nightmare, particularly in the heat of battle. And if I had Idris Elba yelling in my earpiece all day, I'd have an even bigger problem staying in sync.
Also, if you look at this Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) video, the future of robotic warfare looks like the only humans required will be those operating the remote controls. (That AlphaDog just won't go down.) Why make it more complicated than that?
I'm betting that some Pacific Rim super fan out there will have answers to my questions and restore logic and balance to my world. Leave them in the comments section below.
Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.