This whole film is very formulaic. It sticks to stuff thats been done hundreds of times before and it suffers because of that. Theres no real originality with the plot and it just makes the whole thing pretty bland. We all knew that the Mako was going to become a pilot. We all knew that, as soon as the old Australian went out of commission, the Commanding Officer was going to help pilot the Jaeger. We all knew theyd sacrifice themselves to plant the bomb. Again, I could go on. When you can pretty much guess everything thats going to happen in the films plot, its not a good sign. Some would call it a pretty bad sign. Some would call it just awful. Nobodys asking for Inception levels of originality but wed at least like something a bit less obviously cliché. Of course, theres a common argument that has sprung up when others have criticised this. Its all on purpose, Del Toro is paying tribute to action blockbusters and cliché stuff is all part of that! This excuse doesnt really pass with me. Just because a plot is predictable on purpose doesnt make the predictability a good thing, its still bad. If this film had been done by, say, Michael Bay, then thered be a lot of critics absolutely panning the lacklustre storyline, regardless of how good the action is. Del Toro seems to get a free pass just because hes acknowledged to be a good director and it doesnt really make any sense to me. Whats worse is that hes held in high regard for it, with people actively praising how good he is at regurgitating old formulas.