2. Flat Characters (Mostly)
The primary reason why the downtime seems so dull and also why the performances aren't anything to shout home about is because del Toro's script doesn't really give them anything to do. While the surrogate father-daughter relationship between Elba's Penecost and Kikuchi's Mako hits a few emotional notes, largely the characters are just thinly-drawn across the board. While few will expect strong characterisation in a film so keenly committed to wanton destruction, it's amusing that so many are keen to distinguish it from Michael Bay's Transformers movies when they also suffer with the very same problem. There's just nothing memorable about most of the people who pilot these vehicles, and given how loud and colourful the stylistic elements are, it's a real shame.