"Frankly, I'd rather not ever feel like a child again. Nostalgia is grossly overrated, and childhood sucks—the reason you felt everything so strongly as a child was because you were ignorant. Why would you want to fetishize a film just because it reminded you of a time when you had no experiences?"

Can't say I disagree but goddamn that was brutal. And first thing in the morning. Damn.

Hooray! Charlie Hunnam's job is to look like that, as far as I'm concerned. If he can act a little, fine, but I don't require it.

@1, to quote immortal trill bitch Solomon Georgio, "85% of my brain is for nostalgia, the remaining 15% is reserved for hating on new shit."

Answer: I was ignorant of all the bad things and bad experiences to come.

Seeing awful or traumatic things happen to characters in movies didn't affect me as strongly, seeing characters die didn't fill me with loss.

It was a time when I didn't know of all the future bad decisions I would make, health problems that would crop up, friends, relatives, and parents that would die, and innocence that would grow jaded.

Not every experience in my life has been bad, mind you. But when I was a child I was innocent of the really bad and the reallygood. And a rousing movie like, say, Star Wars or Aliens let me experience good things and sad things rather safely before I had the skills and experience to handle them in real life.

For a movie to transport me back to a time when I had not experienced holding the hand of a parent when they unexpectedly passed away would be a welcome thing.

There's something obviously appealing about that time of innocence and youth, when so many experiences were unknown and far away.

Do they ever explain why the monsters are attacking?

I'm going to disagree a bit -- I think we use "made me feel like a kid" and "made me feel like a child" to convey two different senses of childhood nostalgia. Feeling like a child is to feel small, powerless, confused, disrespected. Feeling like a kid is to feel the wonder and joy that we remember getting from our favorite childhood experiences.

Sure, some of that was based on ignorance (things are always more awesome the first time you encounter a thing of that type) and immaturity (some things only seem awesome when you're a kid and more tolerant of junk like plot holes and really predictable story arcs). But feeling like a kid means you get to experience that same joy and wonder, even as a jaded and critical adult.

Which is awesome, actually. So I'm pretty hyped about this movie.

@4 they explained that in Neon Genesis Evangelion in the original Japanese and German versions.

For an alternate view, check out Cartoon Network - they have a current show that goes into more depth in terms of the underpinning, and there are manga on this subject. You get more from the original Japanese versions, however, they tend to cut it out of the English versions, because it's too dark and moody for Americans. Shows sometime like 2 am Sunday morning - but if you have On Demand you can just play it - forget the exact name of the show.

@5,6:

Supercar was just slightly before my time. But, I will say, one of my prized childhood possessions was my "Fireball XL-5" lunchbox, which I used until I was about 12, at which point I switched to an oh-so-more sophisticated "Laugh-In" lunchbox.

And I have to admit, I set the bar really low for this movie - Paul's review definitely has me re-assessing that position.

@9: Yeah, this is pretty much a live-action/CG Evangelion rip-off, storywise, but I haven't seen this one, so I don't know if it ends with the howling existential chaos of the Evangelion TV series or something a little less convoluted.

@11 to call this an "Evangelion rip off" shows a serious misunderstanding of what Evangelion was and a serious ignorance of the genre as a whole.

@Everybody There are no original stories any more, and haven't been for thousands of years. Just because Evangelion was the first thing you ever watched doesn't mean it's the first time that story was ever told.

@4 Yes, they do explain where the monsters in this movie come from (and it's not the same as Evangelion), but it's a major plot point (the only one, really) so I can't spoil it here.

Maybe I'm getting old and jaded. I want to like this movie. But I just snickered and rolled my eyes at all the absurdities in the trailer. I am generally fond of sci-fi and fantasy movies, but this one just looks too silly.

So.... if you were to describe Pacific Rim in a word, would that word be "genre"?

I love giant monsters and I'm 52 years old. I never stopped loving them. I cant stand the idea of people who think of giant monsters as "kid's stuff". If a giant monster crushes
someone, it doesn't care if its a kid or an old lady. I would highly recommend that all
you "mature" people start showing some respect for giant monsters. I hope that while
your watching some dreadfully boring , hokey mummy movie from 1932 in an arthouse
cinema, a giant monster steps on that theater and while your struggling to free yourselves
from being stuck between it's toes, you realize that giant monsters are NOT childsplay.
They are dangerous, toxic, and deadly.