Yeah, Wes, I agree. If you go into understanding that it's a tribute to old-school kaiju films you probably won't be disappointed. The whole point is to go watch big robots slug it out with big monsters across sprawling cityscapes. Everything else is there to (barley) provide a story and motive for the fights to take place.

The two main things Del Toro improved upon were special effects, and musical score. (Not that the latter was a big deal, it's just hard not to have a better soundtrack than those 60's movies.

A lot of the draw of the older ones is how cheesy the special effects are, so you either get this film or you don't. The cheesiness is still there, but not in the same way. It will still probably come across as trying too hard to be serious for some people.