Y'all will think I'm crazy, but that's normal.
TL;DR version: It was alright. The monster fights were boring after about 3 minutes into each one. The robots were cool, but again, boring after 3 minutes. Character development was severely lacking and I didn't care about anyone. However, I did love the world building they did when Charlie (I can't think of him as anything else) went running into the city and Ron Perlman's character was amazing. I was fine with watching it, I probably won't watch it again. Oh and it's damn long.
Crazy version:
This movie was being bandied about in the sci-fi circles as some sort of honest portrayal of a fully fleshed female character not reliant upon a man and lacking a romance so yay feminism or yay step in right direction.
*record screech*
What? Did I watch a different movie or something? Sure, she could fight, but her agency was completely controlled by men. She wasn't going to be allowed to fight by her daddy figure, until her romantic figure stepped into to convince daddy that their drift connection was totally worth it and she could do it. She didn't get there on her own merit or skills. And she never went through the journey and got herself there on her own, he was there every step of the way helping her. It wasn't her journey alone, they were definitely together (which I have no issue with really, but recognize that, not some cockamamy, he's her messenger BS). And exactly how, when an assumed straight man says to an assumed straight woman, "I never thought about the future until now. I've always had bad timing" supposed to be taken? As a matter of fact, anyone saying that to another person, I would assume was a romantic inclination, no matter anyone's gender/sexual identity/sexual orientation.
Oh and set in Hong Kong, she was the only damn Asian with any sort of lines in the movie and just happened to look like a damned anime character. So she didn't get naked and the dude took his shirt off. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the eye candy, but don't pretend that just b/c she didn't take her shirt off and he did, we've achieved some sort of equality in this movie. Side tracked: speaking of her lines, jesus, could she not talk or something? She spoke broken English (after being raised by a British sounding soldier from the age of let's say 5"), when she got frustrated she slipped into her native tongue (I think it was Japanese, but I'm not sure) and she mostly just emoted with quivering red eyes and quivering lips.
Guillermo del Toro really failed on the story telling here, IMHO. He always does the monsters well, but his monsters were usually interesting and made you question the definition of monster. He almost always has great characters that stand up well with or without special effects. This movie was not that. Real Steel did robots and characters better.