The gloves are coming off, and directors Guillermo del Toro and Michael Bay are having a war of words over their robot movies. Bay basically came out and said that there have been a few "rip-off" robot movies after Transformers came out, and said that audiences should know better. He didn't specifically name anything, but we can easily point to movies like Battleship and Real Steel. Of course, everyone wondered if Bay was also talking about the upcoming epic sci-fi movie Pacific Rim.
Del Toro was asked about it in an interview with THR and replied,
We are far, far, far away from that in a very willing fashion. For good or bad, this is my movie. This is my universe and my creation, and I do not create through comparison.
He then went on to take a jab at Bay's Transformers movies saying,
The fights [in Pacific Rim] don't occur in well-lit, supercool, car commercial-looking environments. They occur in the middle of a raging sea storm or in a savage snowstorm. They happen in a universe that is incredibly saturated. And to some degree, the source of all artificial life is Frankenstein.
Then Del Toro landed a crushing blow when he said his robots could "crush every other robot in the history of mankind in a toe-to-toe showdown."
I have no idea whether Bay was referring to Pacific Rim or not, but he's right to say that the audiences should know better. As an audience member and fan, Pacific Rim looks a hell of a lot better than Bay's silly Transformers movies. I think the majority of the general audience for the film will agree.
I know most of the movie geeks out there are going to side with Del Toro on this one. If you don't agree, let us know why.