Here’s the first full trailer (in glorious HD) for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, an inspired mash-up of special effects-heavy, live-action kaiju (monsters like Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, etc.) movies and the piloted mecha epics (see Neon Genesis Evangelion) responsible for much of the success of anime here in North America.  In this special effects-heavy trailer scenes of the destruction rained down on San Francisco, Manila, and Cabo by the giant kaiju critters are interspersed with humanity’s response, the creation of giant piloted robots to battle the monsters (“Go Big or Go Extinct”).
 
Debuting nationwide on July 12th, Pacific Rim is actually one of the most original (and riskiest) of this summer’s big “tentpole” releases.  It is one of the few summer of 2013 movies that is not a sequel or a spin-off.  The question is will it be the start of a new franchise?  With the buzz beginning to build for Pacific Rim, there has been a stream of licensed products announced including a prequel graphic novel from Legendary Comics (see 'Legendary Touts Deals With Del Toro & Morrison"), games from WizKids (see "More WizKids Licensed Games"), plus trading cards from Cryptozoic, action figures from NECA, and books from Titan Books (see "'Pacific Rim,' 'Jurassic Park,' 'Adventure Time, Monsuno'").