I'm excited for Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, the 2013 sci-fi film featuring giant robots fighting giant monsters. I watched a lot of that stuff as a kid, it's all nostalgic fun. So I should be more excited by this viral teaser trailer of found footage.

But in this age in which so man people walk around carrying iPhones or digital cameras that shoot HD video, I no longer have patience for the type of super shaky handheld footage that is used in movies built around found footage, especially when it's used as a tactic to avoid having to more clearly render a digital monster. It's a crutch that no longer feels credible.

In a city like San Francisco, the tech capitol of the world, if a monster destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, YouTube would be hosting high-def footage from dozens of citizens in no-time, and with the iPhone's video stabilization and HD quality, it would be very sharp and watchable, albeit perhaps shrouded in some bizarre nostalgia filter or obscured by the occasional finger in one corner.

This is just a viral video, so they may be rigging this to maintain suspense, but in this day and age it stands out. It reminds me of another movie crutch, the use of the old school answering machines so that the audience can hear a voicemail being left or played back. It's usually a way to transmit information to the audience but keep information from a character (because they're one of the few people who still doesn't carry a cell phone in 2012). Given the lousy cell phone coverage today, I far prefer calls that can't be completed because of poor cell coverage. That's at least plausible.

By the time Pacific Rim comes out, I expect some viral videos will feature footage from a GoPro suction-cupped to the head of one of the monsters.