I've seen quite a bit of negativity on social media that seems to revolve around peoples expectations of the "old robot wars"

I see the comparison is similar to judging a renamed modern film such as " Italian Job " its not the same because its a remake. If you treat it as a modern film that was called the "Italian job" without expectation, it does meet all the requirements of a good movie.

Seems to me its a good start so far, with potentially bigger better and stronger robots yet to come.