>>23589371
>>23589489
The film's visual design is a big part of this too. It's not directly aping Japanese mecha design to the point of coming off as a pastiche, but it avoids the worst Hollywood robot habits of greebling the everloving fuck out of everything to make it look 'practical' without any actual thought on how the shape comes across or the eye skims along it. The elements that are intended to imply function complement the form instead of betraying it.
ILM and Weta both did absolutely incredible work on the film bringing the aesthetic to life too, which helps a lot.