Home

The 20 best robot flicks ever

12.10.11

I was never a violent person.</p><p> But I became a crazed and blood-thirsty battler the day I unwrapped my first Rock&#x92;em Sock&#x92;em Robots game.</p><p> The popular boxing game was introduced by Mattel in 1964, and I was introduced to it shortly thereafter. I continued to play that game until I finally outgrew it, which was about two weeks ago.</p><p> In case you lived a deprived childhood, it was a two-person game, in which each player controlled a robotic boxer with primitive plastic controls. One boxer was red, and the other was blue, and each player kept throwing punches until one robot boxer&#x92;s head sprung from its body like a cuckoo. The knockout made a mechanical clicking sound, as did the movement of the head back into the body for round two.</p><p> I suppose that Rock&#x92;em Sock&#x92;em Robots served the same purpose as Valium. It relieved a lot of stress.</p><p> You&#x92;re probably wondering why I&#x92;ve brought up this childhood game, but you&#x92;ll understand when and if you see the new Hugh Jackman film &#x93;Real Steel.&#x94;</p><p> Directed by Shawn Levy (&#x93;Night of the Museum&#x94; and &#x93;Date Night&#x94;), the movie does not hide its &#x93;Rocky&#x94; roots as it tells the inspirational story of a former boxer of questionable character who finds redemption by training boxing robots. The movie takes place in the near future when boxing is turned over to robots, presumably for humanitarian reasons, although money probably had something to do with it.</p><p> It is almost impossible to watch this movie and not reminisce about Rock&#x92;em Sock&#x92;em Robots. But it goes beyond that. It also serves as reminder of a certain movie genre that doesn&#x92;t always get its due &#x97; robot movies.</p><p> With the tremendous success of this summer&#x92;s &#x93;Transformers 3,&#x94; and the excitement building among sci-fi geeks over the July 3, 2012, opening of Steven Spielberg&#x92;s futuristic &#x93;Robopocalypse,&#x94; there is a buzz surrounding robot movies.</p><p> I am not sure when my love of robot movies began, but I suspect it might have been seeing the 1951 classic &#x93;The Day the Earth Stood Still&#x94; on TV. One of the most intelligent sci-fi movies ever made, it starred Michael Rennie as an alien diplomat who lands in Washington, D.C., with his robot Gort to threaten our planet if we don&#x92;t heed his warnings about our militaristic ways.</p><p> &#x93;Real Steel&#x92;s&#x94; Levy also loved robot movies when he was growing up (like most young men in his age group &#x97; he&#x92;s 42 &#x97; he fell in love with R2-D2 in &#x93;Star Wars&#x94;), and he has a theory as to why so many people share that love.</p><p> &#x93;I believe it has to do with wish fulfillment,&#x94; the director explained. &#x93;Robots look like us. They move like us. And they&#x92;re shaped like us. But, unlike us, they cannot be hurt. On some level, I think that is the human fantasy to have all the attributes of being human without the weaknesses. Robots can&#x92;t be destroyed, and I think we all admire that.&#x94;</p><p> Here are the best robot movies ever made, according to our international panel of distinguished robotologists (me):</p><p> <span class="bold">1. &#x93;Terminator 2: Judgment Day&#x94;</span> (1991): The liquid metal of the T-1000 was movie magic.</p><p> <span class="bold">2. &#x93;WALL-E&#x94;</span> (2008): Pixar Animation has never been better than in this Oscar-winning film with an environmental message.</p><p> <span class="bold">3. &#x93;The Day the Earth Stood Still&#x94;</span> (1951): As you go through life, never forget the words: &#x93;Klaatu barada nikto.&#x94;</p><p> <span class="bold">4. &#x93;Star Wars&#x94;</span> (1977): R2-D2 and C-3PO are OGs among robot lovers.</p><p> <span class="bold">5. &#x93;Westworld&#x94;</span> (1973): Bad wiring ruins a perfect cowboy vacation.</p><p> <span class="bold">6. &#x93;Robocop&#x94;</span> (1987): Detroit looks even more bleak than usual.</p><p> <span class="bold">7. &#x93;The Iron Giant&#x94;</span> (1999): Brad Bird wrote and directed this animated masterpiece.</p><p> <span class="bold"> 8. &#x93;Transformers 3&#x94;</span> (2011): Easily the highlight of the trilogy, and the best action movie of the summer.</p><p> <span class="bold">9. &#x93;The Terminator&#x94;</span> (1984): This was back when the people of California still liked him enough to like him as a machine.</p><p> <span class="bold">10. &#x93;Blade Runner&#x94;</span> (1982): Harrison Ford fights hot robots in the future.</p><p> <span class="bold">11. &#x93;Star Trek: Generations&#x94;</span> (1994): Who wouldn&#x92;t want Data as a study partner?</p><p> <span class="bold">12. &#x93;Forbidden Planet&#x94;</span> (1956): Shakespeare&#x92;s &#x93;The Tempest&#x94; never looked this cool.</p><p> <span class="bold">13. &#x93;Short Circuit&#x94;</span> (1986): Not up to director John Badham&#x92;s usual standards, but still a favorite of a certain age group.</p><p> <span class="bold">14. &#x93;A.I. Artificial Intelligence&#x94;</span> (2001): Haley Joel Osment sees live people.</p><p> <span class="bold">15. &#x93;Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines&#x94;</span> (2003): Machines gone wild.</p><p> <span class="bold">16. &#x93;I, Robot&#x94; </span>(2004): The Fresh Prince fights the powers-that-be in a film very loosely based on an Isaac Asimov collection of short stories.</p><p> <span class="bold">17. &#x93;Metropolis&#x94;</span> (1927): Director Fritz Lang&#x92;s classic was the first major film to feature robots. (Catch it at 9:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Tivoli Cinemas in Westport.)</p><p> <span class="bold">18. &#x93;The Stepford Wives&#x94;</span> (1975): Katharine Ross may have been worth it.</p><p> <span class="bold">19. &#x93;Alien&#x94;</span> (1979): The monster bursting out of the chest was only the first surprise.</p><p> <span class="bold">20. &#x93;Sleeper&#x94;</span> (1973): It is not possible to look at Woody Allen dressed as a robot and not laugh.

Source: Kansas City Star