With both WandaVision and The Mitchells vs. the Machines debuting this year, it seemed like a good time to take a look back at the movies that have entered the robot movie hall of fame.
12. RoboCop 2
One year later, Officer Alex Murphy is still patrolling Detroit and, as unlikely as it sounds, the city's streets have gotten even meaner thanks to the proliferation of the dangerously addictive drug nuke. When sociopathic kingpin Cain is seriously injured, he's drafted by mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products to replace Murphy by becoming the title character -- the bigger, newer version of their patented police cyborg.
11. The Creator
In the year 2070, U.S. Army Sergeant Joshua Taylor discovers that the "weapon of mass destruction" created by AI-friendly New Asia in their war with the United States has the body and outlook of a preteen girl. Defying orders, he declines to destroy "Alpha O" in the hopes that it'll lead him to his estranged wife, Maya, the daughter of legendary AI-developer, "Nirmata". His journey instead leads him to revelations that he never could've imagined to be true.
10. Real Steel
9. Robocop
When Detroit Police Officer Alex Murphy is killed in the line of duty, mega-corporation OCP use his remains, including his brain, for their new project. Now designated RoboCop and programmed to act in the interests of OCP, Murphy's brain retains memories from Murphy's life and compel him to continue to serve justice above all else -- including corporate directives. A remake was released in 2014 but that Robo-peacekeeper wasn't half the man -- or the machine -- that the one in 1987's Robocop is.
KD6-3.7, a replicant working for the LAPD, is just one of the reasons that Blade Runner 2049 is way more exciting than the original movie. Viewed as a traitor by his kind and despised by humans, K, a Nexus 9 model, is ordered to hunt down and destroy older model replicants. While plenty cinematic heroes are loners, K doesn't really have much choice in the matter.
7. WALL-E
Nemo? Nope. Frozen? Get the hell outta here. WALL-E represents the zenith of Disney Pixar films. In fact, Entertainment Weekly named it the greatest animated film ever. WALL-E is an example of one of the rare times that the AMPAS got it right when the film earned the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 81st annual Academy Awards.
Like many space stories, our hero endures more than his share of isolation and loneliness. At its core, WALL-E is about an unassuming guy living in a desert wasteland, stuck doing menial labor, who travels to outer space for the first time in order to rescue a sophisticated female clad in white. Said female also happens to be pretty handy with a gun. He soon realizes that he, and she, are part of something much bigger than he ever imagined. Sound familiar? The difference is that instead of ending up in one, the hero is a trash compactor.
He barely talks, he looks like he belongs in the landfill in which he resides, and yet, you can't stop watching him. If he were a person, that little dude would be a great one.
Believe it or not, WALL-E is also among the number of films in which a significant amount of its hero's woes can be traced to either an artificial intelligence or a huge corporate conglomerate. In this case, it's both.
There are quite a few barely-veiled Christian themes at work here too: Imagine the spaceship, the Axiom, is Noah's Ark and Eve is the dove who brings back an olive branch. All that and Sigourney Weaver, too.
6. Outside the Wire
Outside the Wire offers a fresh take on the familiar "rogue AI" story, all the while questioning the wisdom of military reliance on detached warfare, such as the use of drones in combat. Star Anthony Mackie's casting is fitting, given his cinematic history as Sam Wilson, the right-hand man of Steve "Captain America" Rogers in five MCU movies. This time around, Mackie is the super-soldier and the captain as a U.S. Marine in the not-too-distant future.
The Age of Ultron is a disappointing (but entertaining) follow-up to The Avengers in nearly every way, except for: Nick Fury's thankfully diminished role, Captain America's much-improved uniform, and especially - the villain.
Though his origin was unnecessarily altered, Ultron made for an interesting adversary and owing to James Spader's extremely charismatic characterization, should enter the pantheon of cinematic automatons.
Although, I gotta say, I'm not sure his evil plan to drive mankind to extinction made much sense. If Ultron had succeeded in killing off billions of people by dropping the Sokovian capital city of Novi Grad from the upper atmosphere, wouldn't it have been much more difficult for him to function in the long term? Despite his best intentions though, Ultron did not tally up the highest body count. That honor belongs to the Hulk, who went on a rampage in an African city before ultimately being subdued by Iron Man and Veronica -- which is a name that's, thankfully, a hundred times more mature than "Hulkbuster armor". This isn't one of those movies in which the African-American dude is the first casualty, but having an Avenger kill off countless Africans, civilians included, and later saving the lives of an entire population of a European city sort of misses the point.
And why, why -- Why go back to the stupid-ass blue lasers from Captain America: The First Avenger? And right off the bat, at that? Fuck, man.
But hey, at least Cap had some great lines. Some of the best actually - even better than Iron Man's. They include:
"I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science invented was me."
"You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed - walk it off."
"What kinda monster would let a German scientist experiment on him to help his country." (Sarcastically referring to himself and the Maximoffs)
The depictions of the Scarlet Witch, and especially, Quicksilver, were much better than expected. Although, the idea that their superpowers were derived from "experiments" using Loki's stupid wizard staff is a reminder of how far these movies haven't progressed. I suppose Marvel felt compelled to maintain a certain consistency in regards to idiocy -- it lines up nicely with the first movie's illustration of the magic stick's ability to grant it's wielder mind-control powers. I realize that 20th Century Fox owns the exclusive rights to mutant powers, but couldn't the filmmakers have just left the origin of the twins' powers unsaid (We all know they're Magneto's kids)? Mystery is far superior to lameness. And, if one of them had to die, why couldn't Wanda have been the one left in the dirt? I personally prefer physical superpowers to magic. For one thing, they're easier to quantify. And the last thing this franchise needs is more ludicrousness. Seriously, Maria Hill and Robin Hood survive and we lose the best version of Quicksilver, ever? South Korean geneticist Dr. Helen Cho takes a shot from Ultron at close range and she survives too? Come the fuck on.
The Age of Ultron is by no means profound and to most people it's an entertaining distraction at best, but AI researchers would do well to view it as the latest in a long line of cautionary tales.
4. Terminator: Salvation
Terminator: Salvation, by far the most underrated Terminator film, finally gives us a long (two hours' worth, anyway) look at the bleak future glimpsed in the original Terminator. It looks like we all dodged a bullet, for now, since the movie, set during the war between humans and machines, takes place in 2018.
Surprisingly enough, the movie, the only one to not star Arnold Schwarzenegger and the first to not receive an R-rating, is among the best of the series. Salvation is also the only Terminator movie that doesn't feature time-travel.
The story centers on an adult John Connor during his time as a member of the human resistance but before he becomes its leader. While the troops under his command recognize John's potential, the heads of the Resistance have little time or faith in a quasi-prophet without a military background. A teenage and orphaned Kyle Reese, who ultimately fathers Connor, is also in the mix, struggling to survive in the bombed-out remnants of Los Angeles, which is teeming with various Terminator models stalking any remaining homo sapiens.
Sarah Connor, Skynet's long-ago (and future) target for assassination, is long dead and only exists as a voice on a collection of cassette tapes she recorded for her son. The newest player in the AI-gone-wrong saga is Marcus Wright, a deathrow inmate who remembers signing his body over to medical research before the nuclear strikes that wiped out most of humanity. changed the world.
As Connor discovers to his horror, the T-800 line of Terminators, one of which will eventually be sent back to 1984 to prevent his birth, have just come online and are nearly unstoppable.
But the T-800s are merely the cutting-edge of what the machines have to throw at mankind. Skynet's extensive arsenal includes: hydrobots, which patrol bodies of water; Moto-Terminators - riderless speed bikes that patrol the streets; T-1s, which are upright robots that travel on treads; T-600s, which are 800-lb humanoid robots with rubbery skin; T-700s, which look like skinless T-800s; HK-Aerials - flying robots that provide air support for ground-based machines (the HK stands for Hunter Killer); and Harvesters - giant robots that transport human captives.
But the T-800s are merely the cutting-edge of what the machines have to throw at mankind. Skynet's extensive arsenal includes: hydrobots, which patrol bodies of water; Moto-Terminators - riderless speed bikes that patrol the streets; T-1s, which are upright robots that travel on treads; T-600s, which are 800-lb humanoid robots with rubbery skin; T-700s, which look like skinless T-800s; HK-Aerials - flying robots that provide air support for ground-based machines (the HK stands for Hunter Killer); and Harvesters - giant robots that transport human captives.
Terminator: Salvation, released five months before the 25th year anniversary of the original's premier, returns the series to the dark tone of The Terminator.
3. Transformers
Back in the day, Transformers movies weren't just big-budget pieces of sh#t. The first, and best, was 1986's animated Transformers: The Movie. 21 years later, the first, and best, live-action Transformers movie hit theaters and shocked the hell outta me with how good it was. It never occurred to me that Michael Bay, of all people, could be up to the challenge of respecting the source material and making giant robots disguised as cars look legit next to real people. Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream, Bumblebee -- they were all there. And they were all impressive.
While 1986's Transformers: The Movie is set in a future 2005 (Hey, it was the future back then) in which the existence of shape-shifting alien robots is no longer a secret, this live-action reboot begins with the general public totally unaware that a handful of Deceptions has been living among us for decades. Because of this 2007's Transformers can be viewed as a prequel to Transformers: The Movie.
Some minor changes are evident right off the bat. Human hero Spike Witwicky's first name has been changed to Sam and his best friend, Bumblebee, now transforms into a Camaro as opposed to a VW Beetle. But he is still yellow. Megatron no longer moonlights as a handgun - his alternate mode is now a Cybertronian fighter jet; and while Starscream's no longer a red-and-blue colored F-15 Eagle, he's been upgraded to a grey F-22 Raptor.
Since he bailed on the Transformers, star Shia LaBeouf has made a concerted effort to prove himself as a dramatic actor. But the fact is he displays Grade-A comedic chops during this flick.
At one point, a character yells to someone on the other end of the phone, "This is easily 100 times cooler than Armageddon. I swear..." Anyone who's seen Armageddon, also directed by Michael Bay, knows that he was absolutely right.
Since 2007, Bay has taken the franchise from sugar to sh@t. But this first in the series achieved greatness. They really don't make 'em like they used to.
But it's not all good. The one Transformer clearly voiced by an African-American actor (Jazz, portrayed by Darius McCrary) is the one and only Autobot to die.
2. The Terminator
The Terminator is aptly named. Though you root for them, none of the film's human characters manage to even come close to stealing the spotlight away from the hulking cyborg in its posters.
In the year 2029, mankind is at war with an army of robots under the command of a self aware artificially intelligent defense network called Skynet that initiated a nuclear holocaust in an attempt to eradicate humanity. Concluding that the human resistance is on the verge of defeating the machines, Skynet uses time travel technology to send one its T-800 Model 101 cyborgs to 1984 to assassinate unassuming waitress Sarah Connor. As it turns out, Sarah is due to conceive John Connor, who will lead the human resistance, in the next few days. Discovering the plot, John sends one of his soldiers back in time as well in the hopes of preventing the murder.
Before the soldier, Kyle Reese, arrives, the cyborg, which appears to be a competitive bodybuilder due to a layer of flesh over its metallic endoskeleton, racks up quite a body-count. The robot kills thugs for the clothing, dusts off a gun store salesman for weapons and systematically goes through the Los Angeles phone book bumping off residents who happen to be named Sarah Connor.
After Reese locates Sarah in time to rescue her from the literal killing machine, he's arrested and Sarah's taken along to the police station in order to give a statement. Undeterred by its target's now seemingly impenetrable level of security, the Terminator mows through 17 police officers and her mom in another attempt to take her out.
Because the film has one of the slickest twists in sci-fi movie history, I won't spoil the ending or give any more details.
1.Transformers: The Movie
Contrary to popular misconception, neither Shia LaBeouf nor Michael Bay has any connection whatsoever to the first Transformers film. Nor is it a combination of live-action and CGI. The first and best big-screen depiction of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict is rendered in old-fashioned, two-dimensional anime and premiered way back in 1986. Despite the format, it's the darkest and most mature of the Transformers films to date. Transformers also bears the distinction of being the final film for both Scatman Crothers and Orson Welles. Crothers and Welles gave vocal performances alongside other well-known figures such as Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle and radio legend Casey Kasem.
The Transformers' initial on-screen incarnation was a daily television series which aired from 1984-1987. The animation style employed in the film, like everything else, is a vast improvement over the one used for the series. The theme song even gets a hard rock update from LA band Lion. Even for those who don't like hair bands (a group that includes me), it sounds great and is further evidence that the filmmakers took the project seriously. The film's signature song, "The Touch", by Stan Bush, was initially produced for the 1986 hit Cobra, starring Sylvester Stallone. "The Touch" is also the song main character Dirk Diggler records for his demo tape in the 1997 movie, Boogie Nights.
The Transformers, which is based directly on the animated television series, picks up 20 years after the events of the show -- in the distant future of 2005 (How about that?). In a departure from the series, which was set largely on Earth, the film takes place mainly in space and on other planets. There is a vast leap in maturity on display here -- in more ways than one. For one thing, while the film is not without moments of comedic relief (much of it dark comedy), the tone is astoundingly serious for an animated feature. You'll even hear some curse words during a couple of particularly stressful situations. You'll also notice that Spike Witwicky (the same last name used for Shia LaBeouf's character in the live-action movies), one of the few human regulars on the televison series and teenaged during the seasons preceding the film, is now a grown man with a son. Spike's father, Sparkplug (another series regular), is never seen or mentioned. Lastly, the film whole-heartedly embraces the premise of the Transformers concept: the Autobots and Decepticons are engaged in a war. A war that claims lives -- on both sides.
Originally Posted 1/9/19
Updated 11/16/23
No comments:
Post a Comment