Robotropolis (2011)

What if in a not so distant future, robots become more or less the entire workforce of society? Sure, this idea has been presented before, and many "robots turn against humans" movies/stories are out there, but what if you present it in such a deadpan amusing way with the least talented actors you can find and let the idea fall on it's face the second it gets started. That is what you have here. So the robots turn on the humans for no apparent reason and start killing everyone, so the news crew that was filming the first murder must run for their lives (where are they going? good question). Back to the crew, this is by far the highlight of this movie, the presentation of the news is so damn funny, i could care less if it was intentionally made that way or not, it is pure comedy gold. Absolutely saves this movie from some REALLY low numbers since every other aspect of the movie stinks. So, run they will, chase the robots will, some die, some don't, the end. Except for the robots who make it to the sequel (it isn't a sequel at all, just a strange cameo type role in "Battle of the Damned" (see other review)Bad, yes but in a good B-budget way. You will laugh, trust me and it is nice and short, which helps. 3.9/10 +3 for the laughs, .9 for the movie outside of that.

This is billed as some sort of war zone robot versus human in a desperate fight to the death; a sort of 'Terminator' meets 'I Robot', the reality is so far removed. So where does it go wrong? Well the synopsis is that a group of investigative reporters are dispatched to do a piece from 'New Town', this is an oil mining facility somewhere in the South China Seas. It is owned and run by forward thinking Mega National Industries.Once there the CEO tells them that this is basically 'the future' in that robots are now fully integrated. They do all the jobs we can't be arsed with, like routine maintenance, security and taking the kids to school. They are all alike except for some security markings and look like a poor version of the Storm troopers from Star Wars - only poorly done in CGI. Whilst the 'reporters' are doing a piece to camera, of an innocent game of 'soccer. One robot "catastrophically malfunctions"! Well it shoots one of the other players and this is live on the news feed. This then becomes a 'Killbot!!' and as the news is fed all around the less than interested world, the fortunes of Mega Naffall Industries start to wane.What happens next is an exercise in how to save production costs. I once saw a film producer say that the best invention for film ever, was the telephone. He demonstrated by picking up his phone and screaming 'what you mean Godzilla has eaten New York!?!' This would apparently save three million dollars. Well director Christopher Hatton has come up with a newish way, he has the anchor man in the news room have the reporter tell him what is going on in New Town as the camera has been eaten by a killbot ; so we are told that thousands have died and even more are on the streets fighting the robots. The only news reel we can see shows six lack lustre fifth rate 'actors' doing a ropey pretence of running away from some killbots who are armed with everything from electric carving knives, to flame throwers. The anchor man says at one point 'for those of you that pray, this would be a good time'; well I started praying to the gods of decent acting, good continuity, plot development and production values - alas my prayers were left unanswered.This third rate, badly acted guff continued for a bowel shatteringly, boring 81 minutes, it would have made a better comedy but in the end it is a big idea versus a small budget and I guess the budget just won. The ending is seen lumbering before it is even over the horizon and by the time it happens you will be looking forward to watching a local news bulletin rather than endure any more of this unctuous tripe. I tried to like it and even laughed at one point, but it was for all the wrong reasons - this will appeal to no -one do yourself a favour even if you are tempted, just watch a community cable channel it will be time better spent.

An obvious rip off of I, Robot and The Blair Witch Project, with even worse shaky camera, this piece of trash reminded me of why there are no longer any drive-in movie theaters. This is a classic example of how the powers that be in Hollywood will try ANYTHING to make a buck. If they thought they could make money off a paper cut, they'd try it. The fact that it is only 80 minutes long is a clear indicator that it was A: a rock bottom script with not much potential to make it even that long, and B: on a shoestring budget. I seriously doubt this film made back the money it cost to shoot it. Easily among the worst movies of the past 25 years, and a prime example of how CGI cheapens movies. If you want to see bad CGI, rent a video game. It would be far more entertaining than this garbage.

Contains plot spoilers The first thing to say is I saw the trailer for this and thought that it looked pretty good in a low budget way. So I rented it and I am glad that I rented this rather than buying it. Also one of the problems with the trailer is that it sells it as a movie where the robots go mad or gain sentience and fight back against their human slave masters. Though as the movie progresses you will understand that this view is misguided as the real resolution of the movie is so mundane.The movie starts as a documentary type of a movie and my first thoughts were oh no this is going to suck. This movie really wants to be district 9. The only things that it lacks are plot, acting, effects and a good budget. It is similar to District 9 in the way it starts as a documentary and then moves to narrative movie in the final third of the movie. There the similarities end as this is a poor excuse for a SF movie.The movie starts with an interview with the creator of the robots. This sets the scene. We have already seen the mayhem in the trailer so I wanted them to get on with the story. Actually this is the best bit of the movie so enjoy it while it lasts. Then it switches to an atrociously animated robot playing football. That it when you know that this movie is going to be one of those turds you see on the syfy channel masquerading as a good SF movie. The robot goes mad and shoots one of the other players. This for me was the ultimate in bone head screen writing. Why would you give a robot that works in an oil refinery or plays football with kids a gun in its hand? It makes no sense whatsoever. The robots then go on the rampage and the TV reporters who are making a live broadcast film it all for the titillation of the viewers. We get treated to a half hour space filler about the robot shooting someone. This is handled so badly that if I had not been watching it with someone else I would have turned it off. So the robos go on the rampage (snore). Then it turns into a bad SF movie where they have to escape from the robos (yawn) until we the viewer are finally treated to a blank screen as we do not know if the heroes are going to escape.Big plot spoiler.The robots do not gain sentience they are just programmed to kill as the person who made them is jealous as he has not got any credit for their use. That is all they could come up with? Wow that stinks as the twist.I think the makers thought that they could mix westworld with district 9 and come up with a good movie. They thought wrong. The acting is below par. The effects are laughable. The script is slow and boring. As with other reviewers I would advise you not to watch this rubbish.