Robo Warriors |
  • USA • 1996 • 93m •    • Directed by: Ian Barry. • Starring: James Remar, Kyle Howard, James Tolkan, James Lew, Dennis Creaghan, Bernard Kates, Terry Markwell, James With, Anthony Ogunsanya, Rudy Vic Del, John Barwise, Cory Callaghan, Sylvia Marri. • Music by: Richard Band.      It's 2086 and an alien force called the Terridax occupies Earth. Our only hope is a teenage boy, a drunken hero and a giant robot.
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Review:
The movie starts with some humans and aliens having a gun battle in the forest- they really lay on the Predator vibe with the soundtrack here. I haven't seen Robo Warriors in a long time but I believe this scene is a flashback where the main character's (James Remar) buddy gets killed in the combat. Fast forward a few years and the son of the dead soldier is told tales of glory by his grandfather, including rumors that a powerful robot once used by the humans in the gladiator bouts still remains hidden somewhere. Eventually the kid commits a major no-no by trying to research it on the internet. It's funny that a tyrannical alien invasion force basically allows life on Earth to continue much as it had, including use of the internet, as long as you don't dare try to challenge their rule! Eventually the kid and Remar's character (don't remember any names, sorry) meet up but it's clear that the soldier has basically given up in the fight for Earth and it's up to the kid to eventually turn him around.
Those hungry for colossal metal on metal action might be a little disappointed by the lack of it in this movie- there are really only two such scenes to be found here. However even though they are almost at Power Rangers level (practical effectscostumes, no CGI) they are shot well enough to give them a cinematic feel. When the duo finally find the hidden robot in the jungle there is obviously big hunks of hardware there, which for an old-schooler like me is much more satisfying than seeing computer graphics. They get the machine started just as an alien giant robot is patrolling the area and the two machines duke it out. It's a pretty cool scene, with the alien robot being a sort of lizard-headed thing. That is the only real robo action until the end of the film when the now recovered Earth robot has to battle it out with the alien champion to see who gets to rule the planet once and for all... there is even a galactic commission there to make sure everything is done by the books (apparently they are fine with a planet invading another planet as long as no rules are broken)! The enemy robot in this scene is much different to the almost steampunk one mentioned earlier- it's comically massive without any type of discernable face (it's the one on the right if you are looking at the image imdb is using- there is an alternate dvd cover for Robo Warriors that shows a robot NOT FEATURED IN THE FILM... someone should get sued for that!).
Robo Warriors is a little corny and the aliens could come from any sci-fi show on television (regular people with prosthetic ridges on the top of their nose, not unlike Klingons) but all in all it's an entertaining enough watch. Ultimately it's let down by the lack of steel on steel combat, which is the main reason people like me are drawn to a movie like this- a couple more scenes of the giant robots would have helped a lot, but the two times it does go down are pretty darn cool. Maybe worth checking on youtube or something, unfortunately it was never released on dvd in the US as far as I can tell.
Review by piggyeternal from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database