Those Who Forget History…

Updated on October 4, 2011 By Ken Begg 28 Comments

…are doomed to watch crappy, crappy movies.

Entertainment Weekly has always been cursed by a five second institutional memory. Every once in a while they’ll do a list of the “50 Greatest Stars of All Time” or something and Tom Cruise will come in at number 3.

Anyway, they recently ran a poll on top “Robot Movies” and this was what you could choose from:

Star Wars (not really a “robot movie”), Blade Runner, Short Circuit (!!), RoboCop, Terminator 2 (but not Terminator), Iron Giant, AI (!!!), I, Robot (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Transformers (!!!!!!!!), and WALL*E.

The oldest movies, of course, are from the 80s, because that’s when they created film. Screw Metropolis and Forbidden Planet and Silent Running and, well, a dozen other movies, I guess.

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  • KeithB

    If Star Wars is not a robot movie, than Silent Running is not, either.

    MeTV is running Lost In Space on Saturdays. My kids were wondering why I was so jazzed to see Robby the Robot.

  • Ericb

    Westworld?

  • Gamera

    Weeeeellllll, Robocop was technically a cyborg…

    And though I agree with Ken about it’s ideology I’d still have to list ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ as one of the great robot movies.

  • KeithB

    Careful Gamera, I think you should specify *which* “The Day the Earth Stood Still”!

  • Keith– I don’t know, three fourths of the major characters in Silent Running are robots. I’d say the is more ‘about’ them than Star Wars is ‘about’ R2D2 and C3PO.

    Eric — Westworld, great call. Definitely one of the great robot movies.

    I mean, it’s no I, Robot…

  • roger h

    “Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot” I must have watched “Voyage into Space” about 20 times as a kid.

    however, I believe my favorite robot as a kid was Hymie from Get Smart.

  • I think (hope?) on reflection that very few would support DtESS’s ideology. But yes, Gort is surely one of the great robots.

  • And duh, we all forgot ROTOR!!!!

  • Toby Clark

    No mention of End of Evangelion?!

  • BeckoningChasm

    “The Earth Dies Screaming” had some great robots. I might include “Gog” just because the tobots were cool. Definitely “Death Machine.”

  • Earl Allison

    Not to derail the thread OR fill everyone with dread (heh, Etrigan the Demon ain’t got nuttin’ on me!), but is the remake of ‘Forbidden Planet’ still being produced, or did the Keanu-riffic remake of ‘Day’ kill it dead?

    I mean, I HOPE it’s done, but one never knows.

    Lots of nice movies they skipped, but yeah, apparently everything older than 1976 never happened …

    Take it and run,

  • KeithB

    Is “The Stepford Wives” a robot movie?

  • This list is appalling. It’s worse than the “ten scariest movie” lists that I mock every Halloween.

    Even if we ONLY went post-1980s there are better options than they picked. What about The Matrix?! Tron? Heck, even Saturn 3 is better than Short Circuit.

    What about androids? Don’t they count? I remember androids playing an important role in Aliens. Plus robots or at least androids are the central point of Blade Runner.

  • KeithB

    Psst, Sandy, “Blade Runner” is on the list…

  • roger h

    What about Hector from Saturn 3?

  • Gamera

    Sorry Keith, I just figured most people had forgotten the remake of ‘TDtESS’ by now :(

    Definatly have to agree with Eric there on ‘Westworld’- Yul’s gunslinger ‘bot made Arnold’s Terminator look like a cupcake in comparison.

    Plus:
    Maximillion and Vincent from ‘The Black Hole’

    With four ‘ST:TNG’ films wouldn’t Data qualify as a ‘movie’ robot?

    ‘Battlestar Galactica’s’ 1979 pilot was releashed as a theatical movie outside the US so I’d think the Cylons would qualify as well.

    Sark from ‘Tron’ was a computer program instead of a robot proper but close enough for me. And David Warner is just such a badass.

    And what about Robot L from ‘Starcrash’ and Robot Monster? ;)

  • Gamera

    Actually most of what I listed would not be considered ‘Robot Movies’ by the definition that the robot(s) were not central to the films plot.

    Sorry, my mistake…..

  • KeithB

    If we are even looking at new movies, would “Moon” be considered a Robot Movie?

  • John Campbell

    What is with you people?!

    How could you forget “Heartbeeps”?!?!

    Have you no souls?

    (After saying all tht apparently I don’t!)

  • Yeah, that was me being (surprise) pedantic. A “robot movie,” would, I concur, have a robot or robots as central to the film’s plot. Different from “best movie robots” or “best movies featuring robots.”

    Yes, that’s how I think. I can’t help it.

  • Rock Baker

    Westworld was good, Futureworld had its moments too. Gog, Tobor the Great, The Invisible Boy all deserve a mention at least.

    I did love WALL*E though, and it would seem I’m the only guy here who enjoyed I, Robot. The Iron Giant isn’t bad, either.

    Oddly, you’d think one of the many versions of Mechagodzilla would be brought up at SOME point, right?

  • The Rev.

    I would’ve brought them up sooner, but I just now read this post.

    I’d only bring up the first three MechaG films, though. Screw the Millennium ones. Even with their admittedly great MechaG design.

  • Gamera

    Sigh….. never a Mechagamera…

  • roger h

    Isn’t Gamera a kind of cyborg?

  • John Campbell

    Gamera is ALL turtle baby!

  • Ericb

    What about Robot Monster?

  • Rock Baker

    And just think of all the cool (if largely unrealistic) robots of the serials! The Phantom Creeps springs to mind!

    Then there’s the assorted TV robots from Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Lost in Space, The Space Giants, etc, etc, etc. But I guess they need their own list.

    Obviously, though, Robby and Gort should be at the top of any list of movie robots.

  • Toby Clark

    Rock, I’ll stand up for I, Robot as well. Granted, this might change if I ever get around to reading the book, but it is in my copy of 101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die. (Though I don’t agree with everything in that book – it doesn’t even include Star Trek: First Contact.) And even if I didn’t like it, that should hardly disqualify it from a Robot Movies poll. Same goes for Transformers and AI.