Here’s our Top 10 Bad-Ass Movie Robots!

10 – Nazi Robots from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

In this wonderful and under-appreciated film, director Kerry Conran uses the style of cartoonist/animator Max Fleischer to create some gigantic robots…that are Nazis. ‘Nuff said.

9 – The Destroyer from Thor

Imagine if Gort was unleashed, that’s The Destroyer. A protector of the finer things in Asgard, once sent to do a mission, all is destroyed, much to the pleasure of us. It shoots flames from its head Godzilla-style…what more could you want?

8 – General Grievous from Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

While everyone continues to dog on the Prequel Trilogy, Lucas still created some great new characters. While Darth Maul appropriately gets the love, the hacking and coughing General of the droid armies of the Separatists is equally as cool. If Darth Maul’s double-ended lightsaber seemed bad-ass, Grievous outdoes that with four! Here’s one ass-kicking robot that just might be the best idea to come from the Clone Wars.

7 -Maria from Metropolis

She doesn’t destroy cities or shoot lasers, but False Maria is arguably the most influential robot in history. Mixing the cold, distant emotions of a dark world, there’s also plenty of underlining sex appeal still to this day. The T-X from Terminator 3, while beautiful, can eat her heart out when compared to False Maria. Now, that’s sexy…and bad-ass.

6 -Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet

Over the years, the facade of the 1950s has been stripped away, yet Robby represents what we love so much about that time frame. Again, here’s another robot that doesn’t shoot lasers or destroy cities, hell – he even overheats when asked to do violence, but besides the cool factor, Robby is the ultimate robot in our idealization of what we wish could become reality.

5 -Mechagodzilla from Terror of  Mechagodzilla

Okay, let’s get to a city destroyer. Godzilla is a bad-ass monster, so a robotic version of him is equally cool. Plus, it’s like a transformer and shoots lasers, has torpedo fingers, and has a force field. The perfect weapon for nerds. The cherry on top of this bad-ass? Made of Space Titanium!

4 – ED 209 from Robocop

Why hasn’t anyone taking this model seriously? You want to stop crime dead? Create ED 209. “Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.” What punk kid wouldn’t piss their pants and put down that video game they’re trying to steal? Heck, ED doesn’t even listen to his bosses, as long as it gets the job done. The perfect security guard!

3 – Optimus Prime from Transformers franchise

Like Michael Bay, don’t like Michael Bay, does it really matter when Optimus kicks everything’s ass with his blade at the end of his arm? Megaton might be scarier, but Optimus is bad to the (robotic) bone, sirs. Since the cartoons from the 1980s, Optimus Prime has seeped into popular culture and him the coolest robot for nerds and kids alike.

2 – T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day

This bad-ass takes a dangerous route. It can do anything, turn into any weapon. It’s unrelenting and never stops. While all of the terminators are bad-asses, especially Arnold’s T-800 model, this liquid metal robot is one of the coolest creations and probably the most vicious.

1 – Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still

With all of the robots to choose from, and the other nine we’ve already looked at, Gort is the most bad-ass. While it doesn’t actually destroy anything, the pending implications for what it could do, scared straight a world knee-deep in a forthcoming nuclear annihilation. That’s something no man, no nation could ever successfully do. So officially ending the nuclear arms race and creating world peace makes Gort the most bad-ass robot in movies.

Agree? Disagree? What are some of your favorites? Comment below!

The Film:

Before I lose you younger readers who cannot watch older movies, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was the Avatar of 1927, minus the box office intake. Now do I have your attention? Despite the grandiose nature of the sci-fi opus, it flopped and was heavily re-cut, but prior to today, Metropolis is a sci-fi version of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, with all of the cozy religious themes one can handle. It’s a masterpiece – visually, musically, and technically. Yet, even with that high praise, rarely anyone alive had seen the complete version, once a near three-hour film.

Over time, the deleted footage was deemed lost. Much like the deleted Spider Pit sequence from 1933′s King Kong, finding this footage would be the Holy Grail of cinema. Well, in 2008, the most complete version of Metropolis was found in Argentina of all places (considering this was a German production during the rise of Nazism), and through a new restoration given the film its most complete cut. Is the footage worth seeing? Or does it drag the film down, splitting Metropolis fans down the middle like Apocalypse Now Redux? No, it’s great, but I’ll have more on this footage later.

Metropolis still marvels, even if the film was made when cinema and the language of cinema was beginning. It still feels like a stage production, but German Expressionism hadn’t been touched by the camera work by D.W. Griffith, so this is to be expected. But Metropolis is the grandfather of all sci-fi films since. Without this film, Empire Strikes Back, THX-1138, Blade Runner, Akira, and countless others owe their creation and creator’s inspiration to Metropolis.

The film is clearly influenced by the Bible: The Tower of Babel, Revelations, false prophets. Even more interesting, to our time, is the nature of the workforce, labor laws, and the power of the corporation CEOs, might have been a precursor to our Great Depression in the late 1920s, as it was to the dark economic times in Germany after WWI, but it still echoes relevance today, with frozen wages, buyouts, layoffs, and Enron.

To say anything prior Metropolis in the silent era wasn’t like Metropolis is obvious, but still today, there’s nothing like Metropolis, no matter how much CG has changed the film making game. Sexual, dark, futuristic, Metropolis isn’t just a classic or a masterpiece, but film itself. Sure, modern movie-goers might be bored and tainted by the edgier and CG-laden works today, but there’s nothing quite like Metropolis.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Okay, more on that found Argentine footage. Nearly a complete cut was found, which featured 25 minutes of never-before-seen footage (well, outside of Berliners in 1927), and thanks to new inter-titles and a restoration, Kino International has released The Complete Metropolis. Good news, bad news. The good news is that the film looks quite marvelous in HD. Nice details and contrast, proper frame speed, these 35mm footage looks great. Now, the bad news. The newly found footage is from a 16mm reduction dupe from the original 35mm negative is in bad shape, so when integrated back into the film is jarring. Scratches and low fidelity ruin the marvelous HD print, but since this footage wasn’t meant to be found and the scenes complete the film, what are you going to do?

The audio is superb as well. A new DTS 5.1 score from the original score from 1927 is dynamic and robust. There’s also another audio option, a stereo mix that’s okay too.

Also, no subtitles, as the original German inter-titles have been replaced with newly made English ones. Purists might scoff, but it’s helpful.

Voyage to Metropolis: This is a 55-minute making-of documentary that covers the film’s inception, filming, premiere, various cuts, and the eventual footage discovery. In HD.

An interview with Paula Felix- Didier: In HD, she was one of the key people to help this footage find its home back into the film, as she talks about the nature of the discovery and the historical aspects.

A trailer for the 2010 theatrical re-release is included. There’s also an insert booklet by Bruce Bennett that offers more information on the restoration of the film. Special mention to the holographic cover by Kino, too. It’s pretty neat.

Conclusion: While we don’t get an option for the other version of the film, which doesn’t make too much sense, seeing Metropolis in its complete form is a marvel and a historical important event, made by the great folks at Kino International. A must own for film fans.

The Film: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

1927 marked a huge time for the film industry. That year saw the debut of sound in film. It also marked the debut of one of the most influential films of all time, METROPOLIS directed by Fritz Lang. The film tells the story of Freder Fredersen (Gustav Frohlich) who is the son of the man who rules Metropolis, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). The story is one that we’ve seen many times before, power corrupts leaders and the workers will revolt. Metropolis is run by workers whose job it is to keep the machines running miles below the ground. The workers do their job on 10 hour shifts and Joh doesn’t care about them. One day while Freder is playing with his friends, they are visited by Maria (Brigitte Helm), who is with the children of the workers. Freder is smitten with Maria, and after she is kicked out, he follows her below. After seeing how the workers are treated, Freder goes to his father to complain. While he is down there, Freder also witnesses an explosion where many workers are killed. Freder fells that the workers need to be treated better than they are. The movie seems to be a typical “rebellious son wants the best for people who have nothing” story. Lang, along with wife/co-writer Thea von Harbou, put together an amazing story. For a movie that came out in 1927 it was certainly ahead of it’s time, in both theme and effects.

If you were to watch the movie in 1927 instead of 2010, you’d be watching a totally different film. After the movie was finished and shown in Berlin, Paramount bought the rights for US distribution. The film was cut down from 12 reels to 7 reels. There were 2 storylines that were removed due to movie being cut. There was a storyline where Freder gave his clothes to a worker he witnesses almost faint, name Georgi (Erwin Biswanger). In the 1927 released version, almost all of the story with Georgi, also known as 11811, was cut after they exchange clothes. Due to that, you lose the character of Der Schmale, who is a henchman sent to follow Freder by his father. A second story that is almost all lost is that of the mad scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who at one time was in love with Hel, Freder’s mother and Joh’s wife. She died while giving birth to Freder. Rotwang built a robot that he was going to change into Hel. Much of the symbolism was also lost due to the cutting of the film.

Over the years there have been a number of restorations made. In 1984, the film was licensed to composer Giorgio Moroder. He decided to put together a different version than was seen before. He re-cut the movie and added a rock soundtrack to the film. He used such musical icons as Queen. This version was successful and it made the film available to a larger audience than would see it otherwise. In 1987, a third version of the film was released. Enno Patalas and the Munich Film Archive acquired some new footage and added it to the original Paramount cut. 2008 brought the biggest find for the movie however. A 16mm negative of Lang’s original 153 minute version was found by the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine. The only problem with the find was that the extra 25 minutes of footage was heavily damaged. Over the next 2 years the Murnau Foundation worked to restore this footage. The 25 minutes of film was able to be restored, but when edited back into the film, it is easy to pick out the footage. It is heavily scratched, but still watchable.

Due to the new 25 minutes of film being added back to the movie, the story lines that were harder to follow, are back. This is a great move, as the movie is more coherent. The music of the newest version is that of the original version. Fritz Lang had always wanted this 153 minute version to be seen by the public and he finally got his wish. 83 years after it’s initial release, METROPOLIS is finally as complete as the director had wanted it to be. Anyone that is a fan of film and it’s history should try to catch this in the theater. The Film Forum in Manhattan is having a special showing of this film from May 7 through May 20, and I would implore everyone to see it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece is one of the best movies you’ve (probably) never seen, and with the release of the remastered, repaired, and restored Blu-Ray and DVD later this year, it’s been getting quite the red-carpet treatment. The revitalized edition is seeing numerous showings, which can be checked out on the official website. The restoration, with 27 minutes not seen since shown in Berlin, adds and restores a lot of subplot removed from the previous version.

Source: Apple, FirstShowing

It has been almost a full year since the excised 30 minutes of footage were found early last year at a museum in Argentina. It is almost completely restored just to be spliced back with the original printing for its long awaited debut on February 10th.

Source: Variety

Alas,  not much news surfaced as to whether the restoration process has begun or as to the status of the film itself.  Today we learn though in almost a years time since the news was released we now know that the film has just now been received by the  F. W. Murnau Foundation who will be restoring the footage and piecing the film to its intended piece.

“When you follow the whole story from August 2008 until today, we’re overjoyed to have it in our hands. There were a couple of occasions when we thought we were going get it, but we didn’t. So it’s great it’s here, and we can finally start the restoration work, “

“The work consists of two parts. On the one hand, there’s the technical aspect: the digital restoration. And on the other, there’s the reconstruction. That’s what we’re doing here: reconstructing the original version,”says Helmut Possmann, Head of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation.

Now that we know the process is going to be longer than initial reports reported that a blu ray version of the now complete work would be released sometime this year is not in fact true it is good to know that for whatever reason the film is now in the hands of those in charge of finally commencing restoration.

The good news though is that the foundation now is hoping to have the film ready by January 2010 for its premiere before the Berlin Film Festival.

Source: EuroNews