Robot Overlords

Released: 27th March 2015

Directed By: Jon Wright

Starring: Gillian Anderson, Ben Kingsley

Certificate: 12A

One of the more obscure cinema releases of the month comes in the shape of John Wright’s Robot Overlords, a mish mash of kitchen sink cliches and sci-fi tropes.

Sometime in the near future earth has been invaded by robots, whilst mankind did its best to fight off the machines they were defeated in just 11 days and have been held under the robots dominion ever since.

Through a series of information videos we are told that the robots are coming to investigate earth and whilst they are doing so everybody on the planet must remain indoors, and if they don’t they will be killed on the spot. The robots enforce these rules through the use of implants on the human’s necks.

One day a bunch of kids, messing around with a playstation inadvertently manage to find a way to turn off the implants and decide to try and rally together as many people as they can to take down the robots and free mankind. The only thing standing in their way are the collaborators- a group of humans led by Ben Kingsley who work with the robots to maintain order and presumably for personal gain.

Shot on a budget of just $21million Robot Overlords is not going to be competing with any of hollywood’s major franchises any time soon but one thing it does have is heaps of charm. Sure the effects wouldn’t look out of place on BBC3 and the script is yet to meet a cliche it wasn’t fond of but the films B-movie feel and its old fashioned, do it yourself approach makes it a rather unique and amiable cinematic experience.

Think The Goonies meets Doctor Who with a little bit of Eastenders sprinkled on top- Robot Overlords isn’t attempting to break new ground but rather have fun with the little resources it has available. Despite its limited budget the film manages to put together a relatively impressive cast with Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson standing out like a sore thumb, both delivering enjoyable performances, whilst Tamer Hussan has fun as the boss of a pub experiencing a permanent lock in.

Robot Overlords is nothing you haven’t seen before but if you fancy a light snack of a movie then this will deliver. It’s good old fashioned family fun with some silly effects and an easy narrative, it’s basically a big long episode of Doctor Who.