When I discovered a copy of this British movie at my local library, I was intrigued because the British film industry seldom makes movies like this. But upon watching it, I found out why the UK film industry seldom makes movies like this. I will give this to the movie - for what had to have been a limited budget, some of the special effects aren't that bad. Some are actually pretty good. The other parts of the movie do have the feel of a limited budgeted British television drama, though that didn't bother me too much. The main problem with the movie is with its script. I could look past the fact that the story seems to have been greatly inspired by the John Christopher "Tripods" books. But this telling of the same basic theme sorely lacks a lot of explanation. We don't really know how this society works, like how people get food or what they are expected to do imprisoned in their homes. It's also never really explained how one of the youths suddenly gets a connection with the robot invaders. If the movie could have gone into detail about things like those, I think it could have been really interesting. Another problem, though, is that the drama is kind of dull. A few more action sequences could have helped, as well as adding some real convincing emotion and character development during the quieter moments. While the movie is a Hollywood blockbuster wannabe, it falls quite short in its aim, and it isn't surprising that apparently no American distributor felt it was worth releasing to American theaters.
Review of Robot Overlords
