Movie #5: War of the Robots

Welcome to Sci-Fi 100! 
100 Sci-Fi movies in 100 days!

Last night's movie was "The War of the Robots" from 1978.  This is another Italian Sci-Fi flick and is written & directed by Alfonso Brescia. It stars Antonio Sabato, Yanti Somer and Malisa Longo.
The first thing that I'll say about it is that it was cheap. Very cheaply made sets, miniatures and apparently a shoestring FX budget. Judging from the date the film was made and some of the content, the director wanted to participate in the Star Wars craze. There are even battle scenes with glowing swords that look like a poor man's lightsaber.
The story is about an alien civilization on a far away planet that is quickly facing extinction. The dying race send robots, that resemble the rock group "The Monkees" wearing silver costumes, to kidnap a couple of Earth's genetic scientists and bring them back to the alien world and fix the genetic problem that is killing them off. Earth assembles some space soldiers and they go to the alien world to rescue the scientists and must fight a bazillion monkees robots.

                       Check out the trailer in the box above.

The costumes were shiny plastic, in different colors to denote rank or duty station... sort of like on Star Trek.

The sets and look of the film reminds me of a mix of the original Star Trek series and Space: 1999.  The space suits were cool, especially the elongated bubble helmets the earth peeps sometimes wore.

The special effects were super cheap & super cheesy. The worst space walk ever captured on film. They saved money on their laser pistols too. Instead of shooting a beam, the tips of the guns were like flash lights. The light would come on and the person on the receiving end of the shot would collapse. No sound, no explosion. The guns the robots used did make sounds though, but again just showed a light. 
The acting and fight choreography was just as bad as the effects. 
I enjoyed watching it very much! You should check it out. Now, I have just enough time to go watch my movie for today!
Later peeps.

- Patrick Shawn Bennett
Broadcasting from the dark side of the flashlight gun.

XXX