In honor of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (opening June 24th, 2009) AND Terminator Savlation (opening May 21st, 2009), Joel Massie from GoneWithTheTwins.com examines the 10 greatest Ass-Kicking Movie Robots (and cyborgs and such).
10. General Grievous from Star Wars Revenge of the Sith: Okay, so Lucas’ second trilogy couldn’t even compare to his first, but this lightsaber-wielding Kaleesh alien cyborg monster was pretty damn cool, as was his truncated fight against Jedi Obi-Wan.
9. MARK 13 from Hardware: Armed with sharp weaponry and a deadly injectable toxin, the MARK 13 prototype combat droid could reconstruct itself from any available machinery and terrorize the occupants of a post-apocalyptic apartment complex. Plus you have to be pretty badass to take on a metal-armed Dylan McDermott and rip off Terminator and Alien all in one fell swoop.
8. Omnidroid 10000 from The Incredibles: Mowing down Metroville with lasers and an impenetrable exoskeleton resembling a giant bowling ball with legs, the superintelligent droid went renegade from its creator, Syndrome, and it took an entire family of Supers to finally take it down.
7. Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet: The 7-foot robot was never better than in his menacing debut in this 1956 classic. Hobbling around and providing an imposing figure more than an actual nemesis, the twisting gear-headed android influenced countless robots to come. And what a gent he was with the ladies.
6. Optimus Prime from Transformers: Retaining the same bold voice but losing the too-colorful 2D animated look, Optimus Prime gets a 3D makeover in Michael Bay’s summer smash and mops up the city with the Decepticons. Too bad he needed help from a sex-starved teenage boy.
5. Roy Batty from Blade Runner: Leader of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants, Rutger Hauer’s menacing android gave Ford a run for his money. Hauer is generally bad-ass in everything he does, so his inclusion on the list is a no-brainer. Not to mention Blade Runner is one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.
4. Bishop from Aliens: Lance Henriksen portrayed the calmly cool android in Cameron’s other masterpiece who proved that not all “artificial people” in the Aliens universe were out to get Ripley. Plus he managed to survive after getting ripped in half by a pissed-off Alien Queen.
3. HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey: The movie is either a drug-induced psych job or a drug-induced science fiction masterpiece, but either way the demonic HAL computer runs the show. Killing off occupants of the Discovery on a whim and sporting an eerily serene voice, HAL 9000 reimagined the fear of technological usurpation and hyper-intelligent supercomputers.
2. ED-209 from Robocop: Yeah Robocop was a badass, but he was essentially a guy in a clunky metal suit. ED-209 on the other hand was a hulking giant who could gun down an office full of businessmen in a matter of seconds. He wasn’t too good with stairs though.
1. The Terminator, from The Terminator Movies: Who’d you expect, the Tin Man? When it comes to robots kicking ass, no one did it better than Arnold in James Cameron’s sci-fi masterpiece, The Terminator. In rare sequel form, T2 showcased the Governator against an even more advanced model, the T1000, who could morph into metal objects and stab the crap out of people. The female terminator in T3 had her moments, but we’d rather forget that one existed. To top it all off, the TV show The Sarah Connor Chronicles revamped the awesomeness of Judgment Day mayhem and now we readily await the post-apocalyptic continuation with new star Christian Bale. Even without Schwarzenegger it seems this franchise isn't down for the count.
- Joel Massie
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