Truly Dreadful Film

recommended

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

This movie attempts to wow viewers with a few video game'ish graphics amidst an extraordinarily confused plot - which isn't quite sure if it wants to follow an AI-takeover-the-world or bad guys start "Resident Upheaval" trajectory. Frankly, it does neither. In fact, I'm quite sure I missed its intent entirely. Guess I needed a DVD cover...As another reviewer mentions, this very meshuggi plot surrounds a somewhat dystopian near-future where martial law (for what its pathetically worth) has been enacted to prevent some sort of semi- organized terrorism. To what end? Apparently to 'hack' the humans (of course), each of whom are all, in Draconian fashion, forced to have implanted ID chips by age 16. A real teenage buzzkill to be sure. Enter the platinum-blonde eyepatch wearing Constable and her trusty- rusty swagger-droid, Argos, to investigate a tenant building for terrorists. Their escapades include endless traipsing among the very randomly placed drug-vaping tenant population, and one ominous looking robot floor waxer (probably a relic from a DARPA project with Amway?). Eyepatch and Argos locate the apartment of a nervous-hilaria and discover a (token) magic shiny silver canister - which is of course some sort of weapon. It contains a gaseous cloud of 'nanobots' which, when accidentally released during a lackluster skirmish, seems to interact with folks ID implants, turning them into zombies (although the characters assure us "they are not zombies"...meh). Now, Eyepatch and Swagger-Bot are forced to fight their way out, with the human-zombie-bots, with the floor cleaner, and maybe a Cuisinart or 2....(one could have wished). Intermittent with the storyline are random projections of TV snow-like computer static. This has no rhyme or reason. Equally as annoying is the constant looping of the background score which pervades the entire flick. This felt like lazy music production (though the score had its potential, in a Carpenterian sort of way), as did the sound mic'ing and mastering. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge advocate for low budget sci-fi. There have been *fantastic* and well-thought efforts in this genre. But this one gets lost in oddly placed graphics, which, like any CGI annoyance that doesn't have any function - simply has no believability. Sci-fi crowds are notorious for picking these things out - don't insult them with useless animations. Now, I get that sometimes chaos is just, well, fun. We've seen this in its best and worst (note the different episodes of the Mad Max yarn). But when it lacks some even semi-recognizable purpose, one can't be expected to connect to the plot, setting, or characters. This is where Robot Revolution unfortunately meanders into the mist...or a confused cloud of nanobots.

"Robot Revolution" ranks as an abominable sci-fi thriller that has an interesting premise but suffers from pedestrian production values and amateur acting. In the near future, a blond Mobile Infantry Police woman, Constable Hawkins (Virginia Logan), with her anonymous android partner prowl a New Jersey apartment block to arrest notorious terrorist Damien Roth. They fail to find Roth. Instead, they locate a diminutive, bespectacled nerd of a woman who has concocted a lethal weapon that features nanobots. Vaguely, "Prometheus Trap" director Andew Bellware and "Boom Boom Dolls" scenarist Steve J. Niles draw on Michael Crichton's bestseller "Prey" and the big screen flop "Dredd." These two frequent sci-fi collaborators must be rabid fans of John Carpenter because "Robot Revolution" contains most of the earmarks of an early Carpenter classic. This 84-minute sci-fi film takes place in a contemporary society with next to no futuristic equipment. The most impressive example is a monstrous robot cleaner that resembles a gigantic insect, not a very practical robot but an atmospheric addition. Our plucky heroine recalls Snake Plissken with her black eye patch and outfit. Did I mention she totes a mighty big pistol? Bellware confines the action to one apartment building with endless roving exterior shots of the edifice. The nanobots infiltrate all the machinery, and eventually infect most of the humans in the apartment block. The infected humans behave like zombies; they bleed from the mouth and the nostrils, but they don't bleed enough to be remotely disgusting. One of the most irritating things about "Robot Revolution" is the horrible cinematography. Even when no machines are present, such as when we are shown the building exteriors, everything appears botched, with horizontal lines streaking the picture, as if there was something affecting the equipment. This lackluster movie boasts minimal surprises, and its bare-bones budget and lack of invention hampers it. Nothing about any of the characters make them sympathetic or antagonistic. In other words, you don't have reason to root for the heroine or hate the villains. The widescreen compositions aren't bad, but the characters are nothing memorable, especially the robot. As usual, there a lot of exposition, but most of it is incoherent. Only die-hard sci-fi fans may salvage something from this nonsense. If you're looking for a gory, shoot'em up saga with lots of profanity and nudity, you will definitely be disappointed by this one.