6 Movies with Giant Freaking Robots, In Honor of ‘Pacific Rim’ Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Movie #4 – Robot Jox

Year – 1989

In the aftermath of WWIII, war has been outlawed.  Damn it.  Why didn’t we think of that?  In lieu of war, America and the Soviet Union (hey, it was the ’80s) settle their disputes via giant robots because, um…giant robots.  Presumably countries which aren’t “superpowers” settle their disputes using robots of the “Rock ‘Em/Sock ‘Em” variety.  The film revolves around the battle for Alaska (insert Sarah Palin joke here).  America has lost its last nine battles leading one to assume that we’re fighting for territory in reverse alphabetical order.

The movie was the victim of bad timing.  Its story centered on U.S/Soviet Cold War tension but the Soviet Union collapsed before the film could be released.  The studio’s financial problems prevented the film from being released until almost a full year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  By then, its storyline felt like it was from a different generation and the stop-motion animation didn’t help any.  It still has a fun B-movie charm about it, although adding few more robots in silhouette along the bottom of the screen might not have been a bad idea.