Robot Monster starts as the entire human race has been wiped out by Ro-Man (George Barrows), an Ape like alien creature that came to Earth with the intention of using his deadly calcinator ray weapon to wipe out mankind before we become too intelligent & attack them first. Unfortunately for Ro-Man a scientist (John Mylong) managed to create an antidote to the death ray & managed to immunise his family & a few other's, Ro-Man's lead the Great Guidance confirms to Ro-Man that he has failed in his mission & that there are still eight humans alive. Ro-Man is devastated but promises to find & kill the remaining humans, luckily for Ro-Man they only live a few hundred feet away in what looks like a backyard & insist on confronting Ro-Man & try to make him see reason & spare the human race from extinction. Ro-Man becomes strangely attracted to Alice (Claudia Barrett) & starts to question himself & his mission. Perhaps there is hope for the human race as Ro-Man decides he wants to become a human being himself...
Produced & directed by Phil Tucker this film has achieved legendary status as one of the worst films of all time, sure on a technical & conceptual level Robot Monster is as bad as they come but I found it impossible to hate & had good fun watching it although your tolerance for unintentionally hilarious, badly made amateurish sci-fi will ultimately decide how much pleasure you gain from the disaster that is Robot Monster. The first thing to say is that I have no idea why it's called Robot Monster, I mean Ro-Man the alien looks like a hairy fat Gorilla with a diving helmet on, there are no robots featured. The second thing to say is that Robot Monster is one of the most enjoyably bad films I have ever seen, everything about it is just plain awful yet it has a certain innocent charm & a definite entertainment value of sorts. The dialogue is priceless, some of Ro-Man's speeches are hilarious with the 'I cannot, yet I must' one an absolute cracker. The human dialogue is also bad, the script is really badly written with speech that sounds so awkward & strange it's hard not to laugh. Conceptually Robot Monster is awful too, it makes no sense with Ro-Man seemingly having wiped out the entire human race on his own yet he can't find & kill eight survivors despite them showing themselves several times, a fearsome death ray that turns out to be a bubble blowing machine on a table & Ro-Man's sudden apathy towards the remaining human's come from nowhere. The twist ending is annoying & lazy in it's 'it was all a dream' sort of way while the film as a whole has to be seen to be believed. At a mere 61 minutes long at least it's short, it moves along at a a good pace even if none of it makes any sense & I personally found it very entertaining for all the wrong reasons.
Originally shot in 3-D I doubt the process was utilised that much or to great effect, released on home video in various forms from the 2-D version to the 3-D one, from an edited cut that adds more dinosaur footage to a computer colourised version. Robot Monster is as cheap as they come, there are no interior sets or scenes set indoors, the entire film was shot in & around Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles over four days. The camera never really moves & Ro-Man looks very silly with his Gorilla body & diving helmet with TV antenna attached head. There's ample opportunity to see it as well as Tucker isn't afraid of showing him on screen. The direction is awful with glaring continuity & technical mistakes from clothes that change between scenes to special effects of rockets in space where you can see someone's hand holding it.
With a supposed budget of about $16,000 this was shot as quickly & cheaply as possible & has a amateurish charm that I enjoyed & found hard to dislike. The dinosaur footage was edited from One Million B.C. (1940) & The Lost Continent (1941) as was the earthquake scenes. The acting is atrociously bad with the entire cast playing it dead seriously which makes it even camper & funnier.
Robot Monster is the stuff of legends, the winner of so many bad film accolades you would think it would be impossible to like it but I did & I enjoyed all of it's 61 minutes. One of the most entertaining films I've seen in a while although make sure you know what to expect before you watch it & just enjoy it for what it is.
Produced & directed by Phil Tucker this film has achieved legendary status as one of the worst films of all time, sure on a technical & conceptual level Robot Monster is as bad as they come but I found it impossible to hate & had good fun watching it although your tolerance for unintentionally hilarious, badly made amateurish sci-fi will ultimately decide how much pleasure you gain from the disaster that is Robot Monster. The first thing to say is that I have no idea why it's called Robot Monster, I mean Ro-Man the alien looks like a hairy fat Gorilla with a diving helmet on, there are no robots featured. The second thing to say is that Robot Monster is one of the most enjoyably bad films I have ever seen, everything about it is just plain awful yet it has a certain innocent charm & a definite entertainment value of sorts. The dialogue is priceless, some of Ro-Man's speeches are hilarious with the 'I cannot, yet I must' one an absolute cracker. The human dialogue is also bad, the script is really badly written with speech that sounds so awkward & strange it's hard not to laugh. Conceptually Robot Monster is awful too, it makes no sense with Ro-Man seemingly having wiped out the entire human race on his own yet he can't find & kill eight survivors despite them showing themselves several times, a fearsome death ray that turns out to be a bubble blowing machine on a table & Ro-Man's sudden apathy towards the remaining human's come from nowhere. The twist ending is annoying & lazy in it's 'it was all a dream' sort of way while the film as a whole has to be seen to be believed. At a mere 61 minutes long at least it's short, it moves along at a a good pace even if none of it makes any sense & I personally found it very entertaining for all the wrong reasons.
Originally shot in 3-D I doubt the process was utilised that much or to great effect, released on home video in various forms from the 2-D version to the 3-D one, from an edited cut that adds more dinosaur footage to a computer colourised version. Robot Monster is as cheap as they come, there are no interior sets or scenes set indoors, the entire film was shot in & around Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles over four days. The camera never really moves & Ro-Man looks very silly with his Gorilla body & diving helmet with TV antenna attached head. There's ample opportunity to see it as well as Tucker isn't afraid of showing him on screen. The direction is awful with glaring continuity & technical mistakes from clothes that change between scenes to special effects of rockets in space where you can see someone's hand holding it.
With a supposed budget of about $16,000 this was shot as quickly & cheaply as possible & has a amateurish charm that I enjoyed & found hard to dislike. The dinosaur footage was edited from One Million B.C. (1940) & The Lost Continent (1941) as was the earthquake scenes. The acting is atrociously bad with the entire cast playing it dead seriously which makes it even camper & funnier.
Robot Monster is the stuff of legends, the winner of so many bad film accolades you would think it would be impossible to like it but I did & I enjoyed all of it's 61 minutes. One of the most entertaining films I've seen in a while although make sure you know what to expect before you watch it & just enjoy it for what it is.