Robot Overlords - Blu-ray

Content: Three years ago, an invasion of alien robots fell upon Earth. The war lasted only a few days, the alien technology being vastly superior to that of us humans. Since then, humans have lived in a kind of permanent house arrest. The robots promised that they would only study the earth and its inhabitants. After that they would leave our planet again. There is only one rule to which all must adhere: No one may leave their home, or instant execution will follow. With the help of electronic implants and some collaborators, people are monitored around the clock. For Sean (Callan McAuliffe), this house arrest is especially bad. Because from his mother Kate's (Gillian Anderson) house, where he's trapped with three other teenagers, he can't search for his father. Although he is presumed dead, Sean is convinced that this is a lie. When the kids accidentally deactivate one of the implants while playing, it provides a way to leave the house without immediately being killed by the robots. And so Sean and his friends embark on a dangerous search for Sean's father, with the treacherous Robin Smythe (Ben Kingsley), who wants to prevent the kids from finding out the truth at all costs, in their way...

After his wonderfully weird horror-comedy Grabbers, director Jon Wright takes things a lot more seriously in Robot Overlords. This has some advantages, but unfortunately also quite a few disadvantages. The most obvious advantage is the engaging end-times atmosphere, which does full justice to the story. With fairly modest resources, Wright and his team have created a visually compelling dystopia that presents the alien invasion theme as a fast-paced youth adventure. With Ben Kingsley and Gillian File X Anderson, the film then also features two very good actors who can usually bring out the best in even weak scripts.

There are quite a few scenes that reveal a high potential for suspense, appealing effects and an engaging atmosphere, especially for younger viewers. For older sci-fi fans, on the other hand, this battle against the all-powerful robots turns out to be a bit tough and too well-behaved. In addition, the script has to fight with two significant problems: on the one hand, it simply uses too often worn-out clichés, whereby a certain element of surprise is simply lost. Secondly, the film lacks what made Grabbers so entertaining and charming: plenty of tongue-in-cheek self-irony. Granted, the search of a boy for his dead father in a society destroyed and subjugated by aliens is of course not material for the really big laughs. But a little more humor would have done the production good, especially as an answer to the many clichés. Thus, the unintentional comedy could very easily have been transformed into intentional loosening up through purposefully applied irony.

So Robot Overlords unfortunately leaves a lot of potential unused. As an exciting youth adventure, however, the whole thing certainly works. Viewers between the ages of 12 and 19 who like exciting sci-fi dystopias and don't yet place too much value on elaborate dialogue, interesting characters and logic will be well served here. And for such viewers there is then also a clear: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The picture is quite dark in some scenes, but even then shows a decent overall sharpness. Even though the low budget is also reflected in the visuals, the atmospheric colour scheme and successful detailing leave an overall positive impression. The same can be said for the DTS-HD Master Audio mix, which has some effective surround moments to offer alongside the powerfully mixed voices. Good!

Extras: In addition to a decent making of (approx. 23:37 min.) and the trailer, the Blu-ray also offers a look at the film's visual effects (approx. 6:09 min.). Good!

Conclusion:Robot Overlords is a fairly entertaining sci-fi thriller that has some good ideas and decent effects to show for it. Unfortunately, the script suffers from some very plodding moments and annoying clichés. However, it's definitely enough for an entertaining home cinema evening. The Blu-ray presents the film in atmospheric picture and sound quality. Bonus features include a good making of and a look at the special effects. All this is in the end with small deductions still enough for a: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp