Some films get all the fanfares, while some sneak in under the radar. In the case of Robot Overlords, directed by Jon Wright (Grabbers), this was definitely a surprise.
With a film starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley, I would have expected to know a bit more about this film, but somehow I just hadn’t heard about it. Although I was unsure what I was going to get, and that it was a surprise, it turned out to be a pleasant one.
With a sensibility very reminiscent of Tripods, the John Christopher YA novel (and ’80s BBC TV series), Robot Overlords places the cast in a world where alien robots have taken over the Earth and control the populace using tracking implants in their necks.
Contrary to Tripods, where society has regressed back to pre-industrial age technology, the humans are merely contained here rather than supressed mentally, which does make them a bit more feisty. This also means that we don’t get to see the long term effects on a civilization (it’s obviously a relatively recent invasion) as we do in Tripods, and miss out on the joy of people being surprised by trains (Beanpole’s Shmand-Fair). Maybe that’s just me…
In this robot occupation, we follow a new family in a coastal English town, comprising of ‘Kate’ (Gillian Anderson) and her son ‘Sean’ (Callan McAuliffe), who have also taken in ‘Alexandra’ (Ella Hunt), ‘Nathan’ (James Tarpey) and ‘Connor’ (Milo Parker), whose parents have all been killed.
‘Kate’ is an object of admiration for ‘Robin Smythe’ (Ben Kingsley), a collaborator, who may or may not know the fate of her husband. As a collaborator, ‘Robin’ and others like him control the human populace for the Robots and help keep on track the robot’s end game: their mysterious ‘research’.
When the youngsters figure out a way to turn off the implants that keep them from leaving their homes, they decide to find out what happened to ‘Sean’s’ father.
The plot is drawn in relatively broad strokes and similarly the characters do not have much depth, but within that is a very effective scifi romp. Clearly this is aimed at a younger audience and has the feel of an extended Doctor Who episode, but that only means that some potential thematic aspects haven’t been explored in as much depth as they could have. To a certain extent it would have been nice to explore some of the darker elements, as there is never a good reason to ‘dumb down’ for young people, but I suspect that those elements are more likely to have been skipped for story flow rather than ‘simplifying for kids’.
The cast fit together rather well and the youngsters especially come out of it having done an excellent job. There is a good rapport between the younger cast members and they carry the film very effectively through large sections, even making the knowing nods to common tropes funny and endearing.
Generally, the fun is to be had in the rapport of the cast. Although the FX are good, there isn’t enough of it and budgets have obviously limited the full ‘fleshing out’ of this world. Similarly, the lack of plot depth or surprises does make it less intriguing than it could be, but that isn’t to say that the whole isn’t enjoyable. Yes, the denouement is far too simplistic and there are elements which don’t hang together that well, but it is a pacy, amusing scifi film which works very well.
There is much to recommend this film and it will sit well in a family viewing environment, giving all ages something to enjoy. Like his last film, Grabbers, Robot Overlords shows Jon Wright as one to watch.
