The British fight alien machines in the trailer for Robot Overlords

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

On a recent trip to London, I noticed the sheer number of films playing in theaters or listed online that play in European countries that we never see here in North America unless they are Oscar contenders or crazy genre flicks. ROBOT OVERLORDS falls in the latter category.

Starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley, ROBOT OVERLORDS plays like a cross between WAR OF THE WORLDS, PACIFIC RIM, and young adult franchises like DIVERGENT or THE HUNGER GAMES. Opening next March, ROBOT OVERLORDS has pretty good special effects and a moderately intriguing story. Still, the movie doesn’t look that spectacular and yet I cannot look away.

Earth has been conquered by robots from a distant galaxy; survivors are confined to their houses and must wear electronic implants, risking incineration by robot sentries if they venture outside. In robot-occupied Britain, city centres are devastated and a gang of teenagers live in a seaside town constantly under robot threat. Intimidating sentries patrol the streets; snipers are merciless death machines. The Mediator is deceptively childlike but unnervingly coercive. The robot base is The Cube, a massive mother-ship that dominates the horizon.

Gillian Anderson still looks pretty damn hot and Ben Kingsley is always fun to watch, but something about ROBOT OVERLORDS just feels off to me. Maybe it is the serious tone of the trailer with no humor to it or the lack of any discernible explanation for everyone’s powers, but this is just a trailer after all. There is a chance this could turn out to just be a good fun B-movie.

ROBOT OVERLORDS has no domestic release date but hits theaters overseas on March 19, 2015.