Robot Wars (1993) and the Importance of a Solid Story

The most important component to making a movie is having a story.  Whether a basic concept, or an elaborate tale, the story is the backbone of a movie.  The story takes the characters from one place to another, either emotionally, physically, or both.  Without a story, the characters feel like they have been left in a stagnant place with no movement.  It is boring for the viewer.

Once a story is in place, there needs to be serious consideration as to whether or not the story should actually be a movie.  If there isn’t a strong enough story to sustain the length of a movie, it should not be a movie.  This was the case when I watched Robot Wars, a 1993 spiritual sequel to the 1989 movie Robot Jox.

When a movie’s story cannot sustain the full runtime of a feature film, there is a lot of filler put into the movie.  Robot Wars is a movie that fulfills this truth entirely.  In order to pad the runtime, there are lots of shots of robots moving around in the open land.  There is no reason for these shots other than extending the length of the movie, until the end of the movie when a robot fight occurs.  The entire movie feels drawn out and long.

Perhaps Robot Wars would have been better suited as a short film.  If the running time were half an hour shorter, it wouldn’t feel so long and worn out.  The story would be more concise and move at a reasonable pace.  I wouldn’t have been as bored watching robots walk across the desert for an hour and a half.

That’s not to say that the entire movie is bad.  Though it is extremely boring to watch the robots walk for long periods of time, the stop motion work that was used for the movement was well done.  I made that same observation when I watched Robot Jox as the sixth movie in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  These movies have exceptional stop motion work, and I am in awe when I see the movement.  It’s just that without anything happening, these scenes are boring and without meaning.

Robot Wars is a movie that I don’t regret having watched.  It was worth the watch that I gave it.  I did not hate the movie.  Don’t take my griping about the story as me hating the movie.  It’s not good, but I’ve seen much, much worse.  All I’m saying is that there needed to be more story than the simplistic plot that was there.

A movie cannot live without a story.  There needs to be something to give it some forward momentum.  Without that, the audience is left with a feeling of motionlessness that will take them out of the movie.  Instead of paying attention, they will be looking at their phones, watches, or clocks.  They’ll be wondering how much of the movie is left.  Nobody wants to feel that way when watching a movie.  We want to enjoy what is on screen.  We want to have fun with the movie.  We want to have a good time.  That’s what should be the first priority of movies.  Lengthening a movie just to lengthen it does not help to create a fun time.

Before I go, there are a couple of notes that I want to make:

• If you have any suggestions for the Sunday “Bad” Movie, feel free to message me on Twitter.  If you don’t want to do that, you could leave a comment below.
• There was one actor who was in both Robot Wars and Robot Jox.  That actor was Danny Kamekona.
• Steve Eastin was in Robot Wars.  He was also in Ed.
• Here is the Sunday “Bad” Movie post for Robot Jox.  It's one of my least favourite posts.