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.
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