Robot Jox (1990)
Directed by Stuart Gordon
50 years after a nuclear war, the two superpowers handle territorial disputes in a different way. Each fields a giant robot to fight one-on-one battles in official matches, each piloted by a man inside, known as robot jockeys or jox. The contest for possession of Alaska will be fought by two of the best. The conscientious Achilles fights for the Americans. Opposing him is a Russian, Alexander.
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What critics compared Robot Jox to
But in my defense, that is only because I very early on got attached to thinking of it as a stupider version of the already stupid Robot Jox , on account of the earlier film having a similar premise (in the future, the most popular sport is matches between battlebots...) with an even higher concept behind it (...that are fighting World War III by proxy!).
In a tale predicated on the surpassing of man by machine, Real Steel doesn?t engage in the same?it?s what a publicist might describe as an ?effects movie with heart.? Robot Jox jokes aside, gladiatorial animatronics are of secondary concern here.
Achilles’ comeback gives a conventional “hero’s journey” grounding to a movie that’s otherwise ahead of its time, falling somewhere between RoboCop (which came out while Robot Jox was in production), The Hunger Games, and Pacific Rim.
Mine are Robot Jox , the 1998 Godzilla , Blade Runner , and the 1966 Japanese TV series Ultraman for various details of the scenario and design, all of it yoked to a storyline rather similar to Top Gun , though of course that film didn't invent the idea of the hotshot pilot with demons any more than Pacific Rim did.
I mostly agree with that statement, but I’m not an idiot, I didn’t go into this Robot Jox vs. Godzilla movie expecting a Merchant-Ivory film or some Reservoir Dogsian character drama.
And with its Robot Jox wrinkle, Pacific Rim probably even has the edge in premise.