What do you get when you combine one of the best science fiction novelists of all time with a 1990s low-budget action flick? If your guess is one of the worst science fiction movies of all time, you wouldn’t be far off. And yet, in order for something to be the worst of any category, it has to be notorious or bad in some spectacular way. On November 21, 1990, when Robot Jox hit theaters, it was met with bad reviews, but it was also quickly forgotten, which revokes its “worst thing ever” status immediately. And 35 years later, the crime of Robot Jox isn’t that it’s forgettable or egregiously poorly made. Those things are true, but what’s really interesting is that it was very clear, almost very good.
Robot Jox takes place in a near future in which nuclear conflicts have led to war being made illegal. Instead, two major global powers remain, and in order to settle conflicts over resources and territory, they’re required to have two massive human-controlled robots duke it out. Yes, the combatants are inside of massive Voltron-esque battle mechs, decades before Pacific Rim, but with none of the charm. Instead, the goofy robot battles are made far less enjoyable by the bleak, Cold War-obsessed themes. The two global powers left are clearly just stand-ins for the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., which feels pretty dated even for 1990, when the Berlin Wall had just fallen the previous year. (In fairness, Robot Jox was supposed to have come out in 1989, but had a delayed release.)
