Robots in movies are still a popular subject

October 11, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Barry Koltnow

The Orange County Register

I was never a violent person.

But I became a crazed and blood-thirsty battler the day I unwrapped my first Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots game.

The popular boxing game was introduced by Mattel in 1964, and I was introduced to it shortly thereafter. I continued to play that game until I finally outgrew it, which was about two weeks ago.

In case you lived a deprived childhood, it was a two-person game, in which each player controlled a robotic boxer with primitive plastic controls. One boxer was red, and the other was blue, and each player kept throwing punches until one robot boxer’s head sprung from its body like a cuckoo. The knockout made a mechanical clicking sound, as did the movement of the head back into the body for round two.

I suppose that Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots served the same purpose as Valium. It relieved a lot of stress.

You’re probably wondering why I’ve brought up this childhood game, but you’ll understand when and if you see the new Hugh Jackman film “Real Steel.”

Directed by Shawn Levy (”Night of the Museum” and “Date Night”), the movie does not hide its “Rocky” roots as it tells the inspirational story of a former boxer of questionable character who finds redemption by training boxing robots. The movie takes place in the near future when boxing is turned over to robots, presumably for humanitarian reasons, although money probably had something to do with it.

It is almost impossible to watch this movie and not reminisce about Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots. But it goes beyond that. It also serves as reminder of a certain movie genre that doesn’t always get its due — robot movies.

With the tremendous success of this summer’s “Transformers 3,” and the excitement building among sci-fi geeks over the July 3, 2012, opening of Steven Spielberg’s futuristic “Robopocalypse,” there is a buzz surrounding robot movies.

I am not sure when my love of robot movies began, but I suspect it might have been seeing the 1951 classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still” on TV. One of the most intelligent sci-fi movies ever made, it starred Michael Rennie as an alien diplomat who lands in Washington, D.C. with his robot Gort to threaten our planet if we don’t heed his warnings about our militaristic ways.

“Real Steel’s” Levy also loved robot movies when he was growing up (like most young men in his age group — he’s 42 — he fell in love with R2-D2 in “Star Wars”), and he has a theory as to why so many people share that love.

“I believe it has to do with wish fulfillment,” the director explained. “Robots look like us. They move like us. And they’re shaped like us. But, unlike us, they cannot be hurt. On some level, I think that is the human fantasy to have all the attributes of being human without the weaknesses. Robots can’t be destroyed, and I think we all admire that.”