Where Have All The Giant Robots Gone?

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Where Have All The Giant Robots Gone?
August 17, 2010
by ADAM FRANK
NPR

So enough about economics in the age of limits, the true relationship between science and religion or the fundamental nature of time. Lets talk about something really important.

Where are my dang summer science fiction blockbusters?

Every year since I was a kid and Star Wars transformed my summer in an orgy of exploding space ships I have looked to the summer to satiate my appetite for science fiction megahits. Personally I don’t care if they are megahits. I am not picky. I would love to see something intelligent and thought provoking (like the matrix which, I know, did not come out in the summer) but as long as the movie is not too stupid I will sit through it. I always have. All I really want is to see some space-battles engaged over the glowing curve of a distant planet, some giant robots tearing a city to pieces or, at least, some space-marines battling against the goo-dribbling terror of an alien beast.

Last year was exemplary. We had Star Trek (pretty good), Terminator Salvation (awesome), Moon (wow), Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen (ugh), District 9 (awesome again), Gamer (well…), and Surrogates (ok). There was even The Time Travelers Wife if you want to stretch things a bit.

What did we get this year? Inception. That was pretty much it. While Inception was a really great movie it was not as good as the Matrix in terms of redefining genres. Yes, there was Predators (meh…) and, if you want, you can add the delightful Iron Man II (which came out in May). But really that is all she wrote. No space fighters roaring across airless moonscapes, no massive star destroyers rumbling across the screen for a minute and a half, no futuristic cities gleaming against the setting of two suns.

What we did get was endless versions of “the bunch of outcasts and their impossible mission” movies (The Losers, A-Team, The Expendables). Blah.

So what was Hollywood thinking? What are we supposed to do now? How am I to make it until next year: watch the Matrix again (I just did); read the Dune series over (I am); write blog posts about economics in the age of limits, the true relationship between science and religion or the fundamental nature of time? Or am I supposed to read a real novel?

C’mon. It’s the summer. Where are our giant robots when we need them?