Robotrix (1991)

This was recommended to me as a sci-fi kung-fu film, and while it is both a sci-fi film and a kung-fu film, it is probably most fair to describe it as an exploitation film. A brief synopsis is a couple of sexy lady robots have to kill an incel rapist robot. Regardless of how it should be described, it was a significantly more enjoyable film than i was expecting.

In terms of cinematography, music, and sound design, this film delivered surprisingly well. The colours, angles, and sounds were all above decent, and much more worthy than i expected going in. Even the script, while having to justify the undeniably horny premise, was well written and generally avoided massive leaps of faith and plot holes. That is, of course, once you’ve accepted that a world that is in all regards the early nineties, with fairly low-tech police equipment, crt monitors, and no cctv, could also have developed hyperrealistic fighting androids and sentient artificial intelligence. The robots were not invincible, but their superhuman nature lead to some quite original fight scenes.

Then there’s the matter of the sex scenes which, though not making up the majority of the film, did appear fairly frequently, and when they did, generally lasted longer than was strictly necessary. Two of them demonstrated the complete depravity of the villain, and so had plot value, but two of them didn’t really add anything at all. That includes any kind of titillation, as one was played for laughs while the other was so unexpectedly earnest that it also felt like a comedy moment.

All in all, robotrix was a fun experience. If you don’t go in expecting too much, and can look past the over-the-top sexualisation, it’s a surprisingly solid robot action film.