Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter is a 2017 action adventure film set in the distant future depicting the overthrow of humanity by artificial intelligence on Earth and other worlds.
With a title like Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter, you can be damned sure of at least one thing: you’ll be in for lots of cheesy B-movie action and nerdy sci-fi bombastics. Okay, two things. And that’s exactly what you get with Neil Johnson‘s latest low-budget adventure, a surprisingly entertaining post-apocalyptic nightmare with plenty of low-grade CGI and over-the-top acting done with every ounce of ambition the filmmakers could squeeze out of the production.
In the not too distant future, a decades long nuclear armageddon has ravaged the Earth, though by its end, highly-advanced artificial intelligence and humans joined together to rebuild the devastation, only to have the two split again when the people began to mistrust their cyber partners. Another war broke out and now the AI are on a mission to wipe out the last remaining survivors. In this mix is Sienna (Tracey Birdsall), a leather-bound beautiful blonde scavenger who, along with her little robot sidekick and a few friends head out to set things right on an intergalactic adventure full of flying robots, sexy androids, and lots of big guns.
For an action movie, Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter is one heck of a talky tale that honestly clicks away about twenty or so minutes too long, but when there is action it’s not lacking for spectacle, the CGI heavy effects film full of booms and bangs that are wildly cartoonish, and designed entirely to be so. This is pure pulpy apocalyptic madness from frame one striving to be as cheesy as it can, tongue firmly in cheek while doling out its comic-book-come-to-life sensibility with a deadly-serious straight face. That’s a cocktail for a very specific taste and surely not everyone who cozies up to get a swig of what this is will ‘get it.’ But maybe that doesn’t really matter.
There is a story here, one that even takes a few twisty turns in the second half, though it labors in exposition and wordy dialogue for some long stretches, losing sight sometimes of why it matters. This is about a good looking woman and a laser gun taking down robots and for fans of Birdsall, there’s plenty to be excited about as she bounces about in her bondadge-esque wardrobe with all kinds of kick-assery. She’s the whole show here and while no one in the cast is really swinging for the fences, she plays into the genre tropes with great gusto.
Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter is a ‘bad’ movie, meaning it’s meant to be exactly what it aims for, a campy, low-budget cross between The Road Warrior and The Terminator franchise. That ‘badness’ is also why this movie is going to appeal to a lot of fans who feed on these kinds of stripped down, Z-grade thrillers with buxom beauties and nonsensical sci-fi. Not going to lie either, there’s a lot that compels about this one, even as it lingers too long in the nuclear sunshine. Sienna’s got plenty cool about her and the more the film works towards its better second half, the more engaging she becomes. Are you going to like it? All I can say is that some movies take very different paths and if you’re one who like to explore, this one might be worth putting on the list.