Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

The Golden Army

This fantasy superhero film by writer/director Guillermo del Toro - the first sequel to the original Hellboy (2004), again starred the title character Hellboy (Ron Perlman) created by Mike Mignola (in the Dark Horse comic series). Its tagline was: "Saving the world is a hell of a job."

Hellboy (or simply "Red"), a powerful red-skinned, horned hellspawn demon superhero (and a cigar-chomping cat-lover) worked as an undercover government agent and crime fighter for the top-secret Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.). An ancient truce ended between humankind and the original, fantastic underworld creatures of the Earth. Hellboy was compelled to face off against a ruthless, demonic and tyrannical leader Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), a martial-arts expert and evil Elf from an otherworldly 'invisible realm.'

Prince Nuada sought to reunite three golden pieces of a royal crown in order to raise a mythical fighting force. He assembled a long-dormant, deadly, magical "Golden Army" of fiery fighting machines (mechanical robotic warriors) to wage war against Earth's humans. They were considered an "unstoppable force," comprised of 70x70 (or 4,900) giant soldiers.

Hellboy's team included:

• Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Hellboy's pyrokinetic girlfriend
• Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), aquatic gill-man and Hellboy's friend, who developed a relationship with Nuada's melancholy Princess Nuala (Anna Walton)
• Johann Strauss (voice of Seth McFarlane), a bizarre, protoplasmic German mystic

The Golden Army was located in The Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. It was composed of indestructible warriors who wouldn't die, but magically reappeared after repairing themselves.

During the final conflict, Liz melted the magical golden crown that controlled the Golden Army, and it was deactivated and shut down.

Meet Dave (2008)

Dave Ming Chang

Brian Robbins' science-fiction comedy starred Eddie Murphy as a giant white disco suit-wearing robot named Dave Ming Chang.

He was actually an alien machine (or space vessel) in the shape of a human commanded by an internal crew of humanoid space aliens, each one responsible for a part of Dave's body and controlling his speech and movements.

Eddie Murphy also portrayed the tiny, British-accented captain of the ship.

After crashing near the Statue of Liberty, he searched in Manhattan for the aliens' missing precious meteorite orb designed to rob Earth of all of its water in order to bring back its salt and thereby save their endangered planet (that ran on salt).

WALL·E (2008)

WALL·E, EVE, and other robots in the spaceship AXIOM, including:

M-O (or "Moe", Microbe Obliterator)
AUTO (the ship's Auto-Pilot)
GO-4 (AUTO's assistant)
BUF-4 (Buffer cleaning robots)
BRL-A (Umbrella robots)
D-FIB (Defibrillator robots)
PR-T ("Pret-ty", Beautician robots)
HAN-S (Massage robots)
NAN-E (Nanny robots to care for children)
THIRST-E (Drink dispensing robots)
VAQ-M (Vacuum robots)
VEND-R (Food dispensing robots)
VN-GO (Paint robots, take-off on Vincent Van Gogh's name)

Pixar's and Disney's animated science-fiction love story was set in the year 2805. The almost dialogue-free tale told about the title character, the last lone garbage-compacting robot on Earth named WALL·E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class) (voice of Ben Burtt).

For seven centuries, the industrious robot had been cleaning up Earth's harmful trash (with the aid of his cockroach friend) after inhabitants were evacuated to live on the giant orbiting spaceship AXIOM until Earth was habitable again. The ecological robot (similar to the robot in Short Circuit (1986) and to Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)) was composed of a pair of binoculars (for eyes), with a turtle-like body and tank treads for locomotion.

In the film, WALL·E fell in love with EVE (short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) (voice of Elissa Knight), a sleek, white-shelled probe droid-robot that was sent to check on the progress of the clean-up and to locate plant life.

Another robot on the spaceship, among many, was named M-O, concerned about wiping up the "foreign contaminant" tread tracks left by WALL-E, as well as the one-eyed, tyrannical AUTO-pilot, HAL-like robot (voice of MacinTalk)- finally shut off by the corpulent Captain (voice of Jeff Garlin).

Astro Boy (2009, HK/US)

Astro Boy, and many other robotic characters

See previous entry on Astro Boy (1963-1966).

The first feature-length Astro Boy film (from Hong Kong-based Imagi Animation studios) was this computer-animated comedy. It was a very derivative work, with elements borrowed from Pinocchio (1940), The Iron Giant (1999), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), The Incredibles (2004), WALL·E (2008), and much from Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001).

The feature film was set futuristically in Metro City (an idyllic floating metropolis where the upper class lived suspended above the mostly abandoned Surface of the Earth). When research scientist Dr. Tenma's (Nicolas Cage) own real teenaged boy Toby (Freddie Highmore) died under tragic circumstances during a demonstration of a new military robot known as the Peacekeeper, the distraught father secretly uploaded the memories of his son into a robotic replica or android. [Note: The Tenma's family robot/butler was Orrin (Eugene Levy).]

The lively robot boy was powered by pure and positive energy known as the Blue Core. He spoke very few words, but had the ability to hear and understand robot language. He also had incredible powers, including laser-cannons built into his hands, X-ray vision, machine guns in his butt, and the ability of flight. Toby was rejected by his heartbroken father, for being so machine-like and for not resembling his real son.

An evil, war-mongering military figure named President Stone (Donald Sutherland), the ex-leader of Metro City who sought to be re-elected, was using the defensive Peacekeeper robot - built with a destructive, 'negative,' and dangerous Red Core - to represent his own persona and help his re-election (on a campaign to defeat the Surface inhabitants). Over time, the Peacekeeper grew larger by absorption, and increased its own weaponry - readied for warfare.

On one attempt to steal the pure Blue Core energy found in Toby, the wide-eyed robot boy was blown off of Metro City, and ended up in a trashy junkyard of robots on the Earth's Surface (below the hovering Utopia of Metro City), where useless and discarded robots were being piled up.

Toby was found by a group of orphaned, scavenging children - all outsiders, misfits or runaways:

• Zane (Moisés Arias), illiterate but smart
• Sludge (Sterling Beaumon) and Widget (Madeline Carroll), fraternal twins
• Cora (Kristen Bell), tomboyish, the oldest
• and Trashcan (Dee Bradley Baker), a dog-like robot that literally served as a trashcan

Toby was taken away by inept members of the underground Robot Revolutionary Front (RRF), including a trio of robots:

• Sparx (Matt Lucas), the leader
• Robotsky (Bill Nighy), boxy
• Mike the Fridge (David Bowers), a talking refrigerator

Robot Revolutionary Front (RRF)
Sparx	Robotsky	Mike the Fridge

His newfound friends didn't know that Toby was a robot - he was renamed Astro. However, they were constrained in their resistance efforts by Asimov's Laws of Robotics that forbade violence against humans.

Astro then met others, including:

• Hamegg (Nathan Lane), a robot repairman and nefarious father-figure, who also ran a robot fighting ring (robots were destined to be refurbished in order to fight each other in the Battlebots arena for sport)
• ZOG (Samuel L. Jackson), a 100 year-old giant construction robot, brought to life by Astro's Blue Core energy force

Astro was called upon by his robot friends and others to combat the evil robot and save Metro City - he sacrificed himself when he flew into the Red Core of the gargantuan Peacekeeper robot, destroying both himself and the device.

Moon (2009, UK)

GERTY 3000

Director Duncan Jones' plot-twisting sci-fi film (with obvious filmic references to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Silent Running (1972), and others) began with a voice-over from lone, bearded, long-haired astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell):

"There was a time when energy was a dirty word. When turning on your lights was a hard choice. Cities in brownout. Food shortages. Cars burning fuel to run. But that was the past. Where are we now? How do we make the world so much better? Make deserts bloom? Right now, we're the largest producer of fusion energy in the world. The energy of the sun, trapped in rock, harvested by machine from the far side of the moon. Today, we deliver enough clean-burning helium-3 to supply the energy needs of nearly 70% of the planet. Who'd have thought? All the energy we ever needed, right above our heads. The power of the moon. The power of our future."

He was located on the far side of the Moon at a mining base named 'Sarang,' working for a Japanese consortium titled LUNAR Industries, Ltd. He was at the end of a three-year contract, supervising the strip-mining of lunar rock (with gigantic threshing or harvesting robotic machines) to obtain Helium-3, a major component of fusion technology for green solar fuel energy. Communications with Earth were reduced to only video-taped recordings, and Sam was beginning to show signs of stress and homesickness ("I'm talking to myself on a regular basis. Time to go home, you know what I mean?"). He missed his wife Tess (Dominique McElligott) and his young daughter, and was only able to speak to them through delayed video messages. And he was experiencing hallucinations, and dreams of making love to his wife.

His only contact and companion was a semi-mobile, multi-tasking AI robotic assist machine named GERTY 3000 (voice of Kevin Spacey) with a robotic arm. The questionably-helpful, smooth-voiced, programmed GERTY used yellow smiley face emoticons to communicate emotions and monitored Sam's every move.

The film took a turn when Sam went out in a rover to repairing a malfunctioning harvesting mining machine named Matthew, and distractedly crashed the rover into the thresher after seeing an hallucinatory mirage of a female. After a dissolve (the loss of consciousness), Sam awoke in the infirmary where GERTY told him that he had experienced an accident that he couldn't remember. Shortly later, Sam struggled off the infirmary bed and overheard GERTY having a clandestine conversation with Thompson (Benedict Wong) at HQ:

(The new Sam is in) good working order. But we only have two working harvesters now.

The film's major spoiler, only hinted at in GERTY's message, was that the fraudulent Japanese consortium (LUNAR Industries) running the operation had cloned him inside the base station, and replaced the injured and 'dying' Sam in the rover with a new version of himself (aka Sam 2) at the base. GERTY demanded that the 'new' Sam repeatedly take memory tests, claiming he had experienced slight brain damage in the accident, and he needed to strengthen his logic skills. Sam was ordered to remain at the base by LUNAR's Overmeyers (Matt Berry), who also promised that they would send a "rescue unit" to tend to the stalled harvester.

After convincing GERTY that he had to check the exterior shell of the base - after sabotaging it himself with a minor gas leak, Sam 2 evaded GERTY and left the base. He took another rover to the crash site, where he made a remarkable discovery. He found an injured version of himself in the damaged rover. He brought his 'original' self back to the base, and then yelled at GERTY: "You tell me who that is!" The 'original' disoriented, injured and tired Sam was placed in the infirmary, and told there had been an accident - while the 'cloned' Sam 2 (Robin Chalk), a younger-looking, mirror-image, healthier clone, looked on from a distance.

Sam angrily asked GERTY about the other 'Sam Bell': "What the hell's going on?...I'm losing my mind." GERTY asserted that LUNAR had not been told that he had been rescued alive from the rover. The two Sams each thought the other was an inferior clone ("We look like each other"). The company sent a message that it had secured a Rescue Unit (a three-man crew) named ELIZA, to arrive in approximately 14 hours. It had purportedly been sent to "fix" the stalled Harvester, but the clone suspected that Sam's promised contract to return to Earth in a few days wouldn't be honored. The frustrated 'original' Sam yelled at the clone: "I'm the original Sam. I'm Sam f--king Bell."

The plot became even more complex when it was theorized that neither of the two Sams was an 'original'. The clone was suspicious that the company had a secret supply room of replacement clones inside the base: "What about the other clones?...We might not be the first two to be woken up...There might be others up here right now...I bet there's some kind of secret room...You really think they give a s--t about us? They're laughing all the way to the bank." The two engaged in a bloody struggle when the second Sam insisted on tearing the base apart to find the hidden room.

When 'original' Sam directly asked GERTY: "Am I really a clone?" - he was given a clear explanation that both of them were clones of the 'original' Sam who had long ago returned to Earth. GERTY described how it had awakened a new clone after the rover crash and implanted the memories of the real original Sam Bell into the clone:

"When you first arrived at Sarang, there was a small crash. You woke up in the infirmary. You suffered minor brain damage and memory loss. I kept you under observation and ran some tests....Sam, there was no crash. You were being awakened. It is standard procedure for all new clones to be given tests to establish mental stability and general physical health. Genetic abnormalities and minor duplication errors in the DNA can have considerable impact...(Tess and Eve) are memory implants, Sam. Uploaded, edited memories of the original Sam Bell. I am very sorry."

The film's major spoiler was that the fraudulent Japanese company (LUNAR Industries) running the operation had cloned the real "original" Sam, and replaced him multiple times over about a dozen years. The company sent a menacing "rescue team" to erase the problem created by clone Sam's discovery of another younger-looking, mirror-image, healthier clone.

The first Sam was also beginning to physically deteriorate after three years of service, and was throwing up blood and losing teeth. He played back archival video of the four previous Sams (all physically debilitated as their 3-year contracts expired), as they prepared to take a three-day return journey back to Earth in a cyrogenic protection pod (although they were actually incinerated). The two found a secret, out-of-bounds level of vaults below the hibernation chamber, where there were hundreds of ready-to-use cloned Sams stored in 'cryosleep' pull-out drawers. They decided on a plan of action in a race against time, to seek a way to return to Earth in a Helium-3 transport, and expose LUNAR's conspiracy.

GERTY woke up a new 7th clone (there had been 4 previous clones before the two of them), in time to greet ELIZA. The first Sam was driven back to the crashed rover to expire there, to prevent suspicion while the newer Sam clone was sent back to Earth. GERTY's memory cache, in its memory banks, that had recorded everything in the previous day, was rebooted after Sam was launched to Earth. ELIZA arrived just as Sam was launched, and the new clone awoke. Just before the closing credits as the launcher entered Earth's atmosphere, news reports (in voice-over) were broadcast about the controversy stirred up by Sam's (clone 6) testimony and evidence.

9 (2009)

Nine "Stitchpunk" Robots, each cloth-skinned mechanical doll identified by a Number on their back
B.R.A.I.N. (Binary Reactive Artificially Intelligent Neurocircuit)

Director Shane Acker's debut feature film (Tim Burton co-produced), a PG-13 rated animated fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world, centered on a group of nine robots, identified by large numbers on their backs. They sought to escape the terrors of large, super-powerful destructive robotic Machines, including:

• a red-eyed monster known as the Beast
• a giant Bat
• a scissors-handed "Seamstress" creature
• and the deadly Fabrication Machine, known as B.R.A.I.N. (Binary Reactive Artificially Intelligent Neurocircuit), wrought by a Scientist (voice of Alan Oppenheimer)

The machines, ordered to be created by a Hitler-like Chancellor in a fascistic regime had turned against their creator, and left a Matrix-like, dystopic, bombed-out world.

The small robots (with wooden hands and copper fingers) were also the creation of the Scientist, possibly the last man to survive on Earth after a genocidal war between man and machine, although he was dead on the floor.

The main heroic character was the youngest and most daring 9 (voice of Elijah Wood) - a zippered, goggle-eyed burlap sock-puppet.

Others included:

• a stern, authoritarian and conservative self-appointed leader 1 (voice of Christopher Plummer) with a bishop's miter and crook
• a kindly inventor 2 (voice of Martin Landau)
• a renegade warrior-heroine 7 (voice of Jennifer Connelly) with a skull mask
• one-eyed puppet 5 (voice of John C. Reilly)
• a black/white striped artist 6 (voice of Crispen Glover) haunted by a design
• large and illiterate, clownish 8 (voice of Fred Tatasciore) - 1's bodyguard.
• robots 3 and 4 were non-speaking twins
  

The Deadly Machines
	The Beast
"The Seamstress"	The Fabrication Machine B.R.A.I.N.

RoboDoc (2009)

MD 63 (RoboDoc)

National Lampoon's and director Stephen Maddocks' release of the comedy RoboDoc was meant to be a deliberate satirical parody of the RoboCop films, egotistical medical malpractice lawyers, and ruthless bureaucratic health insurance companies. It was also laced with casual sexism, gratuitous racism and R-rated sexual content (mostly crude and raunchy jokes). Its tagline was: "A Medical Comedy That's Really Sick!" One added-on scene included anonymous strippers on a bus, the film's sole nudity.

Hospital head Dr. Roskin (Alan Thicke) was plagued by high costs, and overworked and constantly-sued doctors, and the healthcare system was about to collapse. To cut costs, the parent company of Roskin's hospital, R.I.P Healthcare Corporation, had developed a robotic android doctor, named MD 63 (aka RoboDoc) (William Haze), (resembling Data in a series of Star Trek films who was always trying to be more "human"). RoboDoc was modeled after the dead fiancee of pretty Dr. Lauren Mills (Christine Scott Bennett), the head of the Children's Clinic.

The mistake-free RoboDoc ("his programming won't allow it") had been created by nebbish scientist Jason Dockery (David Faustino) and his porn-addicted partner Kevin (Lucius Baston). MD 63 was an encyclopedia of medical knowledge ("a walking encyclopedia"). He was completely efficient with 500 trillion gigabytes of memory, and did everything related to patient care, 24/7 with fast results - including diagnosis, surgery, anesthesia, rehab, and even unnecessary plastic (cosmetic) surgery.

However, one sleazy, rapacious malpractice lawyer Jake Gorman (Kenny Babel), who was previously making a killing on profitable medical lawsuits, saw RoboDoc ("a walkng can-opener") as a financial threat, along with evil Dr. Callaby (Corin Nemec). They joined together to destroy RoboDoc in order to maintain his business. The film concluded with a lengthy court trial to end the "perfect" doctor's practice.

Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009)

Robot Ninjas of the Black Samurai

This was a direct-to-video production - and the 13th entry in the long-running series of Scooby-Doo! animated films based upon the characters in the popular Saturday morning cartoon show.

The supernatural villain in this Japanese story was the Black Samurai (Kevin Michael Richardson), an ancient Japanese warrior (featuring blazing eyes and sharp fangs) with a powerful Sword of Doom, who was assisted by robotic Ninja warriors (with glowing green eyes and ninja costumes).

The Scooby-Doo gang, known as Mystery, Inc., were in Tokyo where fashionable, red-haired Daphne Blake (Grey DeLisle) was engaged in a martial arts tournament at a school. She was joined by her puzzle- and crime-solving group including:

• Shaggy Rogers (Casey Kasem), a slacker, with shaggy brownish-blonde hair, with a green V-neck T-shirt and reddish-brown bell bottom pants
• Velma Dinkley (Mindy Cohn), brainy, bespectacled, with baggy orange turtleneck, red pleated skirt
• Freddy Jones (Frank Welker), blonde, handsome, with white/blue-striped shirt and blue (jeans) pants
• Scooby-Doo (also Welker), Shaggy's pet Great Dane

They were there to analyze the fighting styles of various martial arts experts to program their fighting skills or techniques into robots.

Daphne met Miss Mirimoto (Kelly Hu), the school's martial arts academy master, and her enormous bodyguard Sojo (also Kevin Michael Richardson). Also at the school was the owner of the Tokyo Museum of Ancient History, Mr. Takagawa (Sab Shimono). He warned Miss Mirimoto that the Black Samurai was after the Destiny Scroll which was located at the school.

The events of the film were set in motion when Mr. Takagawa was attacked by the apparent Ghost of the ancient Black Samurai (with his robotic ninjas). According to legend, if the Black Samurai regained his powers (with an ancient Sword of Fate), he would rule over Japan and bring back the Samurai Age. The mystery led the gang to an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was soon revealed that the Black Samurai was Sojo, and the mastermind was Miss Mirimoto, who had lured the gang to Japan to help her, with her evil plan to release the Black Samurai in order to return Japan to its ancient ways.

Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion (2009)

Robo

This painfully-unfunny, family-friendly action comedy was a campy parody of the many superhero films, comic-book characters, and TV incarnations, although it was really a blatant rip-off of Star Wars, Back to the Future, Men in Black, Superman and The Matrix, and many others.

After being arrested for hitting a would-be robber, faux superhero do-gooder Ed Gruberman (Justin Whalin) stood trial for excessive use of force on an unarmed "innocent bystander," and the sleazy Judge (Michael Rooker) sentenced Ed to serve time in a halfway house for crime fighters in training.

Superhero Ed wore a bright yellow, ill-fitting spandex suit with a green sequined "G" (stitched on in red), a slick and flashy red cape and green boots. During the trial, Ed told his life story of how his circus performing parents (tight-rope walkers) died in a mysterious accident. Someone masked and wearing a dark spandex suit cut their tightrope, and once they landed outside, a yellow bus backed over them. From that day forward, Ed made a vow that he would be like the Dark Winged Vesper (his family's popular TV superhero) and avenge his Mom and Dad's death.

The other misfit, aspiring superheroes, all heroes in training (or rehabilitation) known as Super Capers, actually had developing super powers, unlike superhero wannabe Ed (who called himself Gruberman!). They were caricatures of traditional comic book heroes:

• Sarge (Tommy Lister), head trainer and overseer
• Will Powers (Ryan McPartlin), vain and with strong superpowers, a Superman figure
• Puffer Boy (writer-director Ray Griggs), half-man, half-fish, who swelled up like a Puffer-Fish
• Igniter Boy (Chris Owen)
• Herman Brainard (Samuel Lloyd), super-smart with a pulsating forehead, with telekinesis powers
• Felicia Freeze (Danielle Harris), ice-powered, sexy
• Herbert Q (Oliver Muirhead) (the name was a nod to James Bond's technical whiz Q)

Puffer Boy	Felicia Freeze
Will Powers	Herman Brainard

Robo (voice of Brian Cummings), Herbert Q's cigar-smoking, midget toy was a tiny version of the Terminator (sounding like Arnold Schwarzenegger with his thick accent).

With the Super Capers, Ed traveled through time (in a silver RV - Flux-Capacitor enhanced - and built like the time-traveling DeLorean DMC-12 in the Back to the Future films) on rescue missions. Ed claimed he had the super-power of prayer, to make things come true - and it seemed to work. On their mission to combat a gold heist by scheming supervillain named Captain Sludge (Jon Polito), accompanied by a minotaur minion named Cretin (with the head of a bull), Ed was framed and the Super Capers were shut down.

A dark secret about Ed's past was revealed when he was again brought before The Judge, who had sentenced him earlier. The malicious Judge was revealed to be both:

• Ed's father
• the two-faced Dark Winged Vesper, Ed's favorite TV super-hero

The Judge's partner, vivacious, super-powered femme fatale Red (Christine Lakin) in a red outfit, attempted to lure Ed to the Dark Side. However, further time-travels saved Ed (who found himself) and the evil villains were arrested.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Aerostats, Harvesters, Moto-Terminators, Hydrobots, Series T-600 Terminators, a T-RIP (Resistance Infiltrator Prototype), and a new T-800 Series Terminator

Robots created by self-aware machines of Skynet in the year 2018 included older-model Series T-600 Terminators (Skynet's main foot soldiers, "a primitive design" with a lot of firepower, but "heavy and slow"). Also, there were the following:

• small Aerostats (flying, infra-red equipped Hunter-killer scouts for the Terminators that could identify and upload the identities of opposing Resistance fighters)
• Harvesters (massive, six-story high robots with multiple clawed pincers that grabbed and collected humans to be imprisoned in cages)
• Moto-Terminators (two-wheeled motorcycle-like Terminators that were launched from the feet of Harvesters)
• H-K Aerials (a large airborne jet-powered machine of various sizes with mounted lasers, missiles, and cannons)
• Hydrobots (whirring, worm or snake-like water-borne Terminators)

One other Terminator was a T-RIP (Resistance Infiltrator Prototype) - developed from the Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) character, a Texas prison death-row inmate who was executed in 2003, and signed his body over to cellular regeneration researcher Dr. Selena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) for a single kiss.

Skynet used Kogan's research findings to advance Cyberdyne's work. Marcus was turned into a cyborg - a T-RIP (Resistance Infiltrator Prototype) - "the only one of your kind...the human condition no longer applies to you" - although he had a human heart and brain (with chip).

His main programmed mission was to lead future father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), with Resistance leader John Connor (Christian Bale) trailing, back to Skynet Central so they could be killed.

Also, this film included the new cybernetic organism, the T-800 Series Terminator with a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 living-tissue covering - (a combination of CGI and composite shots of Arnold Schwarzenegger from The Terminator (1984)). When its tissue covering was burnt off by blasts of grenades, its metal-skeletal frame was revealed.

T-800 Series

Robot (2010, India) (aka Enthiran)

Chitti

This lengthy Indian sci-fi blockbuster (in the Tamil language) had an alternative English title: simply "Robot." It was the most expensive Indian film to date (around $34 million-US) and highest-grossing Tamil film in Indian history (at $82 million-US). And it starred two fairly recognizable actors in the lead roles: Rajinikanth, the biggest Indian movie super-star and the second highest-paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan, and ex-Miss World 1994 Aishwarya Rai. Special effects were accomplished by Stan Winston Studios (Legacy Effects) and Industrial Light And Magic (ILM).

In the Frankenstein-like plot (also with similarities to The Terminator (1984), Making Mr. Right (1987), the Matrix Reloaded (2003), and even Elvis Presley), a super-intelligent, sophisticated android robot named Chitti (Rajinikanth) was designed in the likeness of its robotic scientist-creator, Dr. Veseegaran (also Rajinikanth), whose pretty girlfriend was medical student Sana (Aishwarya Rai).

The robot had lifelike skin, clothing, and many capabilities: super-strength, advanced mathematical calculation skills, memorization, housekeeping (cooking and cleaning), dancing, and helping Sana cheat on her exams. However, Chitti took statements literally and could get into trouble. When the android-robot was debuted at an International Robotic Conference in 2009, Veseegaran bragged of the robot's qualities before a large, appreciative audience:

He has been programmed with the memory and skills of 100 humans. He knows all the arts and languages of the world. He can dance. He can fight. And he's a sportsman. He's fire resistant, water resistant, in-built vehicle. His eyes don't just see, but also show. You can talk to him virtually. This type of robot can develop and protect our nation 100 fold.

Chitti
Chitti's Debut	With Melted-Away Plastic Skin	Veseegaran Dismantling and Destroying Chitti

After a few major difficulties with the robot, considered ultimately unstable for military purposes, Veseegaran decided to embue it with human emotions, by upgrading the android's software and capabilities. [A plot point resembling Star Trek: The Next Generation's (1987-94) Lt. Cmdr. Data.] Soon, other complications arose when Chitti fell in chaste romantic love with Sana. Veseegaran chose to end the life of his super-robot, chopped it into pieces and placed the dismembered body parts in a dumping ground landfill ("a monstrous machine like you should not exist in this world - I'll disintegrate you").

Meanwhile, Vaseegaran's former mentor and jealous rival scientist Dr. Bohra (Danny Denzongpa) had been attempting to create his own androids, but had become very frustrated when one of his latest "metal head" prototypes failed (it mistook the word "bun" for "gun," couldn't walk straight, and tried to strangle him). To compete and surpass his rival, he gathered Chitti's parts, reassembled the robot and made it into a killing military machine (with the addition of a red destruction chip), with the goal of selling Chitti to German terrorists on the black-market.

In the action-oriented conclusion, Chitti killed Bohra (off-screen), kidnapped Sana (from her wedding to Veseegaran), and barricaded himself in the Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (AIRD) Institute, fortified by hundreds of Chitti robotic clones that the robot had replicated. With their amazing powers, the clones morphed into spheres, walls, a drill, an amazing monstrous cobra, and a giant man. The army and police assaulted the building to destroy all of the Chittis. In the end, Vaseegaran captured Chitti, removed his destruction chip and forced the other robots to self-destruct.

However, the Indian government punished Vaseegaran with the death sentence, for creating a murderous robot, and for causing many casualties and billions of dollars in damages. With his emotions intact, Chitti defended his creator, claimed everything was only an accident, and that Bohra was the evil perpetrator. After Vaseegaran was released, Chitti agreed to suicidally dismantle himself.