10 Greatest Giant Robots of All Time

Because Siskoid and I often share a brain, we both disqualified giant robots from our Top 10 Giant Monsters lists last week. Which means that we're back with lists of our huge, mechanical friends this week.

I know a few others who are also planning to join in for our second, big, blogging crossover, so I'll update this post as I see those. Anyone can participate, so just let me know and I'll be sure to link to you. [Update: Here's Siskoid's list, and here's Ken O's from That F'ing Monkey.]

Here's my list. No special rules this time; I'll explain any caveats in the entries below.

10. Martian Tripods (War of the Worlds)



My first caveat is that I'm accepting pilot-driven mechs as "giant robots." It's not technically accurate, but since they're visually indistinguishable from actual robots, that's good enough for me. The Martian war machines from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds are the grand-daddies of this concept and are super scary besides. Love them.

9. Warbox (DC Comics)



The only reason Warbox is so low on my list is because he's only had one, brief appearance in Metal Men (V.3) #2. On the other hand, he looks like a teddy bear and has a reel-to-reel tape player on his chest. It kind of hurts me not to have him higher.

8. Mechani-Kong (King Kong Escapes)



It's a horrible movie, but just look at that giant robotic gorilla shooting lasers out of his eyes and tell me you don't love him.

7. Mechagodzilla



I haven't yet seen any of the Toho films with giant robots like Mechagodzilla, Mecha King Ghidorah, or Jet Jaguar, so it's hard for me to love them as much as I should. I'll lump Ultraman into that same category and heck, Voltron and every anime ever made too. I have a lot of learning to do.

But Mechagodzilla is such a cultural icon with such a great look that I feel like I know him even though my entire experience with him has been in the recent Godzilla comics from IDW.

6. Grurk (It Came!)



It's name probably isn't actually Grurk, but that's what it always says, which is part of its charm. I probably shouldn't include it until the It Came! mini-series is done and I can think about it as a complete story, but it goes to show how much I loved that first issue that I want to honor it here.

5. Gallaxhar's giant robot probe (Monsters vs. Aliens)



I should have figured out how to work Susan (Ginormica) or Insectosaurus into last week's list. I love Monsters vs. Aliens and its giant robot is spectacular and funny.

4. Sentinels (X-Men)



An important part of my childhood and the X-Men's world in general. One of the few X-Men villains that still give me a thrill when they show up.

3. Experimental Prototype Robot K1 (Doctor Who)



Not only was Tom Baker my first Doctor, his first episode, "Robot" was my first episode too. So as crap as those special effects are, this giant machine is a major part of what hooked me about Doctor Who.

2. Archer (Kill All Monsters)



I feel like I need to apologize again for not only including one of my own creations (with artist Jason Copland, of course), but for putting him really high on my list. But where I'm fond of the some of the visual aspects of the creatures we created for Kill All Monsters, I'm genuinely in love with the characters. I hope you'll forgive me the indulgence.

I like all the Bots for different reasons, but I have a special place in my heart for poor Archer who so much wants to fit in as part of the Kill Team, but is having a difficult time because the human members are (perhaps justifiably) scared of him.

1. The Iron Giant (The Iron Giant)



I usually have a live-and-let-live attitude about these lists, but this is one of the rare occasions where there is absolutely a right answer. Number One has to be the Iron Giant. Has. To be.

The 31 Monsters of Halloween: Aliens

Yeah, I know that yesterday's monster also technically fits this category, but my original plan was to just have the Sigourney Weaver aliens today. Thought of a couple of more that I wanted to throw in though.

A Host of Monsters vs. Aliens

Your giant monster/giant robot news for the week:

Monsters vs. Aliens



Lots of Monsters vs. Aliens art coming out lately.

American Host

I still haven't seen the original, so I'm trying not to read too much about the American remake, but with Gore Verbinski producing, I have hopes that it'll be really, really good.

The Awesome List: Monsters vs. Aliens website; I gush some more about Atomic Robo

Really short Awesome List today:

Monsters vs. Aliens



The MvA website is live. Not much info on it yet, but man, I love that intro.

Why Atomic Robo is the Awesome: Reason # 539

The creators defend themselves against criticism that perhaps their comic is to too formulaic and/or fast-paced: "Sorry, hypothetical reviewer, you can find your decompressed comics filled with turgid dialog elsewhere. We're too busy making a robot punch other robots to bother with that junk."

December Theatrical Releases

Last Week

The Golden Compass: Early reviews haven't been awesome, but I still want to see the talking polar bear fight the giant robot polar bear. Also: James Bond, Vesper, Sam Elliott, and Nicole Kidman.

Atonement: Ah, Keira. If only it also had giant polar bears.

Revolver: (limited release) Guy Ritchie returns to his roots with a new gangster film starring Jason Statham. Also, Ray Liotta. Unfortunately, it's taken two years to get it to the US from Britain, there's been absolutely zero publicity about it, and it's in limited release. That doesn't make it sound like a worthy successor to Snatch.

This Weekend

I Am Legend: I'm pretty much scared of how this is going to compare to the original story, but the trailers look good enough that I'm willing to give it a shot. At best though, I'm expecting my usual, enjoyable-but-forgettable experience with Will Smith movies.

Youth Without Youth: (LA/NY) Don't let the fancy mcschmancy roses on the poster fool you. It's really a story about Nazis trying to capture a scientist they think has discovered the secret to immortality. The movie's just going to look really, really pretty while it's telling it to you.

December 21st

National Treasure: Book of Secrets: The first one was everything that The Da Vinci Code should've been. I'm up for more.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: It's probably the Johnny Cash references, but I think the trailer for this is hilarious.

P.S. I Love You: I know, I know. I'm just a little in love with Hilary Swank right now.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: (limited release) And Johnny Depp.

Charlie Wilson's War: I'm lukewarm about Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, but Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mike Nichols are always draws. And the trailer is funny and interesting.

December 25th

The Bucket List: It's telling that the poster realizes it doesn't have to say anything about what the movie's actually about. All it has to do is show Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman enjoying each other (and tell me that Rob Reiner's involved) and I know I want to see it.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem: I sorta liked this. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like this too.

December 28th

The Orphanage: (limited release) Guillermo del Toro produced this horror movie and is bringing it to the US. And it's apparently wildly popular in Spain. That's enough for me.

Persepolis: (limited release) I've been hearing about how good the graphic novel for this is for a couple of years, so I'm interested in seeing what the fuss is about for myself. Especially since the animation is all done in the style of the graphic novel.

Monster-Killing Monday!

For a movie like Dragon Wars, I don't trust the critics' opinions of it. I'm not looking for art here, so it's fan reaction that I'm most interested in.

The Standard Online's review is by someone who claims to be a giant-monster fan, but warns us away because of a directionless plot, a lame ending, bad fight choreography, and '90s-level CGI. But then he mentions "all kinds of things stomping around ... with rocket launchers on their backs." How is that incentive not to see it? In the end he admits that "maybe I've left my Power Ranger days too far behind me now." Which makes me wonder if I'd enjoy it if I went in with the mindset that it's going to be awful, but fun. After all, I liked the absolutely horrible Last Legion.

Sean Collins is much kinder. He defends the less-than-cutting-edge effects ("you could tell King Kong was stop-motion animation, couldn't you?") while admitting that the story is lacking and the acting is rather phoned in. But even with a sloppy story, "I mean, I wasn't expecting Ursula K. LeGuin, I just wanted some basic set-up for the giant monsters, and that's what I got." So, I'm encouraged. Not "this-is-going-to-be-the-next-LotR" encouraged, but "I-can-see-not-hating-myself-for-seeing-it" encouraged.

Louis Fowler (who also reviews comics for Bookgasm) goes ahead and pushes me into the theater: "Seriously—if you walked into this fifteen minutes after the credits, you’d think it was Michael Bay filming a rather high-quality episode of Power Rangers. This film is no different, whatsoever, than his horrible Transformers from earlier this summer ... Plus it’s seven hours shorter ... D-War is by no means a 'great' film. But it’s a good enough film, and between this and The Host, it’s a reasonable enough request that the Koreans make nothing but giant monster films for the next twenty or so year, because they’re the only ones doing it right. They should just go ahead and do some giant robot movies as well, because it’s the only way I’ll be pleased."

Speaking of Korean giant-monster movies, SciFi Japan takes a look at their first one, Yongary, Monster from the Deep.

In other giant-monster news, Dreamwork's entry in the genre, Monsters vs. Aliens, is being pushed forward a couple of months in order to get a jump on the 2009 summer movie season.

Kevin Church clues us in on Johnny Hiro, a series about a fella who's known to fight giant monsters.

Not exactly monsters per se, but Ron Mueck’s sculptures of giant humans sure are creepy!

Jason Copland, that sexy Canadian who's illustrating Kill All Monsters!, has a three part interview at Indie Pulp. He talks about Kill All Monsters! and shares some pages and a look at his process, so definitely check that out.

You know what your baby's room needs? A giant robot.