BY JOE REID |

10 Movie Robots We Loved Like Humans

'Pacific Rim' isn't exactly offering the most relatable of robot 'characters.' Here are ten that actually made us care.

10 Movie Robots We Loved Like Humans

10. Vanessa Kensington, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: It's not like we ended up weeping sad tears when we found out, in the beginning scenes of The Spy Who Shagged Me, that Vanessa was a fembot all along. But it does cast a pall over the first Austin Powers movie. How can we believe in their love the same way again? We can't. Love is dead.

9. David, Prometheus: Ultimately, David proves himself to be not so worthy of our love, particularly when he dooms humanity to destruction. But by the time he's reduced to being just a head in a bag, he's back to being pretty lovable. Plus he patterns his appearance on Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, world's most lovable reformed Aryan imperialist!

8. C3POStar Wars:
7. R2D2Star Wars:
Obviously 3PO and R2 were going to make this list. R2 especially is incredibly lovable due to his extreme loyalty to Luke. 3PO is kind of a know-it-all (except for the "kinda") but he does end up backing into some really courageous behavior.

6. WALL-E, WALL-E: The entire premise of the film is that you will find WALL-E to be the cutest, most huggable little metal cube in the whole universe. Both film and character succeed on all counts, though much credit to the lovely EVE for bringing WALL-E's lovestruck qualities to the forefront.

5. Dot Matrix, Spaceballs: I know ranking the spoof character higher than the originals she was designed to parody is considered bad form in the listmaking community, but Dot Matrix is actually the far more lovable character. She looks out for Princess Vespa in a far more proactive way than the Star Wars droids, she enjoys a fun flirtation with Barf, and she's voiced by comedy legend Joan Rivers. Plus she has a cute chrome skirt. What's not to love?

4. T-800, Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The biggest comeback story among movie robots ever. The original T-800 in The Terminator is a fearsome, affect-less killing machine, terrorizing Sarah Conner at every turn. In T2 however, the Terminator's job is to protect young John Conner (Edward Furlong), and in the process, John teaches the Terminator about cool '90s phraseology and how to love. By the end, he even understands why humans cry, the big lovable hunk of metal!

3. Bishop, Aliens: The best thing about Bishop -- well, the second-best thing, after that knife trick he does to Bill Paxton -- is that he overcomes so much prejudice against his kind that is totally not his fault. Sure, it's easy to understand Ripley's anti-android racism after what happened to her with Ash (Ian Holm) in the original Alien, but none of that is Bishop's fault. So when Bishop ends up heroically showing up the end to save Ripley, and getting mutilated for his trouble, it's the film's most heartwarming moment.

2. David, A.I. Artificial Intelligence: There should probably be an honorable mention here for Gigolo Joe, but it's Haley Joel Osment's David who really tugs at the heartstrings here. In fact, audience affection for David is probably more genuine because the movie (and Osment) isn't afraid to show how clingy and franly annoying a robot child built to only love could be. That's the tragedy of it all Ultimately, human beings aren't equipped to handle that much unfiltered, undiluted, unconditional love. Children like that end up at the bottom of the ocean, forever. (Until, fine, some aliens find him and give him the perfect day with his Mommy.)

1. The Iron Giant, The Iron Giant: Like .. do we even need to explain? Either you've seen The Iron Giant and know exactly what we're talking about, or you haven't, and you should -- and for God's sake don't watch the clip below because SPOILER. You will know what we're talking about, and you will also cry. Oh, are we going to have the "He's not a robot, he's an alien" pedantic chat? Get out of here right now.

Previously: Will 'Client 9' Help Eliot Spitzer's Return to Politics?

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