Cheesy battle against A.I.

Falling just short of being so bad it’s good, “Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter” is a shameless low-budget “Terminator”/“Star Wars”/“Mad Max” knock-off that will have to settle for being merely godawful.

This serving of sci-fi sludge, set “a few decades from now,” presents a postapocalyptic world in which humanity has been overthrown by the A.I. Scourge, a mechanized army intent on taking over the universe.

Determined to stop the evil robot empire in its artificial tracks is Sienna (Tracey Birdsall), a take-no-prisoners arms dealer with a murky past and the heart of a rebel beating beneath her considerable cleavage.

While writer-director Neil Johnston, whose cinematic nuggets include “Alien Armageddon” and “Starship: Apocalypse” serves up the sort of cheeseball visual effects that wouldn’t have passed muster on a first-generation PlayStation console, it’s clear that distributor Sony Pictures is hoping Birdsall’s young male following will give it a much-needed cult boost.

Summoning Pamela Anderson circa 1996’s “Barb Wire,” the Van Nuys-born Birdsall, whose bio makes note of her 15-year run on a Maxim Hotel electronic billboard in Las Vegas, skillfully manages to kick evil robot butt without a hint of muss or smudge of her silky blond hair or carefully applied makeup.

The raging hormone sector aside, viewers will likely have a hard time finding any pleasure here, guilty or otherwise.

“Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter.” No rating. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes. Playing: Downtown Independent, Los Angeles.