Robocop

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
  Robocop
Released 2/12/14, now in theaters

What is this?  Yet another remake of a movie classic?  Does Hollywood have no new ideas in the pipeline?  Well, we know the answer to that one.  But remakes aren't necessarily a bad thing if you can somehow make it better than the original.  A very daunting task, I know.  At the very least, a remake should make us look at the material a different way and not be a scene-for-scene copy all while keeping enough the original material to be recognizable.  Yikes, that was a mouthful!  So, without further ado, let's get down to what you really want to know.  Does the Robocop remake make you cheer or jeer?

Joel Kinnaman takes over the role of the cyborg supercop from Peter Weller, while Jose Padilha steps into Paul Verhoeven's director's chair.  While the remake may have a more morose tone, it is an action-packed thriller that, at times, bests the original.

Robocop starts as two stories that fatefully converge.  The year is 2028.  The Omnicorp Corporation (OCP), led by opportunistic CEO, Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), has cornered the market on robot technology overseas.  Heavily armed machines created by Omnicorp now serve as the police force in many nations and have replaced much of the manpower in the U.S. Military.  But, the ever-ambitious Sellars is losing out on a potential goldmine.  The use of clinical, remorseless machines policing American streets has been vehemently rejected through the Dreyfus Act.  Sellars and his marketing team come up with the idea of "selling" their technology to the public by adding a human element. 

Enter Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), a scientist on the Omnicorp payroll.  Norton has made amazing advances in robotic prosthetics.  Appealing to the doctor's need to help the gravely injured, Sellars is able to get him on board with the project.  Now, all they need is the right subject.

Detroit detective, Alex Murphy (Kinnaman), is one of the only honest cops in his corrupt precinct.  While working undercover to catch a notorious drug dealer, he hits the tip of the iceberg as to how deeply the corruption in his precinct extends.  Getting far too close to the truth, his partner is badly injured when their cover is deliberately blown.  Knowing Murphy would not give up on the case now, his car is rigged to explode, critically wounding Murphy.  And voila, Omnicorp now has its potential human guinea pig.  After Sellars convinces Murphy's wife to sign the release that is. 

Thus, for the first time in history, man is merged with machine.  Murphy is reborn in a nearly unstoppable robot body.  Omnicorp's marketing machine has worked overtime selling Murphy's story as a human interest piece to further the company's agenda.  Murphy's transformation can't fail without dire political and financial consequences for OCP.  So, despite Norton's objections, Murphy's human personality is suppressed to allow the machine full reign over his actions.  But, OCP's best efforts are thwarted every time as the human never remains buried by the machine for very long, making a Murphy a threat to the conglomerate's gargantuan ambitions. 

Visually, this film is stunning.  The Robocop armor is sleek and more aerodynamic here.  With all due respect to the original movie which was great, that armor looked like a tank that wasn't conducive to quick movement.  I believed Kinnaman's cyborg when the situation called for fast action.  The director also made a nice decision with the cyborg's visor.  Instead of being permanently attached to Murphy's head, the visor was turned into more of tactical weapon as it automatically appeared when Robocop was in battle mode and retracted when he wasn't.  These were nice contrast moments between man and machine.  I also liked the decision to make the armor "more tactical" as Sellars would say in the movie by making it black.  It felt more like a covert ops suit than a robotic exoskeleton this way.  I wish this look would have stayed in favor of the more classic look (yes, I just gave that away).

When the audience is introduced to what's left of Murphy after the explosion, it's sad and disturbing.  It reminded me of a line from the Metallica song, One.  "I'm waking up I cannot not see that there's not much left of me."  Unfortunately, Murphy is able to see.  That would have messed with my head permanently. 

And, yet another good decision amongst many good decisions in the film was a concerted effort to keep Murphy as human as possible.  When he's not controlled by the machine, Murphy speaks in his human voice.  Weller's Robocop always felt very robotic.  Again, I'm not complaining about the original, but I like the small subtleties that Padilha has added.

Hopefully, this will be a springboard for Joel Kinnaman as he does a more than credible job here.  I became familiar with him in the TV series, The Killing.  It wasn't long before I found him the only thing watchable on the show. 

There are other subtle little cookies Padilha adds like small segments of the original Robocop theme.  He also adds a bit of symbolism in Raymond Sellars because that's exactly what Keaton does through the whole movie.  He tries to sell the Senate.  He tries to sell the American public.  He sells to Norton and the Murphys.  Every last group is led to believe that what he's doing is a good idea until they often realize (too late) that it's all a bill of goods and there were never any good intentions involved. 

And, the social satire Verhoeven included in the original can all be embodied by Samuel L. Jackson's character, Pat Novak, a television host who is pretty much in favor of militarism and corporate greed.  He's essentially a  mouthpiece for Sellars.  One thing I would like to thank Padilha for is giving the audience a classic Samuel L. Jackson moment at the end of Robocop.  Oh, you all know what I mean by that!

It appears that Hollywood has found the formula for churning out remakes that are at least as good as their predecessors.  In the last three years, we've had Dredd in 2012 which was far superior to the original train wreck.  Then there was Carrie in 2013 which I thought improved on some aspects of the original (although the ending of the original can never be topped).  Now, there's Robocop.  Padilha has done a masterful job of putting his own spin on the character while keeping it decidedly recognizable in more than name only.  This is Robocop for a new generation. 

Now, I'd buy that for a dollar!


The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

****1/4 stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.