All right, better get this out of the way now. I’m not going to write a comparison of this movie to the original Robocop, because I adore the original Robocop, and a direct comparison will only lead me to despise this film and everyone involved with it for as long as I live. In comparison to the original, the film is terrible, but that’s exactly what I expected; the new film clearly wasn’t made to compete with the original, it’s was intended to be a basic action movie, and for the most part, it does this very well.
A still from the film showing Robocop (Joel Kinnaman) with visor up.
I wasn’t impressed with the film, nor was I dissatisfied with it. It was slightly worse than I was expecting, but not so terrible that I couldn’t enjoy it at all. Some of the element of the film are executed quite well. The scenes with Samuel L. Jackson’s character Pat Novak are probably the most interesting and entertaining scenes in the film. they’re a humorous look at the blatantly biased media that the modern day United States has become so famous for. The film packs most of it’s standard comedy relief into these scenes, and makes the one sided arguments presented so obviously stupid that the audience can’t help but laugh at their absurdity.
Focusing on the good, I thought the action scenes were very well done, excluding the first one. In this scene, we see our protagonist, officer Alex Murphy, and his partner Jack get into a poorly shot shootout with a group of generic street thugs working for a generic criminal. They were sold out by another pair of generic dirty cops, and his partner ends up getting shot,, which is followed by a generic hospital scene. Starting to sense a pattern here? I did. i don’t even know why they bothered introducing Murphy’s partner; his character exists only to get shot and say the word “Robocop”, thus justifying the films title. Anyway, back to the good action segments.
Once Murphy is transformed into Robocop, the film kicks into high gear. The action sequences show off some decent digital effects, but the cinematography and camera work really shine through here. There’s an excellent blend of a 3rd person camera and a first person AI view, and, unlike most of the cheesy action movies released recently, the editing actually slows down enough to give you time to appreciate the scene, instead of rushing by. The pacing of the whole film is fairly strong throughout, and doesn’t noticeably slow down anywhere throughout the film.
But, apart from being a strong action movie, Robocop doesn’t have a lot going for it in any other department. It doesn’t have the smart, foreboding social commentary that the original is remembered for. It doesn’t have any characters or story elements that leave a lasting impression on you. In short; It doesn’t have lasting quality. Robocop is fun while your watching it, but you’re not really going to remember it after.
What really drags this movie down are the characters and the plot. I’m not really sure whether it’s the acting or the writing that’s bad, but it’s definitely one of them. Murphy’s wife spends most of the movie whining or crying; his son has maybe five lines and maybe two expressions; the evil, exploitative, money hungry CEO is an evil, exploitative, money hungry CEO; the CEO’s corporate lackeys are the CEO’s corporate lackeys, and we’ve just seen these characters way too many times for them to remain at all interesting.
The plot is just as recycled as the characters. Whilst it’s not a point for point remake as the original it doesn’t introduce any new plot points. It just kind of rehashes the same police revenge story as every other police revenge film. Whilst it clearly shows a lot of influence from the original Robocop, I saw a lot of “Maniac Cop” and “Darkman” in the film. It’s sad to see that the remake didn’t take the story and try to make it its own, but just relies on a basic revenge plot, and abysmally fails in trying to mix in a “Man V Machine” element in the film, because it’s message is pretty clear from the get go; Corporations = bad, America and Humans = good. Robocop is not a film that you’re going to watch twice; If you saw Iron Man and thought “Wow, I liked that movie, but those characters were way too charismatic and interesting, and the plot was way too complex”, then Robocop is probably the perfect film for you.
Overall Verdict: The action may be good, and Robocop may move a lot smoother and have a shiny new coat of paint, but poor writing and a boring plot make this a clunky and forgettable film.
