Robocop- Review

A much better than expected remake of a classic

Director- Jose Padilha
Running time- 1 hour, 52 minutes
Certificate- 12A


Decent remakes are hard to come by, 'True Grit' and 'The Fly' are exceptions, but by and large they're more often than not quite unnecessary. On face value one of these is the 1987 classic SciFi action movie 'RoboCop', it was a film so raw and violent that the technology currently at the disposal of film-makers wouldn't in anyway enhance the experience, another problem is that the film still stands the test of time. So after watching the new 'RoboCop' I was pleasantly surprised to find it enjoyable, far more than I expected but its flaws mean it's nothing more than a decent action film at best.

Like the first film, the premise is centred on a Detroit cop Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) who in this film is fatally injured by a car bomb planted by local criminal Antoine Vallon. OmniCorp, a large corporation who create robot technology for military purposes see it is an opportunity to create a man/machine crime fighting tool. Their intention is to create a hero, someone people can look up to, and to also persuade the American Congress to repeal the Dreyfus Act, which blocks the use of Robots on the streets of America.

The film succeeds in creating a conflict between man and machine, by asking whether one is compatible with the other, and what would the implications be of letting machines in some form or another become the standard bearers of justice when they have no jurisdiction or emotional response to their actions. And some of the scenes of Alex Murphy with his family after the transformation are genuinely moving but often distractive, the feeling of loss is far greater in the original because of their lack of presence. The pacing is well done, and the narrative build up from Murphy coping with the change and becoming RoboCop is by all accounts satisfactory.

The casting is perfect with Gary Oldman playing Dr Dennett Norton, who fills the companion role similar to that of officer Anne Lewis in the original, he becomes the person to whom Murphy gains back his humanity. Michael Keaton plays OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars perfectly, never too evil to be a typecast villain but still morally greedy to be considered bad. While Samuel Jackson plays Pat Novak, in various clips he appears as an exaggerated version of a news show host in a programme called The Novak Element. His role is a play on the bias in modern day 24 rolling news and how this is used to change public opinion.


But the film surprisingly fails when it comes to what the original did so well, action. The action scenes in the new RoboCop are just too short and unspectacular. One of the reasons for this is that RoboCop now functions more as a machine controlling a man than vice versa, so he now runs very fast and his special vision through his visor allows him to kill multiple enemies effortlessly, taking away any kind of tension. The 12A certificate doesn't help, the original was violent and raw without ever being gratuitous, it showed bad people get their comeuppence in a way that was hard hitting but also satisfying.

The film only vaguely shows RoboCop cleaning the streets of Detroit, and the city itself is now nothing more than a backdrop, nothing of any economic or social problems is explored, if you wasn't told it could be any American City.

Another problem is the absense of any true villain, Antonie Vallon, the person behind Murphy's injuries comes and goes without any character development or much screen time, leaving very little impression. As much as Michael Keaton is wonderful as the CEO of OmniCorp he isn't an out and out villain, although snarky he is no way threatening. This is a problem because there's no antithesis to RoboCop, there's no one on screen to really fear or dislike in any great way, which is a big problem in what is essentially an action film.

RoboCop doesn't hold a candle to the original but by itself it's a decent action film, it grips you from the get go, it's entertaining and there is a real attempt to make a film which is in spirit with the original but deviates in a different direction. But in the end it's rather forgettable albeit enjoyable.

Verdict- 3/5