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| "I think Omnicorp has you it its grasp for control, sir." (Picture courtesy of behance) |
Running on the potential of recapturing the fun of the 1987 original, this new Robocop film is decent enough on its own film without being in the former shadows of the 1980s. The plot, itself, is similar with Detective Alex Murphy being transferred into a project for severely injured police officers in the line of duty, except the bevy of shotgun blasts that sheered the body of the character from the original is replaced with an explosive planted in his car. All that remains is little of what used to be of Murphy's charred body replaced with a body suit. My impressions of the suit is that it's vastly superior compared to its bulkier predecessor and allows for more mobility, faster reflexes, has two firearms and is equipped with a visor for different functions.
Story-wise, it's fine enough, which is as good a time as any, it seems, to bring up the debate on whether or not, we should have machines and surveillance be the new way to have order compared to police officers. comparing this one to the '87 edition, the story is more fleshed-out compared to the first one, since a good bit of the original parodied the future and desensitized the violence but there were moments where I got tired of the preachy nature of this narrative, especially when an amendment goes to congress to be voted upon during a crucial part of the film. Alex's story has some nice tender moments, when his wife and son discovers him in the suit for the first time. More lengths seemed to have been made to flesh out the back-story of the main character to add more depth.
The performances aren't spectacular but are effective given what they have to work with for the film. Joel Kinnaman, who plays Alex Murphy/Robocop, is respectable enough. Michael Keaton & Gary Oldman display good chemistry throughout their simultaneous roles together in their moments. Samuel Jackson, throughout portions of the films plays Patrick Novak, a talk-show host who's really big into the militarization of law enforcement. Also, he's the best thing about this movie.
There's nothing great or bad here that is bending the action genre, but if you want to see a revision of an old-school character brought back to life on screen, Robocop is just a guilty pleasure, yet I doubt there will be a sequel if it ever comes up for discussion.
