Robocop (2014)

                In 1987, director Paul Verhoeven brought us the Peter Weller sci-fi film, “Robocop.” The film told the tale of police officer, Alex Murphy, who was critically injured and used as the guinea pig for Omni Consumer Products. Thus, he’s turned into the world’s first half-man, half-machine law enforcer. What was originally going to be a “Judge Dredd” movie, turned into an original piece of work that really set the bar in terms of action films before “Die Hard,” and it shows. To this day, this film remains one of my top ten favorite films of all time, and the main feature of it comes from Robocop himself. Alex Murphy is a tragic character, as he’s turned into nothing but an experiment by the people he tried to protect. Despite being a machine, Alex is still the same person he was, showing that no matter what you take from a human’s body, you can’t change who there are as a person.

                Now, while the sequels may have taken away from that joy the enjoyment that was given to film goers, it still holds a special place in the hearts of fans such as me. When word of a remake came into play, I wasn’t really looking forward to it, as something like this would never have the same charm that was brought to the original, especially since they were making it PG-13. Even after enjoying the remakes of “Evil Dead” and “Carrie,” I only considered those remakes to be dumb luck and to be in the right hands to begin with. Even with what I was seeing in production photos and trailers, I still wasn’t in high spirits. Despite this, I still went and saw the film, to see if I could be proven it was worthy of being considered a “Robocop” film and one that could revive the series.

                While the remake does seem to follow some of the same elements of the original, they do add a few new touches that stand out, like other remakes. Most of them I felt very mixed about in terms of the purpose they served to the original. For example, Murphy’s family is actually given a much bigger role in the film, and is actually an essential character from beginning to end. In the original, she has a much smaller part, as she left Murphy after the accident, with the belief that he had died. That scene where Murphy finds that out as Robocop is a very moving scene, and really showcases what he’s lost in return for a second chance at life. In the remake, after Murphy has his accident, the wife’s the one who gives the approval for the procedure, that way he could still be there for both her and their son. It would be fine, but I think it would have been a stronger impact, if the scene where Murphy meets his son was at the end, when he finally sees him for the first time since then. Instead the scene is put at the halfway point, which is okay, just not as strong as it could have been.

While the Robocop suit itself felt off to me, I started to be a little more open-minded about it, as I figured it was trying to differentiate from the original with a new design. The problem I had was it looked more like the armored suit in “The Dark Knight Trilogy” than it did a Robocop. I did feel like what they were going for was more of stealth in the shadows, but that’s one thing I did feel was a problem. Robocop seemed much too light on his feet when it came to the action scenes. I know, CGI has plagued pretty much everything nowadays, but that’s the problem. We’re letting CGI get in the way too much, to where if you’re not good with it, it looks cartoonish and unrealistic. Hell, the scene revealing Murphy’s remaining body looked stupid. In the original, all that you could really see left of him was his face, and that was it. It didn’t need to show us any of his internal organs, as we could already figure what it was like for ourselves. And even then, we only have Murphy without the Robocop visor for the last act of the movie, when he’s trying to regain his true humanity again.

Now from what I’ve said so far, that doesn’t mean everything is bad. For starters, Michael Keaton as the head of Omni Products delivers a really calculative performance, and really plays his cards right whatever way possible. Not since “Batman Returns” have we had Keaton play a villain that was this smart and prepared. Originally, Hugh Laurie was set to play this character, but after he dropped out, Keaton took over the spotlight. I believe both actors would have been equally good in this role, as they both can showcase that mastermind talent everywhere. Now, also in this film is Samuel L. Jackson as Pat Novak, who’s basically a news reporter delivering the news of robot safety all around. As with any performance by this man, all you need is for him to say motherfucker at least once, and you have a Sam Jackson performance. We also have Jackie Earl Haley as a weapons specialist, and Gary Oldman as the scientist who helps bring Murphy back to life. Both of them do their jobs respectively and it’s easy to understand why. Both can do well in almost any movie they are in, as long as they have something good to work off of, in terms of a main character.

Now we come down to Joel Kinnaman as Alex Murphy, a.k.a. Robocop. Now when it was announced that Joel was playing the iconic character that was brought to life by Peter Weller, I thought he was going to be generic, since there wasn’t much he’s done in terms of film. On one side he’s done the remake of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” as Christer Malm…on the other, he’s done “The Darkest Hour,” which was a boring mess. Not only that, but it was also rumored that before Joel, they were considering actors such as Michael Fassbender, Russell Crowe, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, and even Tom Cruise at one point. Out of the choices they were deciding on before, I would have really been intrigued to see Fassbender as the main hero, since he was the one who felt the most right for the role. Crowe, Depp, and Reeves are good, but they wouldn’t match up to the charm that Fassbender has right now. Cruise wouldn’t have a chance in hell to play Robocop, because the possibilities of that happening are as slim as me liking a Tyler Perry movie. Anyways, going back to Joel Kinnaman as Robocop, I have to say…I was pleased. He wasn’t as good as Peter Weller was, but he did manage to still have a likable presence to him, and at the same time be a genuine person. If this film does manage to make success, I’d be okay with him continuing on as Robocop.

Despite the film using CGI over practical effects, I have to give credit for the action scenes, directed by Jose Padilha, were fairly decent. It does have shaky cam, but not Jerry Bruckheimer levels of annoyance, as I could tell what was going on. It may not be as exciting as the original, especially since the original was R rated and had used the most squibs in any film known to man, I still give credit where credit is due.

Overall, the remake of “Robocop,” while not perfect was a fairly decent movie. I didn’t hate it like I was expecting to, but for what it gives us, it gives it pretty well. If anything, it’s worth a decent rental or matinee showing. Not better than the first, but still better than the sequels that came afterwards.

Rating: 7/10

PS: They do have the Robocop theme, it just wasn't long enough.