Film critic sin, I have in fact never seen the original RoboCop in it's entirety. It struck me as one of those movie that could never live up to all the hype so I can review this movie on it's own merit. However I am going to watch the original in the coming days and I may write a second review based on how it compares to the original. For now you just get the movie as it is. That's not so bad. Calm down.
So for this movie RoboCop is about two main things, the titular character Alex Murphy's RoboCop (played by Joel Kinnaman) and the world outside of the United States (Which is played by the opening scene of the movie). Circa some time in the future one company based out of Detroit builds robots to replace law enforcement, they are used in what appears to be every slightly underdeveloped nation in the world and create environments of completely controlled peace, it isn't shown to a great extent but I got the impression that the people were living under the thumb of the machines. The main thrust of the narrative is that the head of this company (played by Michael Keaton) is trying to get an act repealed that will allow him to integrate robuttz into the law enforcement agencies in the US and to do this he wants to take a disabled cop or veteran or what have you and rebuild him or her into a robot cop. CopBot. Or like... android cop!
We are then introduced to officer Alex Murphy of the Detroit P.D. who through strenuous sub plot background shenanigans is injured in a car bombing nearly fatally. The company approaches his wife about rebuilding him as a robocop, yada yada yada you get the idea and 3 months later scientist man (played by Gary Oldman) has him built back up into a robot body. ROBOCOP.
Yes while the poster may show off the new silly black suit the movie does feature (start and end) with the classic silver suit. It looks awesome. The movie overall is one of the better remakes at this level. Apart from a few little quirks it manages to deliver a solid and somewhat compelling story of a man struggling to keep his humanity. It has some really strong moments (that I don't want to spoil) and it went waaaay farther into how depressing of a situation Murphy's is than I thought it would. This movie contains some seriously dark and somewhat freaky outta left field moments that I genuinely wasn't expecting. RoboCop is also filled with some pretty solid action scenes, nothing too cray or too fancy but visually impressive and kept me mostly excited. Generally the performances of all the actors are great, legitimately everyone from Samuel L. Jackson to the Tin Man himself. Seriously it feels like a lot of money and time was poured into this movie, almost like someone cares about the property and the beloved icon....
BUT the film is far from perfect. It feels very cut down, it charts in at about 2 hours but feels way way shorter, a lot of the little scenes fly by, the situation with the family doesn't feel important enough and neither of the actors playing his son or wife bring a lot to the table. Some of the effects fall a little short , and the movie's overall visual aesthetic is a little bland, they don't do a lot to the overall setting to make it look like it's any number of years in the future. Also to be perfectly honest the whole thing kinda falls apart towards the end, the last action scene is bad, the final confrontations with the two main antagonists is weak, and the only thing about the end that feels right is Murphy getting back into the silver suit. Do all of these things totally ruin the movie? Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll not exactly, but it's nothing special.
For me the movie is slightly above average and maybe worth a look if you're scrounging for something to do but I can't imagine anyone clambering to the theater to see this one. It's kind of a shame because with a little more work, maybe a few scenes reworked this movie could be something really cool. Unfortunately it's just kinda sorta there, I mean it came out in the middle of the week they don't really seem to care that this movie was even finished. Considering how expensive it probably was to make and the amazing cast that filled out its ranks I will remain slightly dissapointed that this didn't turn out to be more than it was. The first 3/4s really deserves a better ending then what we got here.
CATCH YA LATER ROBO FANZ
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| THIS SUIT IS PRETTY STUPID YA'LL |
I'm going to see it, great review
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