Review of RoboCop (1987) by Xgary X — 24 Jun 2013
A dedicated police officer is declared legally dead and reawakens to find that he has been transformed into a cyborg by a malevolent corporation. On the surface of it, Robocop looks like just another dumb sci-fi action film but beneath lurks a lot of clever ideas.
The concept of an ultra violent law man operating in a near future society in which big business and gun culture has gone mad owes an obvious debt to British comic book Judge Dredd, as does its black humour which mocks media sensationalism and dumbing down in the amusing news soundbites that punctuate the story.
It also contains shades of Frankenstein as the unfortunate cop comes to terms with the fact that he has been transformed into an inhuman monster by corporate interests that have exploded so far out of control that human beings have become a commodity to be bought and sold as products.
Funny but very dark and bleak in its outlook and containing some seminal production design by Rob Bottin (the ED 209 design is now a science fiction standard) Robocop is sci fi with an intelligent and humorous spin belied by its comic strip violence.
This review of RoboCop (1987) was written by Xgary X on 24 Jun 2013.
RoboCop has generally received very positive reviews.
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