Review of RoboCop (1987) by Mickey M — 07 Mar 2013

New Detroit police officer "Alex Murphy" (Peter Weller) has been tranfered to a precinct in one of the most violent parts of town after the on-duty death of another cop.

During the hunt for wanted criminals in their hideout, an abandoned factory, "Murphy" is shot and killed. Upon his death, the "Omni Consumer Products (OCP)" obtain his body and intergrate it with the most advanced technology available to create a crime-fighting cyborg codenamed "RoboCop".

Eventually, humanity overwrites programming, as "RoboCop" begins to remember his former life as he continues to fight crime. He also has to deal with the possibility of being replaced by a non-cyborg machine as a replacement, which is strongly supported by a high-ranking OCP executive.

The first things you will notice about this is the graphic violence, the special effects and the sometimes oddly placed fake television commercials. You will also notice the pretty strong performances from the main cast.

If you are not into bloody movies, then this one is not for you. The bloody scenes are few, but are very graphic. The make-up and other special effects are used very well in these scenes.

Like I said before, the main cast put forth good performances. Some of the characters seem to be written better than others though, which may be a reason that there are some weak performances by some of the cast that make them a bit campy at times.

The special effects, except for the previously mentioned make-up effects, still hold up for the most part, possibly due to them being fairly simple. One special effect that does not hold up well is the "ED-209" robot that is competing with "RoboCop" for the job as the ultimate police officer. It is very obvious that it not only added into scenes in post-production, the animation of it is pretty bad. As it moves, the figure becomes blurry. It appears that the animation of the "ED-209" is one of the things that they used to cut corners on the budget.

When it comes to wardrobe, nothing really stands out and looks more like it belongs in the 1980s than in the "near future". The one piece of "wardrobe" that stands out more than others is the "RoboCop" costume worn by Weller. Mixed with make-up effects, it is one of the most memorable pieces of costuming in movies.

Except for the "ED-209" and some of the performances, there really isn't any cons in this movie. Paul Verhoeven directed his first American movie very nicely. To the point that it has become a cult classic.