Review of RoboCop 2 (1990) by Todd J — 24 Mar 2008

This one's the odd flick odd of the franchise. Surely, it isn't as notable or wonderful as the original. And it isn't the utter trainwreck of mangled bodies that the third film is. It tends to get lumped in with the latter, a case of a great script maladjusted to the screen.

Now, I haven't read Miller's book, but I have read the original screenplay and its accompanying outline. And from these, it's pretty obvious that we're not dealing with a case in which Miller's wonderful work was completely tarnished.

Trust be told, except for the deletion and reduction of a few plot threads, the film stands much as Miller wrote it. Sure, it loses some gore and edge, but it keeps the integral story more or less intact and maintains the tone from Miller's script to a surprising extent (especially considering his condemnation of the final product).

What we're left with is a lighter, more Hollywood-ized sequel that still manages to tell a decent story but never quite manages to tie all the threads together. At least Peter Weller is back (as is, unfortunately, Nancy Allen).

The film follows Robocop as the (evil?) corporation OCP tries to privatize the city in the midst of an early 80's style drug epidemic (only here it's called Nuke instead of crack). In the meantime, Robo deals with his wife, the question of his own humanity, and a program switch.

Unfortunately, these threads are not integrated into the story very well (they come as side notes even in Miller's outline), and any kind of character development or real interest remains secondary to the corporate narrative.

That said, the moments are handled with some amount of competency by Irvin Kershner, but they never quite come together in the way that they should. Equally frustrating is the complete waste of Tom Noonan as the villain.

I can only imagine what could have been (that said, his characterization fits Miller's other villain work pretty well). And the less said about the bratty kid gimmick, the better. Luckily, the corporate stuff is pretty good.

The concern of privitization actually says more about corporate culture than the first film did (although with nowhere near as much wit). These concerns render a rather chilly ending that fits the tone of the series quite well.

As for the action, Kershner's squibwork doesn't bombard the viewer with gallons of red Karo like Verhoeven's, but there's still quite a bit to enjoy, including the famous scope shot (that's the only thing I remembered from seeing the film as a kid).

But like the rest of the film, they suffer from a certain degree of anonymity, which for an 80's actioner, isn't necessarily a damning judgment, but the whole thing never really comes together.

Whether or not a more faithful rendering of Miller's screenplay would've changed the game is unclear, and although I'd like to read the book Miller made from the story, I'm not sure if its purported higher quality is a result of faithfulness or revision.

*** out've *****.