Review of RoboCop (2014) by Gundammars — 28 Jun 2014

Okay, so I finally sat down and watched the new Robocop and it was a waste of time. First, I love the original Robocop and it's first sequel, but I couldn't let those two facts play into my viewing of this movie.

I wanted to take it on it's own merit. It starts off alright we see the US in Iran with drones, one of them being ED-209 from the original, we get some decent action topped off with what's supposed to be a shock moment then we move into Detroit.

This is where the movie begins to fall apart for me. The big argument as to why they need a Robocop is because Detroit is plagued by crime, yet in the scenes of Detroit they show us the city looks like it's doing great.

The sun is always shining, there's no visible urban decay, we get no shots of random crimes or violence. The most we get is a scene where we're introduced to Alex Murphy and his partner undercover buying rifles from some guy.

Hell, the film crew could've just drove around real life Detroit and captured all the decay and violence they needed without having to resort to sets. Everything just seemed too clean and okay, that also goes for the police station Alex worked in.

For a city laid to waste by crime the police station seems quite enough to be a station in Podunk, Iowa. There were no shots of other officers bringing in gang members or hookers, there were no citizens damanding the police do something about the crime in their neighborhoods.

Again, Detroit just seem like an ideal place to live in this movie, thus eliminating the need for Robocop. As for the actors in this movie only Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton are worth mentioning. The guy playing Murphy is bad, his wife and child are horrible actors, if we can't connect to Murphy then we're just watching a tin man ride around and pout.

And yes I said pout, Robo seems to do a lot of that in this movie. I get it being turned into a machine would suck for some people, but you're a cop who's just been turned into a superhero, you're not confined to a wheelchair or stuck in a bed for the rest of your life.

Robo cries about this to and beyond the point of annoyance add together the scenes of awkward interaction with his dull family and you'll be letting out tons of yawns. The supporting cast outside of Oldman and Keaton are 100% forgettable, aside from knowing Murphy's partners name none of these characters stick in your head.

Now on to the effects, while good for the most part some shots made me feel like I should have been pressing "A" to skip. Since this is the future we have to see people using float screens and being able to control and manipulate them by waving their hands.

There are humanoid drones who react better than humans and every aspect of life seems to be captured by CCTV cameras. It was hard to suspense disbelief since they only set this movie in 2028. It would be a little more believeable if it was set in say 2050 or higher.

And since cameras are everywhere doesn't it seem difficult to pull off crimes if you're being watched in nearly every place you're in, thus eliminating the need for Robocop. Just watch what people are doing on the cameras and send police to the scene since you're watching a crime in progress.

Also we're shown this exoskeleton worn by military to help on the battlefield, I'm assuming it makes you a little faster and stronger so why didn't they just take that put some light armor plating on it and give it to the police? Thus eliminating the need for Robocop since you can give officers the gear to make them stronger and tougher than the criminals.

Robocop almost doesn't make sense in his own world in this movie, if you wanted to put a machine on the streets of America so your evil company can make more money you've already proven you can make the exoskeleton, so why make Robocop and go through all the hassles.

The story is dull and predictable too since a multi-billion dollar company is involved you know they're going to be the final bad guy, it just takes so long for the movie to get to the point where Robo brings down said company your just glad it's over.

And that's how I felt once the credits started I was glad it was over. This could've been a good action movie, but there's so many boring scenes and even the action scenes seem tame. Like something pulled from a video game cutscene.

As it stands on it's own Robocop 2014 is dull and boring, as part of the Robocop line it's worse than Robocop 3. At least that movie is so bad it'll have you laughing.