Review of RoboCop (2014) by Vahn — 13 Feb 2014

First things first: the original movie was a masterpiece and I love it for how cheesy, how gorey and how fun it was to watch, and NOTHING will touch it.

With that said, the remake of robocop was surprisingly very good...and actually more deep than the original, with a lot of development on the story and less on action. Infact, I really loved the many characters and how they didn't just disappear (heck, Murphy's wife is not only present in this version, but she's an active character and an actual anchor for Murphy. That's one big thing to add!), whereas in the original I just remembered the policewoman friend of Murphy Anne Lewis and I can't recall many others at all (at least, until the sequels). A lot of the movie is about story development and about a lot of controversies about robots taking over the security (a lot reminiscent of the movie I,Robot in a way), and that was something that lacked a lot in the original: proper backstory and motivations. I honestly went in the theatre ready to be disappointed but, surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot and I was also asking myself questions about the scenery and the characters (AKA: I hope there's a sequel!).

What really fails in the movie is probably the fact that this is definitely more action oriented than the original (actually, the actions scenes are few and nothing special...but better than in the original) and...well robocop's new form is pretty bland and just not special: the original Robocop was very clunky and not agile at all and that was the charm, while in here he's able to be extremely agile and even has a bike to go through the city just like Batman does...yeah in a way he's more like a superhero here, which is not completely a fail. I just felt the new Robocop armor is just bland.

Also the story is a bit of a mess at the end but I won't spoil it: let's just say I was trying to understand what happened at the end and that's that.

In short, it's a worthy remake, but it's NEVER going to reach the quality of the original, which I liked as a kid but LOVED as an adult the more I grew up. But like I said the remake is a worthy one, because it develops on part that the original didn't bother to develop.

I think it's decent: you'll either like it it, or won't bother with it.