Review of RoboCop (2014) by Imafallguy — 12 Feb 2014

RoboCop (2014) is so much better than you're expecting that for most of the 103 minute running time, you completely forget you bought those $16 Imax tickets just out of curiosity to see how bad of a train wreck this film was guaranteed to be. Instead, you'll find yourself surprised at how well it turned out and wishing it was all just a little better. Instead of the crime against humanity we were all fearing, Robocop is a decidedly well crafted film that can't achieve greatness.

Smart, expertly acted (had I known earlier that Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton signed on, I would have had higher expectations), and politically poignant, RoboCop is a remake far better than it has any right to be. It's frustrating to watch such a worthy movie fall all over itself in its earnest attempt to convey a plotline similar to that of the 1987 original. The cerebral bits of the film, of which there are many, prove to be captivating and compelling as the audience is forced to bear the emotional burden of watching Alex Murphy come to terms with being a quadruple amputee.

Then there's the action. Or, rather, near total lack of it. In an ironic twist of fate, the PG13 rated RoboCop didn't turn out to be the watered down, plot-less, ham handed G.I Joe of an action movie so many had feared. It's not much of an action movie at all. The few sequences of robot-kicking-ass-with-style are generic at best and borderline laughable at worst. Unfortunately, there's just not much combat or octane in this film, and mercifully there aren't more scenes that try for it.

RoboCop is a surprising success, either because expectations were so abysmally low or it's actually a good flick. This viewer thinks it's a bit of both, but the former doesn't infringe on the latter.

Score: 7.