Review of RoboCop (2014) by Neocomp92 — 13 Feb 2014

Why is it that remakes must always lose the prime essence of the original movie they are remaking, and displease those who have already seen the original? That's the first thing I thought after a few minutes into this movie.

My 1st impression of this remake was, why the heck was the violence downgraded to PG12 levels? Suicide bombers and children were gunned down, and shot at long distance to avoid seeing any gore. The toning down of violence also means that the subtle message behind them in the original is lost, and has not been properly replaced. I swear you'd think the 1980s version is a work of art if you gave it a try. Given that said bombers were Iranians, in which in the future the US invades Iran, and herds their people out like sheep ala Germany post WW2, I was also a bit frustrated at the use of stereotypes and subtle jingoism. And what has this scene accomplished? Nothing of relevance, given that the movie is centered in the US.

Alex Murphy as a human has only two qualities: cowboy cop and generic loving dad and husband. The problem here is twofold. Joel Kinnaman is a kinetic actor; he must use his entire body to truly act. So ironically, when he is a robot, that we actually see more of the human side of him. To be fare, he is great as Robocop, as his voice clearly reflects how his personality changes from human to robot without the use of voice synthesizers up until he become full robot. His kinetic style also means he is decent acting in an action role. But when it comes to drama, any shot of him showing the face alone just comes out as trying a bit too hard, unless paired with body shots that show body language.

The other problem is that this movie does NOT practice "Show don't tell". It is heavily told that Detroit has a crime problem, it is heavily told and implied that Detroit PD is corrupt, but there is nothing really shown on screen (beyond the pair of corrupt cops, but ANY PD in real life is going to have a few bad apples). The cowboy cop trope only garners sympathy from me if you show me that it is a necessary evil because the system is already corrupt. This also affects the secondary villain (the arms dealer) and how Detroit looks in general (e.g. Alex Murphy lives in a decent suburban neighbourhood fit for the upper middle class, and Detroit PD's offices looks like a corporate office. How is this a sign of criminal hold on the city????).

Anyway after the bombing of Murphy (so impersonal, and the PG12 means that I cannot muster as much hate against the villain compared to the vicious gunning in the 1980s version), he awakes as a cyborg with only his right hand and torso upwards (very powerful scene BTW) surviving. Here, Robocop initially has his humanity intact, with his memories intact and no Prime Directives. However, after disappointing trials, the Dr. (Gary Oldman) tinkered with his brain to create a more efficient robot and subdued the man. This is a contrived 'touch my nose by twisting my arm around' method of achieving the same theme as the original version. Also here's a plot hole: Since OCP wants a product with a human in the machine, why can't they let humans be in the decision-making process when a robot performs the action? Isn't the point of an AI-control to substitute the human element, because humans cannot act faster or smarter than the AI?

The Robocop suit here is more streamlined, though the black is more of a reflection of themes. Notice that when Murphy was in the classic Robocop suit, he was more human, yet the black suit made him very robot. It's like cybernetics "blackens" the soul, makes you less human, or some subtle nonsense like that.

Action scenes in this movie is generally decent, but the scene in which Robocop gets into a gunfight in a dark corridor is very disorienting. When I can't see **** I don't appreciate it, no matter how many times you try to switch between dark, night-vision (worn by the criminals), and thermal-vision (Robocop). After gunning down the arms dealer that bombed him, Robocop found out that the Police Chief was protecting him, and promptly tries to shoot her, after shooting the two corrupt cops, even though ONE of them never tried to shoot back. It's at this point that I felt no sympathy for Murphy, even as, in the next scene, OCP tried to kill him, and he goes on a rampage to kill Michael Keaton. Again, just because you tell me that the city is corrupt, doesn't mean it is justified to act like a jerk.

On a positive note, Samuel L.Jackson as Ted Novak is truly a well-preserved homage to the original media satire of right-wing leaning media bias. I truly left the theater with his performance shining brightly at the back of my mind.

In short, if you've watched the original, this remake may displease you. If you want a popcorn action flick, you may wish to switch your brain off at certain points of the movie due to plot holes, and poorly justified characterisations.