Remake by talented team disappointing
The remake more or less follows the plot of the original film, which starred Peter Weller in the title role.
In the future, policeman Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is severely wounded and left for dead after drug dealers planned an explosion. The latest technology is used to put what could be salvaged of his body into a highly intricate metal suit to make him half human, half robot.
He is able to make moral decisions, but his ability to apprehend criminals and take them down is raised to a scientific degree of perfection. His vacant, cold demeanor and quick, methodical movements make him a seemingly indestructible force.
There is a debate going on in the country as to whether it is moral to have machines as law enforcers. The corporation that handled his operation and assembly begins to use him as its political pawn. They dial down his human emotions and make him an even more robotic machine that they can manipulate.
Once he realizes their game, he goes on a vendetta to kill the drug lords that nearly killed him and then the corporate bigwigs who put him in his hellish predicament.
Verhoeven’s original was a controversially violent piece of pulp entertainment that still holds up today because of its stop-motion effects, outstanding make-up and set design and rousing action scenes. It also has sly, satirical messages about crime, violence and police power.
The remake updates those ideas by questioning the use of drones. Samuel L. Jackson plays a host of a political talk show on TV, and he pushes the corporation’s agenda to make America safer with RoboCops.
I sat in the theater watching this film, and nothing happened to me. I was not moved, entertained, thrilled, involved or even bored or angry. Images and sound washed over me, and I was numb for nearly two hours.
Why, oh, why does Hollywood keep remaking perfectly good films? The remake, like the RoboCop himself, is a slick, technically proficient machine put together reasonably well by a talented team.
It is Brazilian director José Padilha’s first English-language film. His previous film, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within,” was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The cast includes Oscar-nominees Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, along with Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Michael K. Williams, Jennifer Ehle and Jay Baruchel. There are worse remakes that have been made in the last few years. “Evil Dead” and “Oldboy” come to mind.
This film left me completely empty. It is not really a terrible film. There is just absolutely no reason at all for it to exist except to make money. “RoboCop” is a name that has proven to have made money in the past, so Hollywood churned out a remake.
Please, go back and watch the original film, and do not fund cash-grab remakes. Go watch one of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture. Many of them are still playing in Columbia. Take a walk, read a book, call a loved one, bake a pie, sleep or go to a hardware store and stare at the tools for two hours.
“RoboCop” is not the worst film of the year so far. That would be giving it too much attention. It is nothing.
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