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    RoboCop

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    When a trailer for this remake of “Robocop” first aired, I felt uneasy. How do you remake the masterpiece that is Paul Verhoeven's ultra-violent satirical sci-fi film? Why would you? Well, if you want to do it right you pay attention to what people loved about it and you go in a different direction. This take focusses less on the comedic and satire, focussing instead on the action and on the psychological. It's not as good as the original, far from it. However, this new model is a clever update that pulls its share of new tricks, has some good action scenes and entertains.

    It’s the near future and OmniCorp, a robotics development company, wants to sell its products to the United States for use in law enforcement. To do so, they decide to ease the idea of police robots slowly. Half-man, half-machine, their proposed “RoboCop” will have the efficiencies of the tactical officers OmniCorp is already using all around the world but with a human conscience. When policeman Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is gravely injured by crime boss Antoine Vallon (Patrick Garrow) he is rebuilt and sent to clean up the streets. But what is Alex now? Man? Machine? If he's both, where does one component end and the other begin?

    This movie has its share of problems, particularly towards the end where the villains become way too villainy. Yeah, they’re sleazy businessmen and murderers, but they push it too far and treat life as if it’s just slightly too cheap to be completely believable. This turns the last 15-20 minutes of the movie into a fairly routine action are. Otherwise," Robocop" 2014 is well realized because it doesn’t really want to be a remake of the original. It takes the idea of a cyborg cop and asks: what can we do with this? Why would someone build a cyborg police officer? What kind of moral dilemmas and decisions would be associated? How would the process affect the man and the people who love him? And how does a machine with a man inside compare to a purely mechanical counterpart? These are solid ideas and were only briefly considered in 1983.

    You might be weeping at what you perceive as an immediate sign of trouble, the “PG” rating. Don't worry. This is due to most of the opponents faced being robots. That’s not to say that there aren’t confrontations between Murphy and regular people. There’s a cool, fast-paced action sequence where Robocop is facing dozens of opponents and takes a real beating. Most of the human confrontations take a more dramatic form, however. Case and point, the lead scientist in charge of the Robocop project, Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) Forced to make morally ambiguous decisions in order to get the “product” on the streets, he holds onto the idea that inside Robocop still beats the heart of a man. This constant battle between him, the higher-ups at OmniCorp and Murphy’s struggle to figure out who or what he is make for breaks between the action sequences that are still interesting.

    Adding to the movie’s charm are some interesting side characters (including Samuel Jackson as a loud-mouthed talk show host who’s a big fan of robots), a nice variety in the opponents pitted against Robocop (varying from the updated ED-209 to human-sized androids, common criminals and elite tacticians with a bone to pick with our hero) and good special effects too. Setting aside the comedy and the satire and focussing more on the drama gives us a hero that in his own way, feels more vulnerable than you would expect a cyborg to be.

    I say go check out this 2014 version of “Robocop”. It’s different enough that it doesn’t feel like a re-hash and there are plenty of moments that will have your blood pumping. You’ll leave the theatre with that awesome theme song in your head, a smile on your face and while we’re waiting for a sequel to this one, there’s nothing that prevents you from visiting that old classic again. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 25, 2014)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  14.4.2018 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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