Some people believe certain films shouldn’t be remade like ROBOCOP.  However, the remake succeeds and sometimes doesn’t go far enough in other parts.  It is a different and flawed film compare to the original ROBOCOP directed by Paul Verhoeven during the time when he made his bet films (with BASIC INSTINCT, TOTAL RECALL, and STARSHIP TROOPERS being the others).   I did like hearing the original Robocop theme in the new movie, but I wished they used it more.   This remake does take itself very seriously.  It does explore a few good issues about security and how much freedom we would give up to be safe.  Also the theme of man vs machine as Alex Murphy struggles with who he is as Omnicorp tries to control his police actions to make him a better policeman so they can get the federal act banning robot policeman in the United States overturned. 

 

In the new film, Murphy’s wife is more involved in the film as she agrees to have Alex Murphy turned into a cyborg to save his life.   Murphy’s partner, Jack Lewis does get a little bit of the shaft in the remake and I wish they could have found a way to get Ann Lewis in this film too.   It is like they needed the new ROBOCOP film to be longer as the policeman characters aren’t as involved and the bad guys aren’t as memorable as in the original.  Jack Lewis seems like a competent black partner who remarks Murphy is the right color now at one moment in the film since OCP/ Omnicorp has made Robocop’s armor the color of black, but the old silver look of Robocop is also in this movie.    

 

I like the 2014 version of ROBOCOP, but I do wish the writers made this one a little more fun and not so serious and end it with a speechifying moment from Samuel L. Jackson’s talk show host (less preaching because movies like ROBOCOP are about entertaining the audience).  They could have gave a better coda to the 2014 ROBOCOP and set it up for the sequel.  They should have allowed a little more homage and fan love for the original to creep into this remake like J.J. Abrams and team did with the 2009 STAR TREK.  The original Robocop theme does pop up a couple of times and they do give love to the original suit in a couple of different places in the movie along with an extra surprise.   This version of ROBOCOP is a mixed result which isn’t as good as the first two in the original ROBOCOP series and better than ROBOCOP 3 (even though any of the old ROBOCOP films have more of a fun factor than this remake).

 

This movie review is ©2-18-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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