Robocop 2014 is a remake of the 1987 film, where Peter Weller played the title role. It was directed by Paul Verhoeven
This new take on the tale is directed by José Padilha. With Joel Kinnaman’s turn to play the cyborg cop.
There are quite a few differences in the story but a fair bit has stayed the same too. Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is nearly killed by a car bomb, planted to take him out. He was closing in on the corrupt network of police officers dealing with a local gun merchant Antoine Vallon.
Dr Dennett Norton selects Alex to become the cyborg Robocop, after the first few selections were unsatisfactory. Norton has been asked by Raymond Sellars head of Omnicorp to make a cyborg, as he cannot yet put a complete robot model on American soil. An act being upheld by the Senate denying fully AI robots for deployment.
After a few possible are selected they are not ‘desirable’ enough for Sellars to proceed. Interim Alex’s planted car bomb goes off, he is badly injured and might die. He gets the attention of Dr Norton who thinks he is a good match for the cyborg program.
His wife must agree to the procedure or watch him die. So she accepts the operation. The only things left of Alex is his hand, lungs and head. One eye has a computer chip. As he’s mostly robotic, the term Robocop is apt.
This movie was simply great for me. It has emotion, depth and politics. All very intriguing. Joel Kinnaman was great, playing Alex as a person and as a robot, you saw the change. Can the man remain inside the machine? Can his humanity survive or will the computers override him?
Michael Keaton did an impressive turn has the villainous head of OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars , he made me think at times – was he the real villain? Where did the good intentions go wrong? Do heads of companies do what they do for improvement or money? Are they tied to what, we as consumers, will buy? Are they forced into dark decisions because they need to match a product to demand?
It isn’t long before Robocop is called to bring the people who tried to kill him to justice. More twists and turns ensure this is not boring. A fabulous movie. A reboot that brings new dimensions to the franchise rather than alter everything because it’s ‘new’.
I know a lot of people may not like the human emotion scenes being played out or that Robocop has a lot of interaction with his wife and son; which I don’t think those were present in the original. But I felt they made him more of a 3D character.
A well deserved 9/10 from me.
Image reproduced from wikipedia.com
Trailer reproduced from CBMTrailers
