For full disclosure here, I’ve been dreading the Robo reboot. First and foremost I absolutely idolise the original and since we started coverage here, especially in the first few months of this movies inception, what was coming into our inbox was brutal. Shoddy fx and the suit. OMG!!! The suit was crap. Every opportunity I took, I took a shot at Robocop. Then a few weeks back some of the viral stuff started hitting and it wore me down to the point where I was actually a little bit excited to go see the movie. And you know what? I was wrong. Sort of.
Its 2028 and Omnicorp, after successfully using robots to bring peace to Tehran and elsewhere, grab an opportunity to utilise a severely injured Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) and turn him into part man, part machine super cop. While the story hasn’t changed too much from the original, there are a few glaringly obvious differences. Lewis is now a bloke and Murphy doesn’t get shot to oblivion. Instead, its a car bomb. Other than that, the usual corruption is rife through the police department and Omnicorp, albeit far cleaner and less sleazier looking than the original.
Its the corruption and politics side of Robocop thats one its biggest problems. Its weighed down by scene after scene of pointless, running time fattening dialogue. And while much of it revolves around a very watchable Gary Oldman and an equally watchable Michael Keaton, much is unnecessary and only slows down the overall movie. As a result, the pacing suffers and by the time Murphy is in full Robocop mode, while a welcome relief, it just feels like it took forever.
When he finally gets going though, theres some great action sequences, with a number of superb first person moments and these do a great job of sucking you right into the movie. And the ED-209s are incredible. To be honest, they’re worth the price of admission alone.Ultimately though, audiences will be craving for a bit more action than whats on show, but whats here is well done. The suit has caused much debate and while there is a rather brilliant update to the original suit, its the black suit that just doesn’t look right at all. And speaking of things that don’t look right. That damn bike. Holy shit, does Robocop on a bike look brutal.
It’d be too easy to say Joel Kinnaman is too robotic here, but he is. He looks depressed and emotionless throughout and in most scenes he looks like he is trying too hard. The rest of the cast though are decent enough with everybody from Samuel L. Jackson (besides a horrific hairdo thats on par with Tom Hanks in The Davinci Code) and Jackie Earle Haley looking like they had an absolute blast. Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton are great, even if neither of them are breaking much of a sweat.
Theres a number of little nods to the original, which are nice and while some will be missed on the first viewing, the obvious one is the music. The Robocop theme is intact, but it never has much of an impact and it seems more tacked on than anything else.
Overall though, Robocop is not a bad movie. Its not a patch on the original, but I was pleasantly surprised. I’d never though I’d say this. Roll on the sequel. Especially considering the last few minutes which brought a nice smile to my face. Besides the pacing and meandering, this is certainly worth a shot!
