I'd buy a ticket to this movie for a dollar. I'd even buy it at normal price. Certainly, the new RoboCop is different than the original, but it is by no means the worst installment in the franchise. Paul Verhoeven created a hyper-violent satire, and many fans of the original believe it can never be duplicated. But the remake, far from losing the spirit of the original, finds a way to make a story about cyborgs, robotic drones, and naked greed relevant for our day. Who knew?
The new Alex Murphy does a great job of embodying the central theme of this movie: how much of a man can you remove before he loses his soul? It's a legitimate question, and a relevant one in this age of artificial limbs. Face it, if you wanted to make a movie about a man who fights to stay "human" as his body is replaced with robotics, then RoboCop is the character you'd eventually create. And Joel Kinnaman seems perfect for the role. Even after most of his body is replaced, Officer Murphy returns to his family and friends with his personality more or less intact. It's only later that "complications" arise, ensuring his creators take drastic steps to keep their "monster" from running wild.
The mad scientist of this particular tale, Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), is perhaps more of a schizophrenic scientist, as he can't seem to decide whether he's on the side of the angels or not. In the beginning, he wants to help Murphy retain his humanity; but he still manages to help kill it by degrees, first by making his tactical responses more computer-driven and later by dulling his emotions in general so he can cope with the new sensory inputs. Both of these fly in the face of the purpose of "putting a man inside a machine". The people of these great United States don't want machines making decisions, after all; they want a human mind making decisions, and a human hand pulling the trigger when necessary.
Ironically, Oldman would have been the perfect "mad scientist" in a Verhoeven-style satire; one who only cares about advancing his research, proving his theories, conducting more experiments, and ultimately being justified by his creation. Science fiction needs more of that type of mad scientist to explore the extreme scenarios of man versus machine; but, of course, Murphy needs an ally if he's going to some day take down the real "villain" of the piece.
That villain, of course, is Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), purveyor of robotic drones across the globe who can't seem to find a market for his products in the states. "Americans want a product with a conscious," he laments to his marketing team, "something that knows what it feels like to be human." He isn't as overtly evil as Ronny Cox's Dick Jones, but his cool head and easygoing style makes him more insidious. He manipulates Norton into slicing just a little more of Murphy's soul away with every opportunity to make him more "efficient", more marketable to the American people.
And, of course, he has his team to back up his plays. Jay Baruchel is his marketing whiz-kid who comes up with various iterations of RoboCop's "armor" for various tasks (though Sellars himself ultimately decides on the black tactical shell). And Jackie Earle Haley is Richard Mattox, the mercenary who puts Murphy through his paces, while delightfully taunting him with the epithet "Tin Man". We see quite a bit of action in this movie, despite the much bemoaned PG-13 rating, and while most of Murphy's violence is directed towards robot drones (including multiple ED-209′s), he gets the chance to confront both Mattox and Sellars in several pulse-pounding scenes.
Of course, if you just can't survive without serious satire, then Samuel L. Jackson has you covered, starting, ending, and peppering the movie with his Pat Novak persona. Novak loves robots, and isn't afraid to use his popular cable news show to accuse America of being "robophobic". He'll cut off U.S. senators as quickly as he'll cut off scenes of robots shooting children a world away just to promote his profanity-punctuated viewpoint. While we see Murphy struggle with being a cyborg, we see the country struggle with the question of whether it's right to ask anyone to bear that burden; and we see it through the lens of an over-the-top political commentator with a weird hairpiece.
In the end, this movie owes its unique style to a Brazilian director in his first Hollywood outing. Jose Padilha, a big fan of Paul Verhoeven's style and aesthetics, sees no point in even trying to emulate him. And while most fans of the original would go further and say there's no point in rebooting RoboCop at all, Padilha sees a future, our future, that includes "autonomous drones, smart robots that will decide life over death".
"It's going to be a real important decision in the future, both politically and philosophically. When you have a robot that's pulling the trigger, but making the decision itself, our culpability gets thrown out the window. In the new film, set in 2028 Detroit, OmniCorp have these drones in other countries, but not in America. So they want to get them into the American market and needed a product that had a consciousness, therefore they put a man inside a machine, and that's the premise for the movie."
It's a great premise, too. Do we want machines making those kinds of decisions? Other sci-fi movies have tackled this question. Why not RoboCop, the one movie character who may be the most perfect for the job? Both Padilha and Verhoeven are noted for blending action and social commentary, which may make this not only the perfect time but also the perfect team for repurposing the world's most famous robotic police officer.
The new Alex Murphy does a great job of embodying the central theme of this movie: how much of a man can you remove before he loses his soul? It's a legitimate question, and a relevant one in this age of artificial limbs. Face it, if you wanted to make a movie about a man who fights to stay "human" as his body is replaced with robotics, then RoboCop is the character you'd eventually create. And Joel Kinnaman seems perfect for the role. Even after most of his body is replaced, Officer Murphy returns to his family and friends with his personality more or less intact. It's only later that "complications" arise, ensuring his creators take drastic steps to keep their "monster" from running wild.
The mad scientist of this particular tale, Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), is perhaps more of a schizophrenic scientist, as he can't seem to decide whether he's on the side of the angels or not. In the beginning, he wants to help Murphy retain his humanity; but he still manages to help kill it by degrees, first by making his tactical responses more computer-driven and later by dulling his emotions in general so he can cope with the new sensory inputs. Both of these fly in the face of the purpose of "putting a man inside a machine". The people of these great United States don't want machines making decisions, after all; they want a human mind making decisions, and a human hand pulling the trigger when necessary.
Ironically, Oldman would have been the perfect "mad scientist" in a Verhoeven-style satire; one who only cares about advancing his research, proving his theories, conducting more experiments, and ultimately being justified by his creation. Science fiction needs more of that type of mad scientist to explore the extreme scenarios of man versus machine; but, of course, Murphy needs an ally if he's going to some day take down the real "villain" of the piece.
That villain, of course, is Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), purveyor of robotic drones across the globe who can't seem to find a market for his products in the states. "Americans want a product with a conscious," he laments to his marketing team, "something that knows what it feels like to be human." He isn't as overtly evil as Ronny Cox's Dick Jones, but his cool head and easygoing style makes him more insidious. He manipulates Norton into slicing just a little more of Murphy's soul away with every opportunity to make him more "efficient", more marketable to the American people.
And, of course, he has his team to back up his plays. Jay Baruchel is his marketing whiz-kid who comes up with various iterations of RoboCop's "armor" for various tasks (though Sellars himself ultimately decides on the black tactical shell). And Jackie Earle Haley is Richard Mattox, the mercenary who puts Murphy through his paces, while delightfully taunting him with the epithet "Tin Man". We see quite a bit of action in this movie, despite the much bemoaned PG-13 rating, and while most of Murphy's violence is directed towards robot drones (including multiple ED-209′s), he gets the chance to confront both Mattox and Sellars in several pulse-pounding scenes.
Of course, if you just can't survive without serious satire, then Samuel L. Jackson has you covered, starting, ending, and peppering the movie with his Pat Novak persona. Novak loves robots, and isn't afraid to use his popular cable news show to accuse America of being "robophobic". He'll cut off U.S. senators as quickly as he'll cut off scenes of robots shooting children a world away just to promote his profanity-punctuated viewpoint. While we see Murphy struggle with being a cyborg, we see the country struggle with the question of whether it's right to ask anyone to bear that burden; and we see it through the lens of an over-the-top political commentator with a weird hairpiece.
In the end, this movie owes its unique style to a Brazilian director in his first Hollywood outing. Jose Padilha, a big fan of Paul Verhoeven's style and aesthetics, sees no point in even trying to emulate him. And while most fans of the original would go further and say there's no point in rebooting RoboCop at all, Padilha sees a future, our future, that includes "autonomous drones, smart robots that will decide life over death".
"It's going to be a real important decision in the future, both politically and philosophically. When you have a robot that's pulling the trigger, but making the decision itself, our culpability gets thrown out the window. In the new film, set in 2028 Detroit, OmniCorp have these drones in other countries, but not in America. So they want to get them into the American market and needed a product that had a consciousness, therefore they put a man inside a machine, and that's the premise for the movie."
It's a great premise, too. Do we want machines making those kinds of decisions? Other sci-fi movies have tackled this question. Why not RoboCop, the one movie character who may be the most perfect for the job? Both Padilha and Verhoeven are noted for blending action and social commentary, which may make this not only the perfect time but also the perfect team for repurposing the world's most famous robotic police officer.
- Review originally posted at http://fourthdayuniverse.com/reports/2014/02/robocop-repurposed/