It’s a popcorn-munching fest complete with schlock-art special effects and cult-classic kitsch. This satirical sci-fi action flick is splattered with blood, wit and intelligence. Or it would be, if I was talking about the 1987 “RoboCop.” Where there was once sleek style is now just an artificial update. Given Paul Verhoven’s outpour of clever and over-the-top dystopia gusto, José Padilha’s remake feels, well, robotic.
A ROBOTIC REMAKE
But let’s judge the movie on its own terms. Joel Kinnaman plays good cop Alex Murphy with a steely gaze. He has a wife (Abbie Cornish) he likes to kiss and a boy who likes Red Wings hockey. But when he and his partner, Jack (Michael K. Williams), get too close to finding Detroit’s drug lord, it blows up in their face. Literally. Alex is blown to bits in a gangster-rigged car bomb leaving only his heart, lungs and head intact. And thanks to a mega-corporation, medical miracles and his wife’s “OK,” Alex gets his cyborg suit before being unleashed onto the city’s crime.
There’s plenty of disorder, and it’s not in the Detroit streets. For an action movie, there’s more exposition than explosions. And when the bullets do fly, they target the “been there, done that” bullseye of action monotony. For a robocop, he doesn’t fight much crime. Most of the crimes he investigates are to pin down the gangsters who tried to kill him. And when the biggest baddies he fights are robots, the moral dilemmas are tossed away. In light of the bloody and wacky 80s source material, these half-hearted PG-13 shoot ‘em up scenes feel all the more mechanical.
Filling the time between the rock ‘em, sock ‘em robot action is plenty of social commentary. Samuel L. Jackson plays a Bill O’Rielly-styled TV personality. His character is fodder for a diss against right wing conservatism and American flag-waving. Even for Hollywood, this is a bit too much. But I’m sure some freshmen in high school will find this stuff profound — they do seem like the target audience anyways. If this is an action movie, it’s pretty slow. If this is a social drama, it isn’t saying much. Even a graveyard shift ride-along is more stimulating.
FANBOY FILMMAKERS
The audience is graced by a few silver screen veterans. The ceaselessly splendid Gary Oldman plays robocop creator and scientist Dr. Norton. His empathetic bedside manner paints him as a tinkering creator more than a mad scientist doctor. Michael Keaton is Raymond Sellers, the corporate suit. As the CEO of OmniCorp, he already has squads of his military robots policing Middle East cities. He hopes the robo-human hybrid experiment will tip political support in favor of robotic patrols on American streets. But sometimes, even these performances dip into autopilot.
When this generation’s Tin Man is Iron Man, “RoboCop” as a gun-wielding, name-taking superhuman becomes redundant. So the movie deserves some credit for trailblazing its own path instead of an automated copy of the original. The fascination behind RoboCop — a man whose freedom and consciousness is subject to corporate force — is worth the exploration. And I could hear that sleek and spirited pulse in the movie. But it’s a faint beat, needing its own medical resuscitation.
The most tragic flaw is that you can tell the filmmakers probably love the original movie. But what started out as fanboy revelry became twisted in tinsel town’s monolithic machinery — which is ironic, given the film’s attack against corporate dominance and greed. I wanted this movie to succeed, if only because I didn’t want another film’s originality violated by an industry known for repeat offenses. This is, however, just another Hollywood misdemeanor on a routine patrol through American theaters.
