Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbie Cornish, Michael K Williams and Samuel  L. Jackson’
Director: José Padilha

For anyone out there who doesn’t know much about RoboCop, this 2014 movie is a remake (or reboot as we have to call them now) to the 1987 version which starred Peter Weller an actor only really famous for playing the metal robotic law enforcer known as RoboCop. in a dystopian near-future.

In the 2014 remakeboot! RoboCop, is set in the year 2028 (in the original we are told that it is just set in a dystopian near-future.) and OmniCorp is the world’s leader in robot technology currently being used to produce artificial limbs and other body parts for American amputees. However, OmniCorp also realized that there was an opportunity to make billions for the company by supplying robots and droids to other countries around the world as a means of controlling law enforcement without endangering human beings. But due to a political bill being passed by Senator Dreyfuss which hasfull public support, it does not allow robots or droids to carry firearms in their home country of America.

The public will only accept droids as substitute police officers if there is some kind of human element involved to provide reason and a conscience. The owner of OmniCorp Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) sets out to find the perfect suitable human, a man who has been physically disabled and has the right stuff to merge with robotic technology but have the right frame of mind to be able to control both man and machine as the ultimate peace keeper.
When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) a loving husband, father and all round good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit, is critically injured when his car is rigged by the bad guys. OmniCorp grabs their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer and the ill-fated Murphy fits the profile perfectly. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and will stop at nothing no matter the cost to Alex, to make sure the program succeeds.  But OmniCorp never counted on one thing, there is still a real man fighting inside the machine.
 

Personally I’m not a fan of this persistent need to remake classic films from the past. Why do filmmakers feel a need to try to improve on movies that obviously have a special place in people’s memories? Having said that I was intrigued to see how the director José Padilha was going to bring the film into the 21st century with all the advancements that have been made in techno science. Unfortunately the film lacks any soul and although I liked Joel Kinnaman in the American version of the TV drama The Killing he seems to be trying too hard to be accepted as the new Peter Weller. In the screening that I attended it was obvious that the majority of the male audience of a certain age were fans of the original. Some of the audience seemed unforgiving right from the BBFC opening image showing the film s certificate as a 12A. You could hear a loud moan in unison due to the fact that the 1987 film was labelled with an 18 certificate giving it that edge which meant that you watched with trepidation as you were never sure when something really nasty could happen. 

There is no denying that special effects have come on in a relatively short space of time and one of the most exciting scenes is the climactic battle with RoboCop fighting the ED-209 Droids. The ED-209’s were very popular when the earlier film was released, even with their jerky stop-motion movements (which I kind of like). The design of RoboCop for 2014 is very similar to the original silver / chrome look which were created by special effects man Rob Bottin who also produced the stunning effects in the 1982 sci-fi horror The Thing. Later on in RoboCop 2014 Raymond Sellers goes for a black suit to give him more of a menacing look. In fact Michael Keaton is the best thing in this film; he gives a very animated performance waving his arms like a windmill, very reminiscent of his character Billy Caulfield in The Dream Team (89).

The rest of the cast is made up of some dependable stalwarts such as Gary Oldman who plays Norton, the scientist who rebuilds Alex as the six billion dollar man. Oldman is a good choice especially with his new found fan base of younger cinema goers following on from the Harry Potter and Batman franchises. We also have Samuel L. Jackson as Pat Novak a TV anchorman who reports on hard-hitting news to the American public and is playing devils advocate with the debate on whether there  should be robots policing American cities. Novak is very pro the new technology but it’s never clear if he is on OmniCorp’s payroll. There is also something for the comic book fans with Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach from Watchmen) as Mattox the gung-ho weapons expert. I felt a little sorry for Australian actress Abbie Cornish who plays Alex Murphy’s wife Clara and spends most of the film moping about as the loyal wife. Whereas the 1987 film had a very strong female character who was Murphy’s work partner Officer Anne Lewis played by Nancy Allen. In 2014 his partner is Officer Jack Lewis played by Michael K Williams from TVs The Wire.

The action scenes are well choreographed but one word of warning, there is quite a lot of shaky cam action especially in an opening gunfight when Murphy was still a cop in human form. I realise that this type of camera work is used to reflect realism but if you can’t see what’s actually happening then I think we are all being short changed. It’s a bit like the movie equivalent of Robbie Williams holding the microphone out to the audience for them to take over the singing. I’m sorry but I expect better production values for the millions of dollars that were spent in producing this film.

All said and done, the film was entertaining and will no doubt warrant a franchise of RoboCops played by different actors until someone decides to make another Hulkesque reboot.
 

Three out of five stars

In cinemas now.