I recently watched the most anticipated remake of the year, Robocop. I went into this movie expecting to have my time wasted. When I left, I had to stop myself from getting in line to see it again. Robocop is definitely the best remake that I’ve seen in a long time. However that’s not to say it’s without faults, and in a few ways, it does fall behind the original. If anything, I’d say this movie at least deserves a nice gold sticker for working harder than all the other remakes. To continue explaining the highs and lows of this movie, I am going to use spoilers. Again, spoilers ahead. Stop reading now if you don’t want spoilers.
Still reading? Great. So the movie centers around Detroit police officer Alex Murphy who after attempting to bring down a powerful arms dealer is severely injured by a bomb set to explode when he entered his car. Murphy is saved by an experimental surgery created by the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp. After removing his ability to feel emotions and to think during battle, OmniCorp believes he is the perfect publicity stunt to convince Congress to remove a bill that prevents them from selling their robots to every police force in the country. Unfortunately OmniCorp’s drones have some glitches, they sometimes shoot children. This is one place the remake falls behind the original. In the original, they show that the ED-209s (OmniCorp drones) are dysfunctional by showing them shoot an unarmed man. In the remake they fire on a child, but the child is armed and intends to destroy one of them. The scene still gets the point across but not quite as effectively. Another point where the remake shows weakness is at the end. In the original after Murphy rediscovers his humanity and returns to the police station, another character addresses him as “Robocop,” and he says “call me Murphy” finally solidifying in the viewer’s mind that despite what makes up his body Alex Murphy is more man than machine. This scene is wholly absent in the remake. But the remake makes up for its lapses in story telling by showing off its amazing action and numerous nods to the original. In conclusion, what Robocop abandons from its predecessor it makes up for with less comedic action and smoother adventure. I highly recommend this movie to fans.