RoboCop (2014) Review

Rated PG-13 (Intense Sequences of Action including Frenetic Gun Violence Throughout, Brief Strong Language, Sensuality and Some Drug Material)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 57 Minutes

Cast-

Joel Kinnaman-Detective Alex Murphy/RoboCop

Abbie Cornish-Clara Murphy

Gary Oldman-Dr. Dennett Norton

Michael Keaton-Raymond Sellars

Jackie Earle Haley-Rick Mattox

Jennifer Ehle-Liz Kline

Jay Baruchel-Tom Pope

Michael K. Williams-Detective Jack Lewis

Samuel L. Jackson-Patrick 'Pat' Novak

Marianne Jean-Baptiste-Chief Karen Dean

Aimee Garcia-Dr. Jae Kim

Patrick Garrow-Antoine Vallon

John Paul Ruttan-David Murphy

Douglas Urbanski-Mayor Durant

K.C. Collins-Andre Daniels

Zach Grenier-Senator Hubert Dreyfuss

Directed by José Padilha

Dead or alive, you're coming with me...again!

Note: Screened on Monday, February 10, 2014 at AMC Loews 34th Street 14.

'Dead or alive, you're coming with me!' Despite being saddled with a ridiculous premise (a cop killed in the line-of-duty is revived by a malevolent mega-corporation as a superhuman cyborg), director Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi flick "RoboCop" is now widely regarded as one of the best action films ever made. Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner's brilliant script not only captured the horrific situation the main character was trapped in but it also cleverly used his plight to gleefully satirize American capitalism while scenes of comically over-the-top violence played out before our eyes. The film quickly became a big part of my childhood even though it was wildly inappropriate for my age and I fondly remember owning a RoboCop action figure whose visor would light up when you pressed the little button on his chest. For those of you who are curious, this was the figure I owned and yes, the packaging is inviting you to 'just touch him.' That's rather creepy, Officer Murphy. The critical and commercial success of "RoboCop" prompted Orion Pictures to green-light a sequel but Verhoeven was unable to return as he was already committed to "Total Recall." In his place was "Empire Strikes Back" director Irvin Kershner. Released in 1990, "RoboCop 2" received dismal reviews from critics, who praised the special effects and action sequences but felt that the human element had become lost in a sea of nihilistic violence. This was followed by 1993's watered-down "RoboCop 3," which stripped out all the graphic violence and satire. In its place was a cheesy Saturday Morning Cartoon. With the film series becoming increasingly muddled by television spin-offs (both animated and live-action), it was clear that RoboCop's glory days were long over…until some studio executive came up with the bright idea to remake Verhoeven's classic.

Given Hollywood's current penchant for remakes, this news shouldn't come as a total surprise. Development on a "RoboCop" remake began in 2005, when Sony Pictures announced that the project was being worked on through their subsidiary Screen Gems but it was suddenly halted a year later, to the collective relief of fans everywhere. In March 2008, "RoboCop" was listed in a press release from MGM regarding franchises the studio would be developing in the near future. Three months later, a poster with the tagline "RoboCop: Coming 2010" was unveiled at the Licensing International Expo. Whether we wanted it or not, "RoboCop" was being remade. Darren Aronofsky was initially set to direct the film but he left the project due to creative disagreements with MGM and their unresolved financial issues. Thanks to the commercial success of 2007's "Elite Squad" and its 2010 sequel "The Enemy Within," Brazilian director José Padilha was hired to replace Aronofsky. With up-and-coming screenwriter Joshua Zetumer working on the script, it looked like the "RoboCop" remake was finally back on track but rumors of studio interference began to surface and every fan's worst fear came true when it was confirmed last summer that the film would be rated PG-13, as opposed to the original's R. With this news, I was fully expecting the worse despite the admittedly slick-looking trailers. To my surprise, Padilha's "RoboCop" is actually pretty good, less a remake and more of a reimagining. The script, while thought-provoking, doesn't fully explore all its themes to their full potential and lacks the impact of Verhoeven's classic but this new version of "RoboCop" remains an above-average sci-fi action film, a remake that's anchored by a solid cast and elevates itself by not feeling 'like it rolled off of an assembly line' (Todd Gilchrist, The Verge).

In the year 2028, multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is on the cutting-edge of technology as it provides groundbreaking cybernetic implants for amputees as well as advanced exo-skeletal suits that enhance a soldier's strength and speed. However, they are best known for their ED-209 and EM-208 security droids, which have become the de facto police force in maintaining social order around the world along with the XT-908 aerial drone. OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) wants to bring his company's controversial security technology to the home front but are barred from doing so by public opinion and the Dreyfuss Act, which states that machines cannot be used as a police force in the United States because it cannot feel and therefore, has no actual humanity. To get around this law, Sellars devises an ambitious project with his lawyer Liz Kline (Jennifer Ehle) and marketing director Tom Pope (Jay Baruchel): by putting a man inside a machine. When dedicated Detroit police detective and family man Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is horribly injured in an assassination attempt by crime lord Antoine Vallon (Patrick Garrow), OmniCorp persuades his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) to allow her husband to be used for the company's man-in-a-machine program. Housing the officer's head and his few remaining organs inside a mechanical body, chief scientist Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) transforms Murphy into a cyborg that the public dubs 'RoboCop.' Pressured by Sellars, Denton suppresses Murphy's human emotions in order to make RoboCop more efficient but this ends up back-firing when Clara reaches out to her husband despite being barred from seeing him by OmniCorp. This prompts the cyborg to overwrite his original programming and turn the tables on the amoral company that created him.

Let's get this out of the way: José Padilha's "RoboCop" is far from being the failure that I initially thought it would be but like with most remakes, the film pales in comparison to the original and one of the biggest reasons why is the PG-13 rating. When Paul Verhoeven submitted his film to the MPAA back in 1987, it was given an X rating (this was before the NC-17 rating was established) due to the graphic violence. The film would receive that same rating eleven more times before it was finally granted an R. As funny as the original "RoboCop" was, Verhoeven's futuristic vision of Detroit was depressingly bleak. The decayed, dilapidated city made Gotham from Christopher Nolan's "Batman" films look like Disney World in comparison. RoboCop's existence was necessary because the level of crime that Detroit suffered from was too much for the police department to handle but in Padilha's film, the family-friendly approach hampers its depiction of a rotting Detroit. In fact, it doesn't look like a bad place to live and has no more crime than the average American city. Likewise, the action is relatively tame when compared to the original in spite of the bullet count being higher. RoboCop now has lethal and non-lethal means of taking down enemies, which fits in with OmniCorp's intention of putting a 'human face' on their product. Much praise has been heaped on the action scenes from Padilha's "Elite Squad" films and while most of the combat sequences in "RoboCop" are effectively choreographed, he does rely a little too much on shaky cam, especially during the gun battle between a pre-RoboCop Murphy and Antoine Vallon's goons in a crowded restaurant. Although RoboCop does go head-to-head with three ED-209s in a massive shootout, the climax is surprisingly low-key. However, it does deliver a nice nod to the original that feels appropriate rather than shoe-horned in.

The remake's greatest strength lies in the script's themes as Padilha, along with writer Joshua Zetumer, paint America as an imperialistic bully due to the way OmniCorp has privatized our nation's foreign policy. Set in Iran's capital city of Tehran, the opening scene finds the multinational conglomerate's security droids roaming the streets and doing full body scans on every citizen. Given the country's already-contentious relationship with the United States, such a situation wouldn't be that farfetched as a corporation with considerable influence could play on peoples' fears of a terrorist attack and convince politicians to use their weapons to preemptively invade other nations in the name of 'safety and security' but in reality, they're just worried about their bottom line. Retaining the original film's satirical tone, Padilha occasionally interrupts the story with faux broadcasts from a Bill O'Reilly-like television show called "The Novak Element," hosted by Samuel L. Jackson's Pat Novak. The political commentator frequently lambasts the American public's unwillingness to embrace robots while the rest of the world has (not by choice, I assume), invoking the age-old debate of how much freedom people are willing to surrender in the name of security, or even if they should at all. I'm glad that Padilha is going the extra mile to explore contemporary issues like the ethics over the use of drone warfare or corporations manipulating the media to promote their own agenda but his attempts at satire feel disappointingly shallow. The points he raises, while valid, aren't especially revelatory and much like the film's violence, it lacks teeth.

Padilha's "RoboCop" is stronger when the focus shifts to Murphy and his struggle to keep in touch with whatever humanity he has left. The Frankenstein sub-text is even more apparent in the remake as Murphy is grateful to Dr. Norton for giving him a new lease on life but wonders if he'll be able to experience a sense of normalcy ever again. There's a ghastly scene where Norton, at Murphy's insistence, shows him what's left of his body and we see that he's basically a face, hand, and a pair of lungs. How can he be a father to his son, much less a husband to his wife, when he can barely interact with them physically? Given that 95% of his body is just metal and circuitry now, can he even be called a man at anymore? Murphy's existential crisis is at the heart of Padilha's film but this serious and solemn approach can be a detriment at times. Don't get me wrong, Verhoeven's version had its fair share of drama too yet it also remembered to have fun, especially with its over-the-top gore and ironically upbeat newscasts. When compared side-by-side, the remake just feels too sanitized, too…clean. As I mentioned before, Padilha's "RoboCop" is far from terrible and is quite good when taken on its own terms but it has none of the original film's impact due to being handicapped by its PG-13 rating.

At least the cast is committed to their roles. He may not be as iconic as fan-favorite Peter Weller but Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman (from AMC's "The Killing") manages to deliver a sympathetic performance as Detroit police detective Alex Murphy, effectively capturing the pain and anguish of his character's horrific situation and how he comes to terms with it. Unfortunately, Kinnaman is let down by Abbie Cornish as the two fail to generate much heat despite their characters being husband-and-wife. Part of the problem is the script as it pigeon-holes Cornish as the 'grieving wife' and then later reduces her to another damsel-in-distress. Gary Oldman's turn as Dr. Dennett Norton is by far the most nuanced, with the morally indecisive scientist struggling to help Murphy ease into his new life while placating his corporate overlords. If there's one actor who comes close to recapturing the sleazy magic of the original, it's Michael Keaton, who chews on his role as villainous OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars with gusto. I can only imagine what Keaton can do if he wasn't hobbled by the film's rating. Jennifer Ehle and Jay Baruchel are fun to watch as well, even though their roles lean toward caricature while Jackie Earle Haley sneers with menace as a military tactician on the company's payroll. Finally, there's Samuel L. Jackson, who's clearly enjoying himself with his riff on Bill O'Reilly. In a moment that would make Verhoeven smile, he lets loose on an expletive-filled rant against America's spinelessness, telling the public to stop whining and get with the program. It is sadly the only scene that comes close to matching the gleeful satire of the original.

Released on February 12, 2014, "RoboCop" has received mixed reviews with 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics noted that 'it's far better than it could have been [but] José Padilha's…remake fails to offer a significant improvement over the original.' It doesn't seem like audiences are embracing the film either as it debuted to a rather terrible $2.8 million. Sure, the constant snowstorms on the East Coast will keep some people away from theaters but its effect on the box office is often overstated. Still, it's unlikely that "RoboCop" will earn more than $25 million over the President's Day weekend. While Sony Pictures is obviously hoping for higher, the remake will probably end up being a mild success for the studio as it's pulling in some solid numbers overseas. It doesn't hold a candle to Verhoeven's film but José Padilha's "RoboCop" is still no slouch, delivering a sci-fi action picture that at least aspires to be something more. It's pretty much the best you can hope for in a remake.

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 5

"We're gonna give Americans a product they can love, a figure they can rally behind. We're gonna put a man inside a machine."