In 1987, a potentially God-awful film called RoboCop was released by director Paul Verhoeven, and it exceeded the expectations of most. It has arisen to such heights that fans want a statue erected in Detroit. And as filmmakers have done as of late, RoboCop is getting a remake. Now the question remains: how terrible might it be?
The Suit
The original RoboCop suit probably wouldn’t have looked too out-dated if producers of the new film had attempted to recreate it with a few minor modifications, but they didn’t. They wanted their own take on it. What they came up with doesn’t exactly inspire any excitement from me.
The bike’s cool, but another view of the costume just has me shaking my head in mild frustration.
The Synopsis
“In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.”
Certainly sounds familiar, but without some of the Evil Corporation aspects of its predecessor. Perhaps they’re building it up to have them be the enemy in a sequel… or maybe they don’t want to give away that aspect of it through the synopsis.
The Cast
The original had very few names I recognize, apart from Kurtwood Smith. The remake, however, is full of big names: Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Jackie Earle Haley to name a few… but what of Joel Kinnaman, the guy set to don the suit? He’s had good reviews for his work, but can he give a performance which is a good balance between taking things seriously and not over-acting?
The Verdict: Undecided but Curious
The suit is probably going to look better than expected when it’s on film. The cast looks promising, though it wouldn’t be the first time any of those aforementioned actors took a role in a bad film. I’m sure the production company vetted Jose Padilha, but out of the six movies he has directed thus far, four of them are documentaries, and I’ve never heard of anything he’s done. The fact that writer Nick Schenk was also involved in Gran Torino makes me think this could be interesting, but as he hasn’t done anything in the past 5 years since then, I’m wary.
