RoboCop reborn

Film & TV

Thursday February 13, 2014 Comments

Comments Print article

Geeks and fans love director Paul Verhoeven’s original 1987 version of RoboCop, a cult film full of violence and catchy one-liners which are topped only by the humorous black social commentary on American consumerism.

So there was much outrage when Hollywood announced a reboot of the classic – and it only grew with the revelation that this would be a more kiddy-friendly, sanitised affair.

As a fan of the original myself, I had to push aside my own cynicism when I went to see José Padilha’s new vision for everyone’s favourite cyborg cop. I was in the company of one of my oldest friends – a man who claims to be the world’s biggest RoboCop fan, owns three different versions of the film and knows every line. And how pleasantly surprised we were.

The story still features Detroit Detective Alex Murphy (played by Joel Kinnaman), who almost loses his life after a horrific explosion and is rebuilt by the “evil” multinational corporation OCP as the future of law enforcement. This, however, is a different RoboCop, with the satire toned down in favour of far more serious tone.

Padilha takes a much deeper look at the psyche of Murphy after his amazing transformation. The psychological trauma of Murphy’s new life and the effect on his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) are played out at some length early on, and this does lead to some slight pacing issues – but once the action kicks in, it doesn’t let up. There are several great set pieces that live up to the original’s all-out action. And, yes, ED 209 gets his moment, too!

The director uses the charismatic talents of veteran actors Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson and Michael Keaton to great effect. Oldman as the genius scientist with a conscience is wonderful, Jackson brings his usual A game as the larger-than-life host of the US’s most popular current affairs show, and Keaton appears to enjoy himself as the ruthless owner of OCP.

Fans will recognise some nice homages to the original, too.

This isn’t the 1987 RoboCop. But the biggest compliment for the 2014 version came from my friend the diehard fan, who thought it was great. So did I. Thank you for your cooperation.

More InDaily film reviews:

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Last Vegas
Grudge Match
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
Inside Llewyn Davis
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
The Book Thief
Saving Mr Banks

Make a comment View comment guidelines

Jump to next article

Support local arts journalism

Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.

Donate Here

Comments

Show comments

Will my comment be published? Read the guidelines.

. You are free to republish the text and graphics contained in this article online and in print, on the condition that you follow our republishing guidelines.

You must attribute the author and note prominently that the article was originally published by InReview. You must also inlude a link to InReview. Please note that images are not generally included in this creative commons licence as in most cases we are not the copyright owner. However, if the image has an InReview photographer credit or is marked as “supplied”, you are free to republish it with the appropriate credits.

We recommend you set the canonical link of this content to https://inreview.com.au/inreview/film/2014/02/13/robocop-reborn/ to insure that your SEO is not penalised.

<h1>RoboCop reborn</h1>

<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/wayne-psaila/" class="author">Wayne Psaila</a></address>
											
							Geeks and fans love director Paul Verhoeven’s original 1987 version of RoboCop, a cult film full of violence and catchy one-liners which are topped only by the humorous black social commentary on American consumerism.
So there was much outrage when Hollywood announced a reboot of the classic – and it only grew with the revelation that this would be a more kiddy-friendly, sanitised affair.
As a fan of the original myself, I had to push aside my own cynicism when I went to see José Padilha’s new vision for everyone’s favourite cyborg cop. I was in the company of one of my oldest friends – a man who claims to be the world’s biggest RoboCop fan, owns three different versions of the film and knows every line. And how pleasantly surprised we were.
The story still features Detroit Detective Alex Murphy (played by Joel Kinnaman), who almost loses his life after a horrific explosion and is rebuilt by the “evil” multinational corporation OCP as the future of law enforcement. This, however, is a different RoboCop, with the satire toned down in favour of far more serious tone.
Padilha takes a much deeper look at the psyche of Murphy after his amazing transformation. The psychological trauma of Murphy’s new life and the effect on his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) are played out at some length early on, and this does lead to some slight pacing issues – but once the action kicks in, it doesn’t let up. There are several great set pieces that live up to the original’s all-out action. And, yes, ED 209 gets his moment, too!
The director uses the charismatic talents of veteran actors Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson and Michael Keaton to great effect. Oldman as the genius scientist with a conscience is wonderful, Jackson brings his usual A game as the larger-than-life host of the US’s most popular current affairs show, and Keaton appears to enjoy himself as the ruthless owner of OCP.
Fans will recognise some nice homages to the original, too.
This isn’t the 1987 RoboCop. But the biggest compliment for the 2014 version came from my friend the diehard fan, who thought it was great. So did I. Thank you for your cooperation.
<h5><a href="#more-indaily-film-reviews" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="more-indaily-film-reviews"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>More InDaily film reviews:</h5>
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/02/06/mandela-long-walk-freedom/">Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/02/06/last-vegas/">Last Vegas</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/30/grudge-match/">Grudge Match</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/30/12-years-slave/">12 Years a Slave</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/23/wolf-wall-street/">The Wolf of Wall Street</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/23/inside-llewyn-davis/">Inside Llewyn Davis</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/16/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit/">Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/09/book-thief/">The Book Thief</a> 
<a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/01/09/saving-mr-banks/">Saving Mr Banks</a>
							This article is republished from <a href="https://inreview.com.au" target=_blank rel="canonical">InReview</a> under a Creative Commons licence. Read the <a href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/film/2014/02/13/robocop-reborn/" target=_blank rel="canonical">original article</a>.
							<link href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/film/2014/02/13/robocop-reborn/" rel="canonical">

<a href="https://inreview.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InReview</a> is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can <a href="https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000008PVN/inreview-sa-20222023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support our work with a donation</a>. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter <a href="https://inreview.com.au/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
							<img src="https://inreview.com.au/pixel2.png?cc_article=robocop-reborn" width="1" height="1">

Copied to Clipboard