CAST
Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Jackie Earle Haley, and Samuel L Jackson
DIRECTOR
Jose’ Padilha
STUDIO
Sony Pictures
RATING
PG-13
RELEASE
February 12, 2014
RUNNING TIME
108 minutes
REVIEW:
Another year, another childhood favorite remade for a new generation. Hollywood continues to pillaged the movie shelf of the Gen X era with hopes that somehow they can revisit an iconic character and give them an upgrade. Our beloved Robocop is the latest victim.
Last summer, when I attended San Diego Comic Con, I was privileged to sit in the coveted Hall H and attend the Robocop panel where we were presented with cast and director to enlighten us as to what we would be looking forward to in the coming months followed by an advanced screening of ten minutes of the film. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself really excited for this film after what I saw and heard.
Fast forward a few months, the movie is pushed from August 2013 to February 2014, the bad press begins to fly, the film is branded with a PG-13 instead of the R rating we were anticipating, the excitement fades and Robocop becomes just another movie to see in the bowels of what we call…February movies. I can’t sit here and tell you that I had much hope for Jose’ Padilha’s film at this point…as a matter of fact, I was worried about my emotional reaction to this film, but needless to say I wasn’t expecting much. On a cold night, Monday February 10th, 2014, I entered the theater to accept what has come to be.
We find ourselves in the year 2028, where the US government has begun using robot combat units, designed and manufactured by Omnicorp, to clean up war ravaged countries and keep the peace around the world. Opposition back in the United States towards robots protecting and patrolling our streets is at an all time high due to Senate opposition, the people want human beings to continue to hold that post. Omnicorp’s CEO, Raymond Sellars (Keaton) must ook for a way to sell his law enforcing robots to the unconvinced American public.
Omnicorp decides to incorporate the human element into their creation. A robot who’s half man, half machine with the hopes of solidifying the companies future and the approval of the US Senate. Enter Alex Murphy (Kinnaman), a loving father and husband and a good cop, who is injured after a car bomb that almost claimed his life. The opportunity is presented to Alex’s wife Clara (Cornish) to save her husband’s life by allowing Dr Dennett Norton (Oldman), Omnicorp’s lead scientist, to turn her husband into a machine. Now I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m sorta, kinda thinking things might go awry for these Omnicorp chaps.
Robocop on the surface is ripe with potential. The source material, the 1987 classic written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, was due for an update and the director of Brazilian mega-hit Elite Squad, Jose’ Padilha, seemed to be the perfect person to bring this remake to the screen. Padilha does an admirable job trying to stay true to the original content while bringing a fresh take to the character. The cast, including Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, and Michael Keaton, portray their characters with the same attention to detail we’ve come to appreciate from these seasoned actors, and new comer Joel Kinnaman does an admirable job stepping into the big shoes left behind by Peter Weller. But the acting and the director’s approach aren’t the problem with this film…its the execution.
The first half of the movie was very tolerable and had me doubting my feelings of disbelief that were running ramped thru my mind before the movie started, but the second half of the movie reaffirmed my concerns. From the cookie cutter approach to the emotional relationship between Alex and his family to the gaping plot points that left many scenes and story lines unfinished to the anti climatic showdown between Alex and Sellars to the conclusion of the film which was nothing short of sloppy and uneventful. Everything that we loved about the 1987 film was ultimately missing from this 2014 version. The emotional connection we felt to Alex Murphy back then seems amiss and forced in this version and it doesn’t stop there…I think in the end, the thing that derailed this film the most was that it was missing the FUN from the original movie.
This film is like that girlfriend you had when you were younger. As you get older you find yourself reminiscing about lost time and wonder what ever became of that person that left such a mark, ultimately you run into that person only to realize he/she does not hold up after all these years. Robocop (2014) is not a bad movie, but it is not a memorable one. It will not stand the test of time as the original and nor should it, but it does deserve at least one viewing to appease your inner love for the character.
Stars
2 out of 5
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