The RoboCop IP is doing fairly well right now, with both an expansion to the excellent game, RoboCop: Rogue City, and a TV series on their way. When it comes to film franchises about cyborgs with guns, The Terminator has always been a bit more popular and mainstream. But it’s not as if that franchise has been graced with a perfect track record, either. Even still, while The Terminator film franchise has been a mixed bag, RoboCop‘s is basically a franchise loaded with one great film, an okay sequel, and two subsequent duds. Now, if you want to check out that one great film, all you’ll need is a Max subscription.
And if you want to compare what works about it to what doesn’t work about its dud of a remake, you’ll be able to do that as well. Will you pursue this particular double feature night? It’s “Your move, creep.”
What Makes RoboCop (1987) So Great?
Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven had an incredibly interesting run of films after he made his way to Hollywood. Like David Cronenberg, his movies mixed graphic violence with genuinely thoughtful material and, more often than not, it worked wonderfully.
These American films ran from 1983 to 2000 and included Flesh and Blood, RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, and Hollow Man. While Basic Instinct is a classic in its own right, Verhoeven was at his best when he was merging science fiction with satire, and as solid as Total Recall and Starship Troopers are, there’s simply no beating RoboCop.
Part of it comes down to just how sharp the satire is. Another part is how memorable the film’s violence is, whether it’s an office drone being shot by one of his own company’s machines or a gang member being covered in toxic waste. But an equally big key to the film’s success comes down to casting, with Peter Weller excelling in the title role and equally matched by the film’s diverse trio of villains: Ronny Cox as a duplicitous and cruel executive at Omni Consumer Products, Kurtwood Smith as his hired goon, and Miguel Ferrer as the Omni up-and-comer who originates the RoboCop program.
[RELATED: There’s a New RoboCop Series – But Why Are They Rebooting It Again?]
What Makes RoboCop (2014) Such a Failure?
One can almost see what director José Padilha was going for with his RoboCop remake, it’s just that absolutely none of it works. The satire, this time geared towards taking down imperialism, is ambitious but never quite carried out in a way that sticks in the memory.
Furthermore, the action lacks punch, with the majority of it being RoboCop versus training drones. The graphic nature of the original film’s action gave it serious stakes, which, when combined with the core plot of Alex Murphy being (brutally) killed and essentially resurrected and kept from his family, made it as moving as it was exciting. Here, the viewer is never excited.
Like the original film, the remake’s cast is outstanding. Unfortunately, Joel Kinnaman isn’t given much to work with as the title character, nor is Gary Oldman as his doctor. Michael Keaton essentially plays the Ronny Cox role but never comes across as a particularly intimidating presence. The primary issue behind all of this is two-fold; one, the script lacks the zing and intelligence of the original’s and, two, the PG-13 rating simply does not work for RoboCop.
Kinnaman himself has pointed out the film’s flaws. In his words, “It was a cool experience,” but if he were to have done it at this point in his career, he thinks he would have vocalized some of his issues with it a bit more. Kinnaman also felt he and director Padilha could have “listened more to the fans beforehand.”
As for the film’s watered-down tone, Kinnaman himself assumed the film would be rated R. As he recalled, “The first interview I did for RoboCop, and it was right after I was cast…I got the first questions for RoboCop, and the question was, ‘So, is it going to be R-rated?’ And I was like, ‘Of course, it’s going to be R-rated! Only an idiot would make RoboCop a PG-13 movie.’ Cut to the next morning — 47 missed calls I woke up to.”
If you feel like completing the binge-watch with RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, you’ll need to head over to MGM+. If you sat through the 2014 movie, it’ll be somewhat worth it because, on one hand, RoboCop 2 is the second-best movie of the franchise. As for RoboCop 3, it too is a watered-down, PG-13 mess. But even RoboCop 3 had more personality than the remake.
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