Robocop (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes: 50%
Rotten Tomatoes Top Critics: 56%
IMDB: 6.7/10
Director: Jose Padilha
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Williams, Jennifer Ehle, Jay Baruchel, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Samuel L. Jackson
My rating: 7/10, but you should definitely see it.
Robocop is the remake of an 1980s action movie I have not seen, is created by a director I have not previously heard of and has a main lead that I am unfamiliar with. I therefore went into this movie without specified expectations, and I have walked out with mixed feelings. There's a lot to like about this movie, and I do like it but at least right now I don't love it. I almost feel bad saying anything bad about it, as there is clearly a lot of love and care and thought that went into the construction and design of this film, some pieces are really quite good, but for whatever reason the whole isn't resonating well. It may be due to the style and tone being inconsistent, but I'm not sure.
The plot: Robocop is the story of a cop (Alex Murphy) who undergoes a horrendous accident, and is then given mechanical parts to replace the majority of his body as well as some neural adjustments. He rejoins the police force as a symbol of technology at work, but he has to deal with the fact that the people benefiting from his success have nefarious intentions. I'll start with some good things to say about the movie:
- I liked the humour, it added to the movie and made it more fun, but it did so in a manner which is natural, it didn't take over from the whole or distract from the plot. The jokes were rare, targeted, and good, which is how I like them, particularly in a movie that deals with a relatively serious subject manner. As an example, the CEO of Omnicorp is at one stage discussing with his employees how Robocop should look. A proposal is made to have Robocop transform, because "kids like it", and the CEO played by Michael Keaton points out it looks ridiculous. This is a pop culture reference making fun of the Transformers movies.
- I liked Samuel L. Jackson's role. I suspect you'll find in other reviews that people are complaining that he was unsubtle in the movie, but anybody who says that is demonstrating their ignorance. He is exactly as subtle as he is supposed to be (until the end) because his role is that of a representation of media shlock jocks like Bill O'Reilley, Lou Dobbs, Katie Couric, etc who are not subtle at all. Therefore, Jackson cannot be subtle in his role. I thought they did a good job of extrapolating what Sean Hannity or his successor might look like in 10 years, with more visual effects in the studio.
- Robocop's wife in the movie, or rather the wife of Alex Murphy, is played by Abbie Cornish. And wow ... what a babe.
- Gary Oldman's role, as the chief scientist in this movie. In this case Robocop runs a clinic with respect to other Hollywood movies. We're not told that the technology to make Robocop emerges from a weekend of brilliance. No, what we're shown is that there was already a lot of the technology in place prior to the events, that implementing all of it onto a single individual took a lot of, and that there were a lot of errors along the way, that not everything went right the first time.
- The transformation into Robocop was handled pretty well I think. I felt horrified and disgusted when Alex Murphy was turned into Robocop. This is a necessary part of the narrative and could have easily come off as camp in the hands of other creative teams, they did their job here however, the sensation at seeing Robocop at first is one of disgust, but also philosophical introspection.
- The dialogue was excellent. Everybody spoke naturally, there weren't unnatural big words in the wrong places.
- Detroit looks like Detroit. There are a lot of African American characters, and they show us little things like the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit skyline to let us know it's Detroit. The movie also shows us China, Iran, and Washington and thus feels global.
Given these strengths, I think I should love the movie, but I don't. I'm not sure why. I discuss some cons I identified though I'm not sure that they're the actual problems.
- A political allegory which is set up clunkily in the first half of the movie is not followed-through in the second half of the movie. The movie starts off with a scene in Iran where drones have "liberated" Tehran, and is discussing efforts to bring drones to America which are blocked by congress. However, it's kind of clunky, I'm not buying that there would ever be zero security drones in the USA, but ok let's assume it. All of this simply disappears in the second half of the movie. Robocop becomes a hero and then they lift the ban on drones.... yeah .... but then what was the point of going all the way to Tehran in the opening scenes? I don't know. Oblivion did a much better job of tackling drone warfare. There are also some human issues brought up in the first third of the movie about the promise and potential of mechanical implants, which they don't really follow through on.
- The action scenes are "meh", I enjoyed the racing on the motorcycle but I didn't buy the shooting matches much. I wonder if they were supposed to be an homage to 1980s action movies. They might have benefited from a better score.
- A second issue is that the world is very small in some places, specifically Omnicorp. There seems to be only 4 or 5 human beings with actual lines working at Omnicorp. They don't even show background extras at the board meetings, it's the same few people over and over, and it makes the company feel inauthentic. Jackie Earle Haley's role was one of those few people at Omnicorp, and I think he absolutely sucked as a character.
- Finally, the climax resolution is as unconvincing as it is in most Hollywood blockbusters. Robocop resolves the situation by drawing on more strength / more willpower. That's some weak writing, though a kid sitting behind me shouted "YES !!!" when it happened. There's not a lot of cleverness to it at all in my opinion. I think this movie would be a lot better if it had not ended with Robocop rebelling against Omnicorp, but instead left some narrative tension unresolved at the end. Just have Robocop close in on Antoine Vallon and achieve a modicum of consciousness at the end. I think that's enough story for one movie. They've resolved a bit too much in this movie, I don't buy it, the last 10 minute action sequence kind of came out of nowhere.
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However, the most important thing about this movie, is that it made me think. As I was watching it, and seeing Robocop get a mechanical body with other characters simply getting mechanical parts, it occurred to me: human biology as we know it is doomed. It may come in 50 years or in 500 years, but eventually we're all going to have mechanical and electrical implants all over, even in our brains. Once that's available ... it will take over. There will likely be brief resistance from people wanting to stay natural, but it won't last. And for this philosophical spark, if nothing else, I say ... go see the movie.
