Featuring a plethora of talent, the 80’s classic Robocop receives the remake treatment courtesy of Jose Padilla. Our review after the jump.
It has to be said, when it was announced that Robocop was to receive an up-to-date remake, there was a collection of groans and moans heard around the world. Well, having sat through Jose Padilla’s version, we can honestly say there wasn’t anything to get upset about.
The 1987 Robocop, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven, is beloved by millions for its brutality, political satire and action. Padilla’s comes in as a PG13 movie, so the gore and shocking scenes are sadly missing, but it does get a lot of things right.
Detective Alex Murphy (The Killing’s Joel Kinnaman) is blown-up by a car bomb and is saved by Ramond Sellars (Michael Keaton) and his Omnicorp company. Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) rebuilds Murphy using state-of-the-art technology and in turn creates the future of law enforcement – Robocop.
Whilst he is extremely effective in stopping crime, Murphy starts to override his protocols and looks to solve his own murder.
The effects of the 2014 movie are brilliant and it’s great to see that Padilla didn’t totally take the film in a different direction – we get to see ED-209’s, corruption in both the Detroit police and Omnicorp as well as the struggle as Murphy’s wife and son try to come to terms with who Alex is.
As well as the blood thirstiness of the original, we are also lacking a great villain, as drug runner Antoine Vallon is no Clarence Boddicker. The attempt on Murphy’s life isn’t anywhere shocking as the original either.
Two things that the new version betters the original is in the effects and the performances. Keaton, Oldman and Samuel L Jackson are on fine form and (we’ve said this before) Joel Kinnaman is a star in the making.
We hope this isn’t a one off too. We want to see Kinnaman back as Robocop in another adventure, but please let it be better than the last time we had sequels to the original version.
Overall Thoughts
The 2014 Robocop is a rare breed in that it’s a great remake, although it doesn’t beat the original. Kinnaman makes for a great Detective Murphy. Here’s to a sequel.
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