Robocop

Today I am once again showing up to the movie reviewing party "fashionably late" and reviewing Robocop. BTW did you know that in the original Robocop made in 1987, the future year that the movie was supposed to portray was 2014? So for the 25th anniversary of the original, Mrs. Nerd and I had a chance to watch one of her favorite action movies as a child and needless to say, this remake is not the same Robocop that you cult classic fans remember. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Although Rotten Tomatoes gave the remake 49% for deviating from the cult classic formula of horrible acting and ultra violent visuals, I thought it was quite good. But before I get into why I thought it was quite good…

Robocop is about a straight laced cop and family man named Alex Murphy who is a detective in ultra corrupt Detroit. As he works to take down a major illegal arms dealer, he catches some negative attention in the form of a car bomb that blows him to pieces. The only way that he can survive is if he becomes a prototype human-robot hybrid and becomes property of security conglomerate.

Now, it's not like this movie lacks any and all action, it has good action. Could it have used a bit more and used less melodrama? Maybe, but the movie is casted well. Joel Kinnaman does a great job as Murphy and Abbie Cornish does an excellent job as his wife who is desperate to keep Murphy as human as possible for the sake of their family. On the flip side, The corporate villains from Omnicorp are played by Michael Keaton and Jackie Earle Haley who want nothing to do with Murphy's humanity, they just want the robot to perform so they can be the lone providers to America's ailing law enforcement and security issues. I didn't feel so much like I hated Michael Keaton's character which is a problem because he's a villain, and Haley is plenty hatable but is taken down too quickly at the end, so not so compelling on the villain front. But in the middle is Doctor Dennett Norton played by the always brilliant Gary Oldman. Oldman steals the show by playing the moral middle between the two sides sometimes being bad and sometimes being good, but like I said, always brilliant. Oh and I can't forget that I have a sweet spot for Samuel L. Jackson who cameos as a news anchor with a serious agenda.

At the crux of the American debate on whether robots can truly protect American lives is Alex Murphy, and a lot of this movie is spent answering the question "what makes us human?" Is it the physiological structure that we call a body? or is it the brain? Is it our memories, our thoughts and our emotions? or is it the connections that we have to the people around us? Robocop attempts to answer all of these questions primarily through Murphy's relationship to his wife and his son. I think this movie took a hit for taking the existential deep thought route, but ultimately, Murphy's relationship with his family saves him. Why isn't that a plot line that can be celebrated? Does the efficacy of maintaining relationships really take away what otherwise would've been just another rehash of a 25 year old movie that would have been better left alone? I think so. Maybe a violent action flick with the moral that your relationships are what make you human doesn't sound too exciting to post-modern movie critics. But for me…I feel like this is maybe the lesson that us millennials need the most.

But what did you think of the movie? Comment below!

Blessings~!