RoboCop (2014) is not a soul-less, cash-grabbing re-tread… but it isn’t a whole lot of fun, either.
Us film geeks have been through all this before, but just in case you don’t mine the interwebs for bread crumbs and film bits… the promotional materials for RoboCop were genuinely awful. The first trailer or two that I saw gave me little hope that the film would achieve anything even approaching quality. And besting the original has always been a firm impossibility. But, throughout the whole dreadful pre-production process, fans familiar with director Jose Padilha’s previous work (Bus 174, Elite Squad, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within) couldn’t surrender all hope. We just couldn’t. Not even when the RoboCop character design was revealed to be way less cool than the original and when the film got slapped with the studio-friendly and teen-loving PG-13 rating… flying in the face of the hard-R spirit of the original Paul Verhoeven sci-fi/comedy/action classic.
And it turns out that the few, the hopeful, were right to trust in Jose Padilha. Against seemingly insurmountable odds, he created a RoboCop remake that justifies its own existence.
Reviewing a remake can be cumbersome. A critic is obligated to review a movie on its own merits, as free from constraint or comparison as possible. But discussing a remake adds a whole layer of context that can’t be ignored. How does this new version stack up against its predecessor?
So, getting that right the hell out of the way: This movie doesn’t even touch the level of tonal brilliance and sheer entertainment value of the Verhoeven original. That was simply not going to be possible. Ever. Which begs the question: If you empirically can NOT top the original film, why even attempt a remake? This question remains a valid one even after having seen RoboCop (2014) and deeming it worthy. In other words, yes, Padilha seems to have fought the good fight and infused enough heart and soul into this remake to justify its existence… but the update remains a footnote, lesser kin to the classic, and that inevitability really does call into question the validity of this remake exercise from the start. That said, if this version gets franchised, I have a feeling the sequels will exceed the quality of RoboCop 2 & 3 handily.
So no, the remake isn’t better than the original. But since that was never even in the cards, the real conversation becomes: what freshness of vision do Padilha and first-time-credited screenwriter Joshua Zetumer bring to the 2014 version? And surprisingly, I think they bring a lot.
RoboCop (2014) has a soul, some genuinely relevant political commentary and even some excellent sci-fi body horror with dashes Frankenstein’s monster to round out the recipe. I actually feel that the set up of the film raises some salient political touchstones and inserts RoboCop right into the middle of the dialog about drones and corporate ascendence. The problem is that it forgets to have all that much fun in the process of getting so much of the heart and soul sorted out. I don’t often find myself criticizing a film for having too much thematic content and character development… but all of that stuff comes at the expense of a sense of fun which is sorely missed.
Detective Alex Murphy (played adequately by Joel Kinnaman) finds himself resurrected as RoboCop after having been blown up in the line of duty. This much we know. Interestingly, this time around, Samuel L. Jackson sets up the elaborate political climate of the near future for us (as a Bill O’Reilly style Fox News-ish future-anchor) in which robots and drones have pacified the Middle East, but are not allowed inside our borders. Michael Keaton plays the Steve Jobsian CEO of OmniCorp (Raymond Sellars) who has to find any means necessary to bring his robots into the US market to get his mitts on that sweet, sweet, almighty dollar bill. So a cyborg program is initiated; a human face for the American masses. Gary Oldman (turning in the film’s best performance) gets the Dr. Frankenstein role here as Dr. Dennett Norton, a scientist with a passion for progress who gets dirtied by OmniCorps funding.
In a very interesting turn, Norton builds RoboCop in such a way as to maintain Alex Murphy’s identity. Unlike the original film, our Alex Murphy is painfully self-aware. His reunion with his family and his first glimpse of what is left of his natural body are the film’s two most moving scenes due in part to Murphy’s full awareness of the situation. Much of the film’s surprisingly talky runtime chronicles OmniCorp’s attempts to manipulate Murphy’s emotional capabilities and control over his own body/hardware. This makes Alex’s attempts to start over with his family a direct conflict with OmniCorp’s priorities, which allows the Murphy family (Abbie Cornish solidly portrays Clara Murphy) to have an actual, meaty conflict that adds to the heart of the film. But the beating heart of this film becomes Alex Murphy’s quest to take back some modicum of control over his “life” once it has been signed away to a giant corporation.
Which leads to a beating heart that is quite grim and dour. The action sequences are few and far between, and do little to get the blood pumping. Sure, we can root for the man inside the machine as he becomes a better and better RoboCop, besting the drones, the ED-209s, and his bull-headed combat trainer (Jackie Earle Haley getting some decent screen time with his real face, no less!). But nothing ever made me want to jump out of my seat and cheer, which does pose a pretty serious problem. RoboCop should be fun, even amidst the death and corporate domination.
I would have greatly preferred a RoboCop that was both smart and fun, but in this screenplay those things seem to be mutually exclusive. We end up with a film that is smart in its set-up, occasionally insightful and emotive in its execution, but never hilarious or chest-thumpingly exciting.
I do want to spend a little bit of time talking about the rating. Studios simply can’t afford, at this point, to release a big-budget tentpole film that teenagers can’t go see. All their OCP-like hopes and dreams of almighty amounts of dollars lining their pockets depend on that un-holy PG-13 rating so their film can reach the widest possible audience. It is clear that RoboCop (2014) is a largely bloodless outing, and that the rating restrained the movie from attempting such dizzyingly gory heights as the original. But that said, the previously mentioned image of the corporeal form of Alex Murphy’s post-Robo body is the most effective and indelible image of the movie… and it is genuinely disturbing. A singular moment that vastly improves on the original film; and an image that probably just doesn’t belong in a PG-13 film.
I’m not the ratings police. I would’ve preferred an R rating that would’ve allowed a lot more body horror elements. But RoboCop (2014) shows the PG-13 rating is simply a farce. Studios and filmmakers know exactly how to carve and trim their films to hit the coveted PG-13, while the MPAA goes on with their arbitrary standards. Dozens of humans are violently killed amidst gunfire, but there is no blood? Cool. PG-13. Shockingly-rendered CGI body horror? No problem. PG-13 all the way. A breast exposed in a sexual manner? Definitely R. Two instances of the “F-word”? Unavoidable R-rating.
The MPAA rating system is irreparably broken. Studios are forced to play by the MPAA’s arbitrary and inconsistent rules in order to maximize their profits and minimize their risks. Artists and their visions lose out, audiences the world over receive a sanitized violence that inoculates us against being disturbed by violent acts. And meanwhile, an R-rated film like RoboCop (2014) lives in limbo as a PG-13 film and suffers because of it. Yes, the movie should have probably just shot for an R rating and gone all out. But no, studios can’t afford something like that here in 2014. The rigged game is laid bare here in Robocop (2014) as some elements that ABSOLUTELY don’t belong in the tween-friendly PG-13 film are displayed proudly while (god forbid) all blood and squib-hits have been removed. Okay, stepping down off of my soap box.
The best parts of RoboCop (2014) are the human elements. Alex Murphy is a real character in this thing. The Murphy family are a major source of drama and provide the audience a perspective of loss and tragedy even as RoboCop busts a training montage or two and becomes a superhero for the audience. The political commentary and corporate skepticism are also relevant and interestingly dealt with. The actors do their best and mostly bring a palpable drama to the proceedings. I just hope in the inevitable RoboCop 2, a level of biting humor and some genuine thrills can be re-inserted into the programming.
And I’m Out.
