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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Sep 2013 at 12:28 PM
Default New Robocop (2014) Your thoughts?
As a fan of the original Robocop films (well, the first two at least because let's face it.. Robocop 3 was terrible.) I'm more than a little skeptical about the reboot film coming out next year. In fact I question why a reboot of Robocop or any film not made in black and white is even deemed necessary, and I answer my own question with "It's all about the money", of course! That's what it seems to breakdown to. We've been seeing a slew of remakes, reboots and repackaging lately within the entertainment industry at large and it makes me wonder if creativity is really that far gone that we can't think of new franchises anymore? Or maybe people are just afraid to take a risk now days with all the money and technology involved in film making. But back to the subject of this thread!

The original Robocop films were a gritty, violent fare with a little offbeat humor thrown in for good measure. As a kid the character of Robocop always fascinated me, it's easy to root for a guy who was brutally killed and comes back from the dead essentially to exact justice on those who wronged him. Visually Robocop just looked awesome too. The way the suit was designed left little doubt in my mind that that was what a cyborg looks like, not just man in a suit. The new suit they've designed for the reboot gives itself away far too much and simply looks like a guy with a suit on. There's no stiff robotic movement being employed in the acting, at least not that I've seen in any of the trailers, no mechanical sounds that I've heard, it's far too lean and tight against the body to the point where it just looks like the man is wearing some armor. Apparently the early on-set photos of the suit being a black design were not false, the armor is black in the movie but from what I've seen in the trailer there is also a metallic colored suit as well. Probably used as a prototype before the black.

With two different "suits" involved, this makes me wonder the extent of Robocop/Alex Murphy's modification. From what I understood from watching the originals, Robocop was nothing more than a "few chunks on a coroner's table" without all that mechanical junk. He probably had no legs or arms. If it's easy for Alex Murphy to swap his body out from metallic to black, he's probably more man than machine in this iteration, which seems like a poor choice. Part of the appeal of Robocop was that he was trapped within a mechanical body, and struggled with his identity as man or machine. Did he still possess enough of his identity as Alex Murphy? Or was he just a robot? From what I've seen in the trailer's for the reboot, Alex's inner struggle is eased greatly. There's one shot that shows him returning home in the suit and speaking with his son. The original Robocop could never do that because he was so far gone from his former self that the mere sight of him drove his wife to tears.

Also they've decided to change the origin of Alex Murphy's death and make it much less brutal. Instead of being mutilated by gunfire it appears that he's seriously injured and burned in an explosion instead. That has a lot less weight than the death scene from the first movie.

But gripes aside, there seems to be some pretty impressive names involved in the reboot. Robocop himself is a relatively unknown, but other cast members include Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson. That gives me at least a little hope that this film might not be a total flop, but who knows. I am however, pretty sure that like almost every remake I've ever seen it just won't be able to hold a candle to the original.. Having been born in 88 and grown up through the 90's watching my dad's favorite movies (Aliens, Predator, Terminator, Robocop, The Thing etc) I love all of those movies and it seems like films of that 80's/90's era were at their best, at least for action, horror, and scifi genres. It makes me feel sorry for the kids of today growing up with all these overpriced half-baked remakes and watered down PG-13 flicks that serve no other purpose than to sell more tickets.

What are your thoughts on the new Robocop? Excited? Not excited? Gonna see it or not?

"Mirrors are more fun than television" -The Flamingo
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