Like it or not, RoboCop is here… again.
Offering far more humanity than I had expected, this 2014 RoboCop is nowhere near the colossal clunker I had feared. Having said that, I couldn’t
find anything distinguishable about the remake that I hadn’t seen before in Iron
Man or played in “Call of Duty.”
If you’ve seen Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original, you pretty
much know the story here.
Detroit police detective Alex Murphy (The Killing’s Joel
Kinnaman replaces the iconic Peter Weller) is both an honest cop and a devoted
father. After an important sting operation goes awry, Alex and his partner
Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams, removing the offbeat female dynamic that
Nancy Allen brought to the original) find themselves in over their heads with
some local thugs. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Alex has
become a futuristic “Tin Man” – a science experiment spearheaded by Raymond
Sellers (Michael Keaton), head of multinational robotics conglomerate Omnicorp
and his resident technician Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman).
The story is diverting enough, and there is some emotional depth
lent to Murphy’s character that wasn’t present in the original. I enjoyed
watching him grapple with his physical situation while trying to maintain his
commitments at home and to the police force. Some of RoboCop 2014’s finest
moments come between Norton and Murphy when the latter reacts abnormally to
corporate protocol. In these moments, I discerned a very Shelleyan quality in
their relationship which feels like one between Dr. Frankenstein and his
high-tech monster.
It’s just so sad that these amazing plot devices wear thin
with Joshua Zetumer’s humorless script.
At least Iron Man did this with zip.
The
updated CGI and lack of gore in RoboCop 2014 remove any semblance of the “so
bad it’s good,” B-movie feel that made the original a classic. I say this, save
for one extended scene which showcases all the pieces left of Murphy when the
suit is removed. It’s so graphic that it’s not even fun to laugh at, let alone
watch.
For a watered-down, PG-13 remake, this RoboCop takes itself way too seriously. It feels twice as long as its modest 108-minute run time would suggest.
At least a handful of the supporting players try having some
fun with the material. Samuel L. Jackson has a field day as Pat Novak – a loud,
Wolf Blitzer-type character which allows the actor to don his finest hairpiece
since Jules Winnifield’s Jheri curl in Pulp Fiction. Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen)
plays Rick Mattox, head of Omnicorp’s weapons division and quarterback of the
company’s overseas operations. It’s diverting enough watching his character
spar with Murphy. The two hate each other, and that dynamic makes for some of
the film’s lighter moments.
Jay Baruchel (This Is the End) is miscast as
marketing executive Tom Pope. He’s as ancillary as characters come and serves
no purpose except to butt in with douchey one-liners like, “Oh! He looks like a
billion dollars!” and “We are going to make a loooooot of money!” I didn’t
really enjoy watching Abbie Cornish (Limitless) mope around either. Something
about her display of emotion just feels artificial. Not as fitting as one might
think for a movie about a robot.
RoboCop is the first American movie from Brazilian
filmmaker José Padilha, who is famous for the critically-acclaimed Elite Squad films. With as strong an action pedigree as Padilha has, it’s a shame in its
own right that this remake just feels like another reassembled video game. At
least it’s not buried as far down the scrapheap as I had feared.
C+
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