Take the remake of Robocop
Good Ideas
Themes present in the original regarding free will and the obsolescence of the human actors are still there, but the new film is updated with themes regarding our anxiety about drone warfare, the panoptic power of electronic surveillance, and the disinformation of modern media outlets.
ED 209s are mixing it up on the battlefield before Robocop hits the streets. The machines are already deployed and effective, but people don't quite trust them yet. This fits with our modern fear of self-driving cars and self-piloted planes. We want a person to be in control in crucial situations. It was for this reason that elevator operators were still employed, years after technology making automatic elevators had arrive. A great new twist is that we don't NEED a Robocop, but the only way to get the public to approve Omnicorp products on American streets is to have a person in the machine. The twist is that Robocop is a step backwards, the equivalent of the elevator operator.
The other twist is that Murphy is given the illusion of free will in combat mode. He "feels" as if he is doing all that cool combat by his own initiative, but the truth is that the system takes over in these moments because as a human, he's too slow to perform adequately.
Not So Good Movie
Unfortunately, our window into modern media is just Sam Jackson as a sort of Rush Limbaugh character, a sort of Fox News pundit. The bandwidth here is very narrow. Instead of inter-cutting with clever advertisements and news clips that flesh out the world and offer jaded comic relief, we only get Sam Jackson in a bad suit.
Overall, the film lacks the biting satire of the original. The first film isn't that smart, but it knows that it needs to entertain an audience. The original had fun. The remake is maudlin and cruel to Murphy and doesn't really give us any joy of watching Murphy being Robocop.
If you've got Keaton, Jackson, and Oldman and what comes off the screen is flat, the problem is not with your actors, but your movie.
Good Ideas
Themes present in the original regarding free will and the obsolescence of the human actors are still there, but the new film is updated with themes regarding our anxiety about drone warfare, the panoptic power of electronic surveillance, and the disinformation of modern media outlets.
ED 209s are mixing it up on the battlefield before Robocop hits the streets. The machines are already deployed and effective, but people don't quite trust them yet. This fits with our modern fear of self-driving cars and self-piloted planes. We want a person to be in control in crucial situations. It was for this reason that elevator operators were still employed, years after technology making automatic elevators had arrive. A great new twist is that we don't NEED a Robocop, but the only way to get the public to approve Omnicorp products on American streets is to have a person in the machine. The twist is that Robocop is a step backwards, the equivalent of the elevator operator.
The other twist is that Murphy is given the illusion of free will in combat mode. He "feels" as if he is doing all that cool combat by his own initiative, but the truth is that the system takes over in these moments because as a human, he's too slow to perform adequately.
Not So Good Movie
Unfortunately, our window into modern media is just Sam Jackson as a sort of Rush Limbaugh character, a sort of Fox News pundit. The bandwidth here is very narrow. Instead of inter-cutting with clever advertisements and news clips that flesh out the world and offer jaded comic relief, we only get Sam Jackson in a bad suit.
Overall, the film lacks the biting satire of the original. The first film isn't that smart, but it knows that it needs to entertain an audience. The original had fun. The remake is maudlin and cruel to Murphy and doesn't really give us any joy of watching Murphy being Robocop.
If you've got Keaton, Jackson, and Oldman and what comes off the screen is flat, the problem is not with your actors, but your movie.