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Synopsis:
When Alex Murphy uncovers what is potentially a corrupt crime circle in Detroit’s Police Force, an attempt is made on his life.
It fails, but Murphy is left blind, deaf, paralysed from the waist down and burned over almost his entire body.
Enter Dennett Norton, a neurosurgeon and prosthetics whizz in OmniCorp’s laboratories, who says he can fix Murphy, and make him a “better” “human” than he ever was before.
Review:
Ugh.
RoboCop… one of the most iconic 80s movies ever made.
A product of its time in many ways, but is also one of the finest precognitive movies too. RoboCop, under the helm of Verhoeven, shows glimpses of a future that seemed far-out… but turned out to be true. It was also a tightly wound nest of boxes that surprised the viewer on every level.
It had class, style and soul.
This remake is simply a product of its time: All CGI, and no writing to back it up.
We have zero charisma from the production team. The film simply plays out in a 123, ABC script line, has zero to no realisation involved and even less emotional connection when it comes to the character writing.
There’s nothing in this movie to keep the viewer’s attention. Sure, there’s some nifty looking effects, I was pretty impressed at the reveal of RoboCop’s inner workings… but it’s a scene that was
A) A question we didn’t ask
B) An answer we didn’t need
Also, a greenscreen and CGI is no match for Rob Bottin’s work on Weller’s face.
So that’s it really. The movie just sort of, exists.
As for the character writing… poor. Very, very poor.
As an example, we have the rewritten Clarence Boddicker in the shape of a guy called Fallon, or Vallon, maybe Thallon? Not sure what his name was tbh… and I don’t really care, and neither did the filmmakers either by all accounts as he was played by a non-actor and had all of 30 seconds of screen time before he was, quite easily, dispatched by our titular Hero.
Lewis too. A white woman, now a black man, who for some reason, decides to play the race card at random in a scene in which it has no place.
What’s worse with that line, is there was no lead up to it. No exposition for it. A totally random race joke for the sake of it.
Lewis also, originally was RoboCop’s lifeline. Robo’s partner and almost love interest too. In this film, Lewis doesn’t do anything. It’s only in the third act that this non-character appears and simply stands in front of the ED-209 units so they can’t shoot RoboCop.
I mean, this is the treatment of all of the characters throughout the movie.
This character is this, that character is that. Action! Cut! Print it. Get it in the cinemas quick.
Even the iconic lines from the original show up and are slapped back down again with ignorance, and in scenes with little payoff.
Like Lewis’ race joke, the iconic “Dead Or Alive You Are Coming With Me” line is slapdashed into a random scene, just for the sake of it.
The acting is about as good as you can expect from such a troubled production.
Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Abbie Cornish doing the by-the-numbers thing and our non-actor in Patrick Garrow as Fallon, Vallon or whatever his name was occasionally grimacing at his goons.
Joel Kinnaman is best on show as Murphy/RoboCop though. Gladly so, but again, there’s little substance to this rewritten role and the dialogue he was given is, well, generic.
He did ok though as Robo, but, the rewritten and more human RoboCop is simply a role that any actor could do.
Peter Weller had to work at his role, he had to become RoboCop.
Kinnaman just simply had to turn up and recite his lines. There was nothing different, nothing original.
This movie really revolves around the CGI and action.
It’s exceptionally well rendered though too. But like I said, it is no substitute for Rob Bottin’s mastery of prosthetics and makeup.
The action is choreographed well too, but again, another slap down comes from the piss poor writing and poor audience-character connections.
Good choreography needs to be made exciting.
All in all, a terrible remake.
Anyone like myself who loves the original will probably be in the same boat as myself and wish they hadn’t bought the DVD.
Review #238, Movie #309
Year Of Release
2014
Director/s
Jose Padilha
Producer/s
Marc Abraham, Eric Newman
Writer/s
Joshua Zetumer
Ed Neumeier, Michael Miner
Cast
Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Jackie Earl Haley, Abbie Cornish, Michael K Williams, Jay Baruchel, Aimee Garcia, Patrick Garrow and Samuel L Jackson
Notes And Trivia
It was in 2005 when Screen Gems announced it was working on a remake of RoboCop and they were marred with disappointment after disappointment throughout the entire preproduction… from 2005 till 2013, the studios had hired and then lost Darren Aronofsky after he deemed the studio to be in danger from their own financial problems and the fact that MGM were dictating what Aronofsky would and wouldn’t do in the movie.
The studios then trawled through pages and pages of actors to fill the title role, including Tom Cruise, Michael Fassbender, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe and Keanu Reeves.
At this time however, they still hadn’t found a replacement for Aronofsky.
Hugh Laurie and Clive Owen were also shortlisted for the role of Raymond Sellers, the CEO of OmniCorp and the role of Dennett Norton was shortlisted to Edward Norton who proved totally disinterested.
Eventually, Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman took the roles, alongside Jackie Earl Haley and Abbie Cornish, but only a few weeks before shooting was supposedly starting.
The troubled production and casting also lead the filmmakers to cast non-actors in some roles, as nobody wanted anything to do with the movie.
More bad news followed though, when concepts for the new RoboCop suit were unveiled and were met with disdain by fans and critics. It was almost a carbon copy of the Nolan’s Batsuit.
Even after a redesign, the suit was mocked.
Another area of mocking and unfavourable comments were because the film was shot in Toronto, Vancouver and areas of Ontario, and not in Detroit.
Jose Padilha eventually took over as director in around 2011-2012… but again, the movie was hit with disappointment. Padilha was met with the same dictatorship that caused Aronofsky to leave.
Padilha even took to calling a friend and fellow director Fernando Meirelles (City Of God) and confiding in him about the “hell” he was going through.
Padilha’s experience on the film also near pushed him to quitting the business, calling it “the worst experience of my life” and “I have never suffered so much, I will never do this again”.
Year Of Release
2014
Director/s
Jose Padilha
Producer/s
Marc Abraham, Eric Newman
Writer/s
Joshua Zetumer
Ed Neumeier, Michael Miner
Cast
Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Jackie Earl Haley, Abbie Cornish, Michael K Williams, Jay Baruchel, Aimee Garcia, Patrick Garrow and Samuel L Jackson
Notes And Trivia
It was in 2005 when Screen Gems announced it was working on a remake of RoboCop and they were marred with disappointment after disappointment throughout the entire preproduction… from 2005 till 2013, the studios had hired and then lost Darren Aronofsky after he deemed the studio to be in danger from their own financial problems and the fact that MGM were dictating what Aronofsky would and wouldn’t do in the movie.
The studios then trawled through pages and pages of actors to fill the title role, including Tom Cruise, Michael Fassbender, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe and Keanu Reeves.
At this time however, they still hadn’t found a replacement for Aronofsky.
Hugh Laurie and Clive Owen were also shortlisted for the role of Raymond Sellers, the CEO of OmniCorp and the role of Dennett Norton was shortlisted to Edward Norton who proved totally disinterested.
Eventually, Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman took the roles, alongside Jackie Earl Haley and Abbie Cornish, but only a few weeks before shooting was supposedly starting.
The troubled production and casting also lead the filmmakers to cast non-actors in some roles, as nobody wanted anything to do with the movie.
More bad news followed though, when concepts for the new RoboCop suit were unveiled and were met with disdain by fans and critics. It was almost a carbon copy of the Nolan’s Batsuit.
Even after a redesign, the suit was mocked.
Another area of mocking and unfavourable comments were because the film was shot in Toronto, Vancouver and areas of Ontario, and not in Detroit.
Jose Padilha eventually took over as director in around 2011-2012… but again, the movie was hit with disappointment. Padilha was met with the same dictatorship that caused Aronofsky to leave.
Padilha even took to calling a friend and fellow director Fernando Meirelles (City Of God) and confiding in him about the “hell” he was going through.
Padilha’s experience on the film also near pushed him to quitting the business, calling it “the worst experience of my life” and “I have never suffered so much, I will never do this again”.
When Alex Murphy uncovers what is potentially a corrupt crime circle in Detroit’s Police Force, an attempt is made on his life.
It fails, but Murphy is left blind, deaf, paralysed from the waist down and burned over almost his entire body.
Enter Dennett Norton, a neurosurgeon and prosthetics whizz in OmniCorp’s laboratories, who says he can fix Murphy, and make him a “better” “human” than he ever was before.
Review:
Ugh.
RoboCop… one of the most iconic 80s movies ever made.
A product of its time in many ways, but is also one of the finest precognitive movies too. RoboCop, under the helm of Verhoeven, shows glimpses of a future that seemed far-out… but turned out to be true. It was also a tightly wound nest of boxes that surprised the viewer on every level.
It had class, style and soul.
This remake is simply a product of its time: All CGI, and no writing to back it up.
We have zero charisma from the production team. The film simply plays out in a 123, ABC script line, has zero to no realisation involved and even less emotional connection when it comes to the character writing.
There’s nothing in this movie to keep the viewer’s attention. Sure, there’s some nifty looking effects, I was pretty impressed at the reveal of RoboCop’s inner workings… but it’s a scene that was
A) A question we didn’t ask
B) An answer we didn’t need
Also, a greenscreen and CGI is no match for Rob Bottin’s work on Weller’s face.
So that’s it really. The movie just sort of, exists.
As for the character writing… poor. Very, very poor.
As an example, we have the rewritten Clarence Boddicker in the shape of a guy called Fallon, or Vallon, maybe Thallon? Not sure what his name was tbh… and I don’t really care, and neither did the filmmakers either by all accounts as he was played by a non-actor and had all of 30 seconds of screen time before he was, quite easily, dispatched by our titular Hero.
Lewis too. A white woman, now a black man, who for some reason, decides to play the race card at random in a scene in which it has no place.
What’s worse with that line, is there was no lead up to it. No exposition for it. A totally random race joke for the sake of it.
Lewis also, originally was RoboCop’s lifeline. Robo’s partner and almost love interest too. In this film, Lewis doesn’t do anything. It’s only in the third act that this non-character appears and simply stands in front of the ED-209 units so they can’t shoot RoboCop.
I mean, this is the treatment of all of the characters throughout the movie.
This character is this, that character is that. Action! Cut! Print it. Get it in the cinemas quick.
Even the iconic lines from the original show up and are slapped back down again with ignorance, and in scenes with little payoff.
Like Lewis’ race joke, the iconic “Dead Or Alive You Are Coming With Me” line is slapdashed into a random scene, just for the sake of it.
The acting is about as good as you can expect from such a troubled production.
Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Abbie Cornish doing the by-the-numbers thing and our non-actor in Patrick Garrow as Fallon, Vallon or whatever his name was occasionally grimacing at his goons.
Joel Kinnaman is best on show as Murphy/RoboCop though. Gladly so, but again, there’s little substance to this rewritten role and the dialogue he was given is, well, generic.
He did ok though as Robo, but, the rewritten and more human RoboCop is simply a role that any actor could do.
Peter Weller had to work at his role, he had to become RoboCop.
Kinnaman just simply had to turn up and recite his lines. There was nothing different, nothing original.
This movie really revolves around the CGI and action.
It’s exceptionally well rendered though too. But like I said, it is no substitute for Rob Bottin’s mastery of prosthetics and makeup.
The action is choreographed well too, but again, another slap down comes from the piss poor writing and poor audience-character connections.
Good choreography needs to be made exciting.
All in all, a terrible remake.
Anyone like myself who loves the original will probably be in the same boat as myself and wish they hadn’t bought the DVD.
I’m certainly glad I never spent the cash at the cinema though.
It will probably be more enjoyable if you haven’t seen the 1987 masterpiece that was brought to us by Verhoeven, Neumeier, Miner and Bottin.
My Rating: 23%
It will probably be more enjoyable if you haven’t seen the 1987 masterpiece that was brought to us by Verhoeven, Neumeier, Miner and Bottin.
My Rating: 23%
