"I won't buy that for a dollar..." Such is Rick Mattox's (Jackie Earle Haley) updated take on the classic line from Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop. While there were no criminals who melted in acid or that other memorable quote "Can you fly, Bobby?" in this remake of the 1987 sci-fi satire, the new flick is still a decent one that provides an allegory on the use of unmanned drones here in the United States. Talk show host Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson) actually has some pretty interesting lines about how Americans are resistant to robots being used on native soil to police this country (and potentially invading privacy rights), despite the fact that in real life (for folks who haven't been watching the news for the last ten years), drones are being used to lethal effect in other nations and dispatching terrorists (which may include those who were born here in the U.S.) left and right long before they put their attack plans into motion. But enough about the political undertones of RoboCop... Let's talk about the part-man, part-machine, all-cop himself.
In terms of the 'Tin Man' (a nickname given to RoboCop by Mattox), Joel Kinnaman did a commendable job playing Detective Alex Murphy and his eventual robotic self. Kinnaman looks just as imposing in the metal suit as Peter Weller did in the 1987 flick and 1990's RoboCop 2. With the rest of the cast, Abbie Cornish (of 2012's Seven Psychopaths) does a great job and looks beautiful as Murphy's wife Clara, Michael Keaton is devious (in a good way) as OmniCorp owner Raymond Sellars, Gary Oldman is channeling the conflicted heroism of Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight trilogy through Dr. Dennett Norton, Haley clearly had a lot of fun playing the humorous character Mattox, Liz Kline—played by Jennifer Ehle (of Zero Dark Thirty)—is just as delightfully shady as Keaton's Sellars, Jay Baruchel (of last year's This Is the End) is amusing as Tom Pope, and Samuel L. Jackson took his role as Novak in stride. One thing's for sure, director José Padilha put lots of effort into this movie having a stellar cast to make up for the absence of biting satire that the original film possessed.
Unlike the original RoboCop flick, this one went more global by having OmniCorp dispatch its army of ED-209s to places such as Afghanistan, and having Murphy (severely-maimed from a car-bomb explosion outside of his house) don his silver (and then the Dark Knight-ish black) armor at a remote facility in China. Speaking of the armor, one cool thing about this RoboCop movie over the first one is that we see what's underneath the metal. Like General Grievous from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, all that's left of Murphy are his head, lungs, heart(?) and right hand. Murphy apparently doesn't have the capacity to eat (since we don't see him eat baby food like Weller's version did in '87)...what with his digestive system being removed and all. But it was a nice touch by Padilha to use modern visual effects to allow the audience to view what was underneath the suit that allowed RoboCop to strike fear into the hearts and minds of criminals throughout the city of Detroit.
All-in-all, RoboCop was an entertaining film. It is understandable that CGI would be utilized to create scores of ED-209s that could move much more dynamically than the full-scale puppet used in the 1987 version, and that the 2014 RoboCop is much more agile and can leap over large walls in a single bound. Plus, he gets to drive through the streets of Detroit on a souped-up motorcycle that almost sounds like the Batpod from Christopher Nolan's last two Batman films. I would also have to give props to Padilha for briefly featuring Basil Poledouris' main music theme for the 1987 flick at the beginning and end credits of this movie. And last, but definitely not least, I have to give kudos to Padilha for allowing Murphy to regain the iconic silver suit near the end of this film. The black 'tactical' armor was cool...but nothing beats the silver covering that fans have come to know and love since its metallic feet first made those "wamp, wamp" sounds throughout the halls of that Detroit police station in 1987. That is all. "Thank you for your cooperation..."
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