Imagine an iconic movie that does a bitingly satirical send up of American politics, corporate greed, and the way the media influences and/or reflects our lives. Imagine that movie is punctuated with violence so over the top as to get an X-rating the first time out. Imagine that movie with a laser vision scoped on it’s style, what it’s trying to say, and using two steps above reality humor to make its point. Imagine that movie taking the country by surprise and becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Now imagine that movie getting remade to garner a PG-13 rating.

The results are exactly what you might expect. Well made, good looking, emotionally empty and a great representative of everything the first Robocop was trying to skewer.

Striking out to make more than passable references to its forbearer, the 2014 Robocop takes the notions of that film and turns them around so as to create its own fate. Starting with a suit more colored and reminiscent of the one from the original, the conscious decision is made to turn it black. It’s more sleek and intimidating.

Tron. I mean, Robocop

The 2014 Robocop tells the story of Alex Murphy , one of the few honest cops in Detroit, who crosses paths with the wrong criminal and gets blown up for his efforts. His body is salvaged (really just his one hand, lungs, head, and trachea) and placed into a new cyborg outfit by Dr. Dennett Norton. Omnicorp, headed by the overly excitable Raymond Sellars wants to sell product to the government in the form of robotic police. He figures having a human face on what is essentially a machine is the way to get in the good graces of public opinion.

And thus begins Robocop‘s journey. He’s a human, who has his humanity drained away by the corporate machine until he barely responds to his family. But slowly, over time, he starts creating his own dopamine and gets some emotion back. Which causes all sorts of consternation over at Omnicorp. All of this is interspersed with extended scenes to pundit and commentator Pat Novak, who has a show that is obviously pro-Omnicorp. His style and presentation fashioned after right wing commentators like the Sean Hannity’s of the world.

The film looks great. The special effects are basically seamless. I’m beginning to expect this nowadays

Everything is just fine. This movie has no problems.

with how advanced CGI has become. So make no mistake, the movie is a technical marvel with some nice subtle visual touches. The scene where Norton takes apart Robocop‘s body so that Murphy can see what’s left of him, is particularly unnerving and deserving of technical praise.

However, the 2014 update has one glaring problem. It doesn’t take a stance and explore any of the notions it brings up. Painting Robocop in black is a nod to how our own police forces are increasingly organizing like anti-terror squads. The Pat Novak show indicates how the news has devolved on cable but isn’t explored as to what that means to society. The central question of the film of whether or not we should even have robotic police is flat out never explored even though it’s mentioned constantly. The dehumanizing of Murphy has no emotional impact because it’s all about controlling his dopamine. So we know he’s only one shot of chemicals away from feeling human again. There’s a crazy 35 second discussion of free will that is then dropped for much lower expressions like “he’s somehow overriding his programming.”

In a movie about corporate greed doing whatever it can to sell product, making what was once a very political film into something that never takes a stance and goes PG-13 so as to maximize it’s market potential, it all seems like the meta-story surrounding this movie is more compelling than the movie itself. It’s as if Robocop (2014) needed to be made so that Robocop (1987) could finally be realized. That would be almost amazing if Robocop 2 and 3 hadn’t already happened.

“You’re being unreasonable.”
“Well, you dehumanized a policeman.”

While the performance of Gary Oldman as Norton is astoundingly good, the writers seemed fit to have his motivations veer between helping the world and destroying a man’s life in the moments where his conscience is asleep. It’s representative of another problem. The movie is tonally imbalanced. The cocksure marketing expert is played with campy zeal reminiscent of the original. But most everybody else seems to be in a modern day movie of grit and depression.

This is not a bad film. And when compared to the depressing remake of another Verhoeven classic (Total Recall), the new Robocop comes out smelling pretty good. And it’s a far cry better than the sequels. It’s just that the constituent parts indicate knowing something greater but don’t have the guts to do it. The only real conscience is that of the audience. I feel like the action is the point of this movie and really it’s the ideas that should have been the focus. Why did people love The Matrix? Well sure the special effects are great. But it’s the way the action fully realized the underlying ideas of the story. In Robocop (2014), that doesn’t happen. He doesn’t realize he’s human, he has it taken away and getting it back doesn’t seem like much of a struggle. The emotional resonance is tepid.

In watching an interview with the original cast and crew of the original Robocop, Peter Weller said something key. He said his Robocop started having dreams of being a human before doing things that might remind him. If it were to happen the other way around, the film wouldn’t work. If he saw something of his life and then had dreams of being human, it would have fallen flat.

And he’s right. It’s a subtle difference that prevents the reboot from achieving a higher level. Whereas the first film ends with a line that makes you want to jump out of your seat and punch the air with excitement, the new one finishes with the dud of him reuniting with his family.

At 108 minutes, it plays like 115. It’s fine but I think they could have achieved more because they actually had the elements to do it. When I was in college, I interviewed a roommate’s grandmother for a class. I got a 3.5/4.o on my paper. She looked at me and said “you didn’t put in your best effort?” I was content with the grade, but she was right.