With
Robocop becoming a new fighter in Mortal Kombat 11, I realized that I don't know if I've seen the original movie more than once and certainly not in at least 20 years, not too mention that I'm positive I've never watched the 2nd and 3rd films either. I've watched other action flicks like Alien, Predator, Terminator, all that stuff a bunch, and I've seen other Paul Verhoeven flicks like Starship Troopers and Total Recall plenty of times, but Robocop just never settled into something I regularly watched. So I'm gonna watch the original, it's sequels, and maybe for kicks, the remake.
I love the tone Verhoeven has with his films, once again bringing up Total Recall and Starship Troopers with that dark satirical take on things like corporations, the military, media, advertising, it has you laughing at the ridiculous characters, while also gawking at the crazy violence happening. Robocop has such a great style to him, like parts of it almost seem a a tiny bit cheesy with the helmet, but it is such a classic look and Peter Weller is great as Alex Murphy/Robocop. The setting is great too, I always love the near future dystopian stuff they were doing back then. Also, ED-209 roaring like a lion and squealing like a pig while being a stop motion creature when moving? It's goofy, but it just works with how ridiculous the movie is.
Definitely dig this movie, the story is over the top, the characters are good, the action is great, it's just a classic bit of 80's action cinema. Now to see where the sequels go...
While it's not as good as the first one, I think Robocop 2 is okay. It's kinda jumpy in its plot elements and it drags at points. Like the first act deals with some of his human connections, which is then dropped, then he gets turned more robot for a time, and then he's just back to regular Robocop by the end, and it doesn't feel like he went through any growth like he did in the first movie. I'm also not a huge fan of the "Robocop 2" design for the bad guy, it's the weird proportions and how it connects along with the bland head design, like I understand they wanted something more mobile than a ED-209, but as far as robots go, it's design is pretty low on the list for me. Especially with that awful CG face he gets to show off at a few moments lol
The movie ends in a weird place too, like it's basically a cliffhanger, so I'll get to Robocop 3 soon, but where the first movie ends at a reasonable point with Murphy stating his name kind of triumphantly, here it just ends with a quip from him, and then done, like I thought there was gonna be more movie lol Again, not a bad movie, there's some solid enough action scenes for the time and the stop motion battle versus Murphy and Kane towards the end is fun to me. Not as good as the first, but very watchable.
Well this was disappointing. While Robocop 2 wasn't as good as the first, it still very much felt like it, but
Robocop 3 is just a more sanitized version of it. Sure, people curse and get shot, but it's all very base level stuff. Murphy talks more and isn't played by Peter Weller, there's some kid hacker there simply as a macguffin, and the whole movie is just boring. It has none of the edge the first two did and the big threat against Robocop that they build up is killed easily and instantly. There aren't any good action scenes either, which is probably its greatest issue, which comes as no surprise with it being a PG-13 film. So dumb.
I don't think it's specifically a bad movie, there's nothing functionally wrong with it, but I'd personally say to avoid this one, it doesn't offer much.
Much like with the Red Dawn remake, I wasn't sure what kind of remake I was gonna get, and in the case of Red Dawn, I thought it mostly nailed what the original movie was, just in a more straightforward action film style.
Robocop 2014 on the other hand is vaguely similar to its origins, but vastly different in scope and premise. Both are certainly products of their time, but I feel like Robocop 2014 misses a lot of what people liked with the original. Even his look isn't right as they change from Silver/Black at the start to an all black look for the rest of the film and he just loses his iconic style because of it, even if they give it back to him at the end of film. They dropped all the humor and ridiculous action, not too mention they are continuing with it being PG-13 like Robocop 3 (apparently it was for budget reasons to try and make more money back after going over budget).
In general, the movie is just alright. Nothing is bad with it, on its own, I think it's a pretty fine scifi action flick, Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman are good and visually it looks good, but there is not a lot here that really nails what was fun about the original. I like it more than Robocop 3, but it really doesn't hold a candle to the original.
