Trailer:
“You are going to be a bad ass motherf*cker!”
See, even in the future Detroit sucks. Robocop tells the story of average “good guy” cop who gets transferred to the city from hell. In this version of Detroit, the city has become plagued with crime as the corrupt massive company known as OCP moves in and pretty much buys the entire town including the police department. It is Officer Alex Murphy’s (Peter Weller) first day on the job when he is shot to death by a cop killer and cocaine dealer known as Clarence Boddicker. Taken into OCP he is turned into a law enforcement cyborg prototype called Robocop.
The film is very much a satire of politics, big corporations, and other aspects of American culture. The film has many villains but the main one at the heart of all the films, televisions series, and comics is the company of OCP. Pretty much they employ all the assholes of the world. The majority of the films threats come from the character of Dick Jones, who was against the creation of Robocop and seeks to wreck his program in order to make way for his own robot model. Combine that with the fact he has connections in the Detroit crimeworld and he is one sleazebag to match.
But match him, they do. Where Jones is played as the scheming character, Boddicker is brought in as more of a physical danger to the character of Robocop. He is played magnificently sadistically by Kurtwood Smith, better known as Eric Forman’s dad from That 70’s Show. He is a man that breeds chaos and loves just being evil.
One of the main reasons that Robocop works so well as a film is because it examines humanity, through the eyes of a cyborg. Murphy goes from being a kind hearted cop, to a heartless machine, to trying to regain a sense of his own humanity. His attempts to uncover his past and rediscover who he is gives the film its dramatic tension, something largely absent from a Superhero film since Richard Donner’s Superman. Peter Weller does a great job with him. Portraying Murphy as a likable, sympathetic figure and Robocop as a monotone animatronic being.
The sci-fi world created for the futuristic Detroit is greatly diverse and well depicted. Showing the poor slums to the elaborate architecture of the rich areas. It blends both modern (for the time) with the future elements to keep the idea grounded and gritty. It’s all well used for when the satire areas emerge in the story, becoming an exaggerated look at real issues (again of that time).
Overall Robocop is a brilliantly written, filmed, and depicted. It has small breaths of comedy, drama, and dynamic characters. The effects in it still look great, even if Robocop himself appears to be overly clunky to be efficient. Also the very little stop motion in it is a little tacky, but it's rarely seen and doesn't hurt the film in the slightest. It’s a strong example of a quality R rated Superhero film that is not afraid to indulge in a little gore, but still upholds a level of quality by balancing it with story and characters. Something such adoptions as The Punisher have failed to even attempt.
FINAL RATING: 9/10- (90%)
Check out previous DAY 14: Superman 4-
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