Nightmare on Elm Street? Dredd? I don't know just why the box-office didn't seem kind enough to give these leg-rooms for sequels, but all in all, they were good films, that suffered from lack of seats being filled. You win some, you lose some. Dredd hurt more than usual, especially given how much Urban delivered. Now, another favorite of mine gets a polished treatment and suffice it to say, it's a pretty bold and decent attempt at resuscitating an engine that definitely fits the Hollywood mold given the CGI craze and technology today.
The plot revolves around Detective Alex Murphy, whose investigations bite off more than he can chew and he ends up in the cross-hairs of the wrong people. Collateral damage indeed. This offers OmniCorp the chance to use a vision for worldwide policing and strategically infiltrate it into the US market, thus re-positioning law enforcement domestically. It boils down to a tale of man vs machine, emotion vs logic and it's a human story at heart, practical in its own essence. With a few obvious twists and turns, the plot never tries to pretentiously craft intricacies here and there, and sticks to a simple formula, which shockingly doesn't have as much gore and violence as I assumed. It also sticks to the robotic elements and tones that made the original pretty fun. There's also enough cheese and campy one-liners that shows it didn't take itself as seriously.
Joel Kinnaman gives a great Keanu Reeves impression, but with more empathy drawn from the audience. The supporting cast is spot on as they're all given brief yet telling tales in the limelight. Gary Oldman as Dr. Dennett Norton, achieves the 'mad' scientist status quo of the film, without going over the top, which is played off neatly by the business-oriented villainy of Jackie Haley, Micheal Keaton and Jay Baruchel. They're not the nefarious bulldozing villains as it distills to business etiquette, political malpractices, corruption within law enforcement and of course, a global spin of terrorism, that Sam Jackson plays off with hilarious ease. The cast does a good job and while the plot subverts a lot of the original, it panders to modern themes and contemporary film, and it's digestible. There are some plot holes that could have been fixed though. For example, having Murphy's family exposed is quite sketchy, and not going in to much detail, there were some improvements needed. The pacing's pretty spot on but there was a lack of intimidation at times offered to combat Murphy's robot-mode. There was some levity that could have been cut out to throw in some grime a la Dredd but overall, it works.
They humanize RoboCop damn well and it's a pleasure not seeing him done in the vein of Iron Man. It's grassroots and stripped down. Could this counter a rushed ending? Not as much. There are some rules that are broken for the sake of a happy ending and some loose ends, such as the fate of a certain corporation, that really leave you scratching your head. But those plot kinks aside, this film and script was much more solid than I anticipated. It played off to a non-complex vibe and that worked nicely in Padilha's favor. I wished there more homages to the original but Padilha's vision was enough to bring out the first-game shooter in me as well as some dramatic, shaky cinematography that really touched on District 9 at times. Overall, it was a pleasant surprise and as many changes that are made, there's still the overall seed from the 80s and 90s to keep you reeled in.
Rickly's Rating = 7/10!
Exclusive: Got a quick five-minute with Mr. Padilha. I asked, "So what really gave you the cojones and grit to change things up and how did you plan to balance out this with the original?".
"Well, it's not easy to stick to the old story because some things won't match up to this day and age but we wanted to keep the core of the story which is a struggle with humanity. Do you get lost in the cogs of the machine? How much can your resist, fight and not submit? We didn't want him to get lost in the turmoil so that's what we brought out - an internal struggle in Murphy and the will to survive and reach to his family. It's a heroic story from a man who never wanted to be a hero, he just wanted to do his job. The tug-of-war with his strife, his pain and anger balances what he sets out to do, to avenge the attempt on his life. After all, these villains nearly broke his family. We wanted it to be as fun as possible but stir emotions up in you!" replied Padilha.