Review // Robocop

José Padilha’s Robocop is sure to be attacked by fans of the original on the grounds that a remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 cult classic is completely unnecessary…and it’s hard to argue. However Padilha’s film is made with a swagger and confidence that allows it to nod to the original, while standing on it’s own. Though the vast increase in digital effects – not to mention the PG-13 rating – mean it is certainly a different viewing experience than the original, it still manages the base requirements of any good sci-fi: to ask some interesting questions.

Padilha and screenwriter Joshua Zetumer keep the story largely intact. Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is a Detroit cop, on the verge of bringing down corruption from inside the force. When he is attacked and critically injured, his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) is given the opportunity to save her husband’s life by allowing him to be turned into the world’s first cyborg police officer.

Off to China we go and the OmniCorp facility, where lead researcher Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) has been tasked with creating a poster-boy for OmniCorp in their bid to bring robotic weaponry to America’s streets. After a number of fantastic sequences bordering on body-horror, Murphy is gone and Robocop is born. Though Murphy remains inside the suit, the executives at OmniCorp have demanded that Dennett give the robotic side control. In other words, though he will think and feel as normal, when combat begins Robocop will be all robot.

The central concern of the film is the “human element”. How is a human being (effected by emotion, uncertainty, empathy) a preferable choice to machines when it comes to enforcing the law or fighting in international conflicts? It’s an interesting question and is posed best in the film’s opening sequence. Robots patrol the streets of an occupied Iran, pointing guns into the faces of civilians as OmniCorp’s television spokesperson Pat Novak tells us how happy they are to be safe. Samuel L. Jackson is a nice piece of casting as Novak and clearly enjoys playing slightly off-type, however his best moments are in the opening minutes.

Joel Kinnaman is serviceable in the lead role, but nothing special. Abbie Cornish is okay. Elsewhere the film benefits from a deep cast who make a so-so script sound much better than it is. Gary Oldman is his reliable self as Dennet, the conscience of OmniCorp. Michael Keaton and Jessica Ehle have fun as the remorseless corporate suits. Michael K. Williams is underused as Murphy’s partner, and Jay Baruchel provides some welcome laughs as OmniCorp’s head of marketing.

Whatever was left of the film’s ~$100 million budget after casting clearly went into effects. Padilha’s presents us with extended sequences of Robocop gunning down robotic villains, rendered in slick CGI. While the choreography and effects are great, the fact that the villains are robotic takes away from the film’s central argument. No one shot by Robocop is actually living. The film’s final shootout takes place in darkness (seen through his internal thermal camera), so even in the final moments things are hampered by the need to be clean.

Nevertheless Padilha has taken what could have been shrugged off as a Hollywood cash grab, and turned it in to an interesting piece of science fiction filmmaking. In many ways the concept seems far more fitting today than it did in the 80s. The original was a film you could watch and laugh at because of its pointed satire. Besides Samuel L. Jackson, there is little humour in the remake. With the use of combat drones now commonplace around the world, the question at the heart of the film has become less speculative fantasy, and more serious debate.

While die-hard fans of Verhoeven’s original should beware, audiences looking for an intriguing piece of filmmaking will likely enjoy themselves. In the dark doldrums of February releases, Robocop is an unlikely success story. While we’re not crazy about the “remake everything” trend Hollywood seems bent on pursuing, Padilha has shown that with a little more bravado and a little less reverence, a remake can succeed beside it’s predecessor. For that he should be commended.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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