Robocop (2014) review 3/5

I first met Robocop when I was young boy. It was the third film that I watch. I can't remember what year it is but the time feels different back then. Life is easy with nothing to worry about. I remember watching it and amazing how cool Robocop was with machinegun hand and jetpack. A few week later, I follow it with first and second film. I like the film but did not feel amazed by it back then. I was too young and could not understand the concept of 'Ghost in the machine'

Fast forward several later around two years ago, I decided to grab the Robocop trilogy and watch it for some reason that I couldn't remember. I like the film instantly. Unlike my childish self back then, I found myself prefer first film the most and film the least. The trilogy did remind me of how the movie was back then. The time where cg is hard and difficult. In that time, Robocop doesn't need to be flashy. He need to be slow and robot like since it reflect his mind, the one of person that has been lobotomized so hard that he became robot like. Although I like both sequel to a degree, I felt that there are no need for it since the conflict, a search for Alex Murphy's soul, was already solve in the first film. When he turned around to the camera and said his name is one of the perfect moment in cinema. It show a triumph of human spirit who refuse to be machine.

It's a good film for its time.

Ah, memories.

Now, there's a new Robocop film coming up. Like most people, I first have some pessimist feeling about it. It doesn't seems like original film. There's a lot of recognized actor. There's a lot of CG and action scene. Even Robocop doesn't look like his old self. He's faster, stronger and even paint in black!

That doesn't seems like Robocop to me!

Like a crazy frantic nerd, I wander around the internet. Of course, there some other who have some hope for the film and there are some who did not. But  as a fan, I got to watch it.

And so I did.

And I like it.

The story of the film is quite similar to original. Detective Alex Murphy was badly injured by a car bomb. After his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) agree to let Omni Corp used his body for their prog ram, he was resurrected as Robocop, a law enforcing machine and Omnicorp biggest product advertisement.

The cast is pretty solid. Joel Kinnerman is doing a good job of portraying Alex Murphy. While many people might think that he could not fit into Peter Weller(original Robocop) shoes, I beg to differ. I think that it would be wrong to compare these two because both actor got different script and different take on Robocop /Murphy. Weller's Robocop was a lobotomized cyborg who gradually regain his humanity while Kinner man's Murphy was a cyborg who slowly became lobotomized as the story progressed.

For the rest of colorful cast, they done a pretty good job. I like Gary Oldman the most since it's different from rest of the role he usually has.  Michael Keaton was good as well as Omnicorp CEO who ask like Steve Job's evil brother. Even he's not Batman anymore, it's funny to see that he still like to 'make it black'. 

Also it was nice to see Jackie Earle 'Rorschach' Haley as well, didn't see him since Watchman.


Still, there are two things that I did not like about the film.

1) Aimee Garcia as Jae Kim. Her role is okay but wasn't the character suppose to be Korean? I did not ask for Lee Young Ae but couldn't they just put cast an actually Korean or at least some Asian?

My eyesight probably bad, but I don't think they can pass at each other.

2) This flicking ending theme.


Seriously, it's a bad idea. You can't end a franchise movie with a well known theme with some random music. It's disrespectful. Like you can't make Star Wars film with an ending song from Justin Bieber album. At least write some original music like all the Bonds film.

My face when I saw the end credit.

I would like to mention also that the action scene are rather dull in my opinion. In most scene, Robocop just ran forward with dual gun and mow the bad guy like an arcade rail shooter. The original film kinda like that too but I never got the 'rail shooter' feel from it. Guess the soundtrack might help.

But aside from that I think it's a good film.

As for the change, I believe it was necessary(except for the ending credit theme). The first Robocop, while not Oscar film, was so good and unique in it own way. If the film use all the old element, it will only retreading all the old concept. It's a no-win situation since the critic and fans will always compare it with the old film. The world have change a lot from the time that the old Robocop was film. While I don't think we are any close to utopia, I think that people are more aware of their right and something in the old film like the OCP's right of Alex Murphy's body is something that is less believable nowadays. Not to mention that the concept is already been used. The viewer and visualize effect have change too. With a superhero film like Iron man coming out several times per year, a sight of slow walking cyborg is not so unique anymore.

Like Murphy, I was struggle throughout the film watching everything change around me. As he feels confuse when he found his new cyborg body, I feels confuse that it was black instead of blue. When he was program to subdue his emotional size, we also have been bombard with what some people think as 'brainless CG movie' instead of 'oldies handmade SFX'. But as the movie goes one, as Murphy seems to adjust of this 'change' and his emotion began to resurface, I ask myself a question.

If he can adjust to the change, while shouldn't we?

Of course, nothing would be the same. But the change is not always come with the bad thing.Old movies, like Murphy's old past are come and gone. Murphy would prefer to get the old life back but he can't have it. It's a thing of the past which will not return. He knows accept the change and fight on. And in the end, he was able to see his wife and child again. He might not be able to do things he able to do but in the end he still regain something.

So why we won't be like him, we would never have a new 'Original Robocop' anyway so why we don't just enjoy the film for what it is. I don't think that it's as good as the original but it's not even half bad. Let's just enjoy our current time and current Robocop for what it is. And if I want to see the old Robocop again...

....I just need to pop in my Bluray.  

PS: Since there are many actor in this film that was in super hero flick. I like to write down a short crazy summary for fun.

"After Detective Alex Murphy(Joel Kinnerman) was badly injured by a car bomb, his body was retrieved by Omnicorp, a company that was run by Batman(Michael Keaton). There he was transformed to an ultimate fighting machine called 'Robocop' by Commissioner Gordon(Gary Oldman). Other cast include Abbie Connish as Murphy's wife. Rorschach(Jackie Earl Haley) as Robocop's trainer, and Fox news host play by Hairy Nick Fury(Samuel L. Jackson)