Robocop Review

from en.wikipedia.org

I starting to notice that a occurring pattern in my reviews is movies related to robots. First I reviewed Transformer The Movie then I reviewed Gobots Battle of The Rock Lords. I then reviewed Robocop 2,3, and the remake. I also reviewed Avengers Age of Ultron which features the main villain Ultron who is a robot and there is Iron Man with his suit and the gigantic suit called the Hulk Buster. Since I reviewed all the other movies in the Robocop series I should review the original, this review will include spoilers. The first Robocop movie is about a Detroit police officer named Alex Murphy(played by Peter Weller) who after being shot to death by gang of criminals lead by a man named Clarence Boddicker(played by Kurtwood Smith) is resurrected as a cyborg cop named Robocop. While his former partner Lewis(played by Nancy Allen) starts to see that he is actually Murphy although he doesn’t remember at first. As Robocop continues to fight crime he starts to remember who he once was and then goes on a mission to find the men who killed him. 

The first thing I have to mention is the action its absolutely superb with every action being exciting as Robocop’s ability make them mixed in with the action makes them awesome. Robocop himself is bulletproof, can survive small explosions along, has a targeting system, has a USB that looks like a knife, and has a holster in his leg for his gun. While the action and even the entire movie itself is gory at times the violence is stylized into the action and it doesn’t come across as unnecessary or ridiculous. The movie has some hilarious satire in it such as how in the news reports, the reporters tell about all this news of events such as a nuke accidentally been detonated in a very claim manner.

There is also a fake commercial for a board game called Nuke’em which is basically Battleship but with Nukes. And a fake car commercial featuring a claymation T-Rex. The movie also makes commentary on things such commercialism that was going on at the time with the company OCP(Omni Consumer Products). Who in the movie owns/runs the Detroit police department and were the ones who turned Alex Murphy into Robocop. The film’s special effects hold up very well. A big robot that OCP originally created to patrol called the ED-209 is done in both stop motion and a life size model and it still looks and moves greatly.

In scenes such as the elevator shaft of the OCP building and some of the back drops of Detroit were done using glass paintings, they also had to make multiple Robocop suits as well. As for the story its very intriguing as Robocop starts to regain his memories we get to see more of his past and what happened to his family after he got shot down. The characters are all very well written as Alex/Robocop has a very strong bond in his partnership with Lewis, the main villain Clarence while he may seem a bit generic he’s personalty and action make him a very memorable character.

Robocop is an amazing action Si-Fi movie that has managed to stand the test of time. With its cool action, special effects that still hold up well, and a intriguing story with great characters. This may seem like an exaggeration but Robocop is a masterpiece and I absolutely recommend this movie it is a movie that you can watch more than once and not get bored with it.

Score:10/10

 

 

Robocop Remake Review

from http://Wikipedia.org

Last year in February of 2014 they released a remake of the first Robocop movie and as many people predicted before its release the movie just like most remakes is bad and not as good as the original. (This review may include spoilers)The plot is about in the year 2028 Omni Corp has moved robotic drones and even ED-209 robots overseas with the U.S military in other countries and now they want to have robot soldiers in the U.S as well but their not allowed to. So instead they take the injured cop Alex Murphy(played by Joel Kinnaman) and turn him into Robocop. The first main problem with this film is Robocop himself aside from the new black armor that looks dumb not only that but this version of Robocop is VERY whiny in this movie as he tends to complain a lot in when he first becomes Robocop. Not only that but this version is very weak in the original Robocop could withstand dozens of rounds of bullets, being stabbed, and even small fires and explosions.

This Robocop can only withstand bullets and that’s it he can’t even take too much damage from bullets. Joel Kinnaman’s performance as Robocop is pretty good and it works for this version of the character but he still isn’t as good as Peter Weller. Murphy’s partner Lewis isn’t in this movie instead the female role is of Murphy’s wife. Samuel .L Jackson is in the movie he though he plays an annoying and unfunny news reporter Michael Keaton is the movie as well playing the CEO of Omni Corp but just like Samuel his character is also not very good or even an interesting villain. The effects are good but this version of Detroit is in the future where they have all this advanced technology. The setting and effects look pretty generic though as all it is, is just your typical holograms and futuristic computers and buildings. Most of it just looks like something that you see in any other science fiction movie.

The setting in the original was much more realistic because it was set in a modern day Detroit, so there wasn’t any real point to changing the setting to the future in this one. Also in the original it was convincing that Detroit was a dangerous city filled with criminals. In this version Detroit is a clean city that seems safe so it almost seems like there’s no point to build an advanced super cop to protect the streets. The plot doesn’t work out as well as the original it try’s to add all these new elements and characters but they just don’t work all that well in this movie. With Alex Murphy the main problem with him is that you don’t feel like he’s lost any unlike the original he still has most of his emotions, his still knows his identity, and his still has his family. Its not like in the original where you feel for Murphy because of how he lost everything when he was almost killed and turned into Robocop, in the remake though he hasn’t really lost much(except for his human body) because he still has his identity/memoires and his family so you don’t really feel or care about Murphy.

Since he hasn’t lost much or is just uninteresting in this version, then there is also the movie’s action as well. Most of the action doesn’t happen until half way through the movie and when it takes place it’s ok but it could have been better and it seem like there was enough as well. Like most people predicted this remake of Robocop was not as good as the original or as a stand alone movie. Some might find it entertaining but unless you’re a fan of the series who wants to see how this movie is compared to the original, then don’t waste your time with this film.

Score:3/10

Robocop 3 Review

http://wikiapedia.org

Going into Robocop 3 I knew that it was going to be bad movie so I had low expectations but Robocop 3 wasn’t only bad as people said is was, worse than I thought it was going to be. To give a clue on how bad this movie is it has a 3% out of a 100 on Rotten Tomato’s and only some of the worse movies have a score that’s, that low. The movie takes place a few years after the second movie were OCP is finally staring to turn Detroit into Delta City so they hire a bunch of soldiers known as Rehab soldiers. To kick people out of their home’s so that way they can tear them down to build Delta City, however though so people are rebelling against the Rehab soldiers to protect and keep their home’s. So now Robocop a.k.a Alex Murphy teams up with the rebels to help reclaim their home’s and to stop OCP and the Rehad soldiers.

When Orion Pictures made this movie they were going bankrupt so they basically needed this movie to make money for them. One major thing that they did to try to appeal to a wider audience is shift the rating from R that the first two movies had to a PG-13. Frank Miller also returns as a writer in this movie though I doubt that the used much of what he wrote because this movie definitely doesn’t seem like it was written by him unlike the second film. Peter Weller doesn’t return to play Robocop in this film because he was getting tried of wearing the bulky and large costume for Robocop and he was disappointed by the end result of Robocop 2. So an actor named Robert John Burke plays Robocop in this movie his performance is decent but he isn’t as good as Peter Weller, they also did something to his voice for some reason in this film the makes him sound more robotic than human.

This part may contain Minor Spoilers! There are a few things in this movie that doesn’t make any sense the first one a have to mention is a scene in which the police are telling Robocop over the radio to chase a van that is full of rebels that just broke into the police armory but Robocop instead decides to go and help his partner Lewis who is calling for back up and instead of telling the people at the police station that he’s going to help Lewis because she needs back up. Robocop instead just smash’s the communications radio in his car and goes to help Lewis and later on the people at OCP  and the police station are wondering why he disobeyed order’s, so it would have been better if Robocop just told them that he needed to help Lewis.

One thing that they don’t follow through from the second movie, is who is in control of Detroit is it the mayor or is it Omni Corp that controls Detroit? Were to assume that Omni Corp is the one in charge also how did Omni Corp go into bankruptcy they don’t give any reason as to why especially seeing as how the company was bigger than ever. So if OCP were to go out of business would that mean that nobody is in charge of Detroit. THE biggest part that they don’t follow up from the second movie is Robocop’s directives, in the second film Robocop was given a bunch of ridicules directives by OCP so Robocop grabs a power transformer and uses its electricity to get rid of his directives and does work. Here though a big chunk of the movie he can’t fight the Rehab soldiers and help the rebel’s because all of a sudden he has all his primary directives again even though he got rid all of them(including his original 4 directives) in the second movie.

The last one I have to mention is at the very end of the movie when the CEO of Omni Corp asks “Say you’re Murphy aren’t you?” and then Robocop replies “I am Alex Murphy but you know me as Robocop”. This doesn’t make any sense because while some people refer to him as Robocop or just Robo he wants the people both in the police force and at OCP to refer to him as Alex Murphy because that’s who he truly is not just as soulless person that’s a cyborg. Not to mention this has always been emphasized on in the first two movies.

Those were the last of the minor spoilers the rest of the film though is just flat out bad. The action is very lackluster and isn’t very exciting even the big battle at the end isn’t that entertaining. There is also two car chase scenes but even those aren’t all that great. The movie tries to fit in all these new side characters such as the rebels, a new villain, a scientist who helps Robocop, and a little girl who the rebels take care of after she is accidently separated from her parents. Some of these side characters are ok but some of them are just uninteresting. There is also some cyborg ninja’s who fight Robocop but just like all the other action scenes in the film it isn’t very good even then these cyborgs don’t really do anything until towards the end of the movie.

The movie can be a bit boring a times or just uninteresting and for parts of the movie Robocop doesn’t even feel like the main character, he seems to feel more like a side character in his own movie heck he doesn’t make his first appearance until 12 or so minuets into the film. Also most of the funny satire and fake commercials are barley in this movie except a T.V. commercial for a Rehab soldier action figure. The effects are the best part of the movie there pretty good but nothing special. The acting is kinda mixed some people are good  some others could have been better.

Robocop 3 is by no doubt one of the worst squeals ever made and the movie is even worse than I thought it would be. Just by watching it it’s pretty obvious that they just Rushed this movie and that they didn’t really care about what the end product was because they just needed to make some money. Speaking of them making money the movie ironically ended up underperforming at the box office making only $10 million of their $22 million dollar budget so they ended up only losing money on the movie. The first movie is excellent, the second movie while its not as good as the first one its still a good movie, this third movie like I said earlier is just flat out bad. The isn’t really any point to watch this movie unless you’re a fan of the Robocop series even then fans(including myself) won’t really find themselves like this film.

Score:2/10

 

Robocop 2 Review

  image from http://wikapedia.org

Following the success of its big hit first movie Robocop Orion Studios went and made a sequel that was released in 1990 Robocop 2. The movie was written by Walon Green and Frank Miller! Yes! Well known comic book writer Frank Miller wrote part of the script for Robocop 2 the production team decided to bring him in as a writer after his success with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. He even makes a cameo in the movie as a guy named Frank who works for the main villain Cain. However though his parts for his original script were cut out and changed in the final script of Robocop 2 so the final script wasn’t exactly the original version that he wanted to see in the movie. Frank Miller did take his original script though and make it into a comic series called Frank Miller’s Robocop.

The second movie takes place a year after the first movie in which Robocop a.k.a Alex Murphy(played by Peter Weller) must stop a gang of drug dealers lead by a guy named Cain(played by Tom Noonan) who spreading a new dangerous drug across the city known as nuke. While at the same time Omni Consumer Products (also commonly referred to as OCP) wants to build a new Robocop to replace Murphy as they also still don’t believe that Robocop is Alex Murphy and they think that Robocop is just a machine. While OCP also wants to take over Detroit since the city is in bankruptcy which is something that actually happened to Detroit in 2013.

The action in the movie is just as great as it is in the first one as it all done very well and it helps keep the dark mature tone that the first two Robocop movies are most well known for. The bond between Robocop and his partner Lewis(played by Nancy Allen) is very strong is this movie as it does convince you that they’ve been partners for a long time.The effects are also just as great as the first one especially with the robot Robocop 2(yes they actually call it that) which uses mostly stop motion and even a bit of CGI. The satired commercials also return in this one like take for example there is one for a car security system that straps the theft in once there in the car seat and it electrocutes them. The plot works for most of the movie however there are some flaws like one of the villain’s that works for Cain is…Sigh a twelve year old drug dealer, why is one of the villain’s of the movie a kid it doesn’t make much sense, they don’t even give the kid a back story as to why he’s a drug dealer. Another thing that this move could have benefited from is if they had the story acknowledge more that Robocop’s true self is as Alex Murphy.

At times the movie seems to forget that Robocop’s wants be acknowledge and seen as a human being and as Alex Murphy. The rest of the plot though does play out well though making the movie very enjoyable. So if you’ve seen the first film or if your a fan of action movies than Robocop 2 is worth seeing. It may not be as good as the first one but the sequel does prove to be worth your time.

Score: 7/10