Plot Summary
It’s the year 2028 and this cutting-edge robotics company OmniCorp lead by a ruthless Michael Keaton has supplied the U.S. military with drones for use overseas. In the beginning of the movie we learn that they have run into problems with bringing their robotic police/ counter insurgency technology into the USA. OmniCorp decides that they need to court the public. They believe that if the public can get behind a product they can begin to flood the american markets with their technology. The powers that be at Omnicorp decide finally to transform a critically injured police officer Alex Murphy into a cyborg cop. After the first tests aren’t too promising, Detective Murphy is re-programmed to operate strictly on software and not human emotion. While this is initially successful, Murphy’s emotions interfere with his programming. He sets out to right some wrong and all hell breaks loose.
My Thoughts
I enjoyed this movie very much in part because Jack Daniels was running through my veins. The Plot Summary is no surprise especially if you saw the first RoboCop movie or like action flicks. If you are going to see the gratuitous killing and bad action movie on-liners you will be partly disappointed. There were no bad one-liners but there was an amazing amount of killing but not of the type that made me cringe when I saw the movie when I was 7 years old. In other words no one was shot in the dick this time around.
That’s what many people are complaining about. To be more specific:”Pretty much like the original but less funny, less violent and with political themes brought to the forefront. Box office gold!“The first Robocop movie was pretty prophetic. If you watch it again you may gawk at the technology and special effects but you see there the seeds of what blossomed into life today: militarization of police, a really fucked up Detroit, technocratic society where CEO can wield power unchecked. I think the greatest thing about this new reboot was that it wasn’t just a recasting of the old movie in a modern context. It is actually a dialogue. So much in our society has changed and that change has been taken into consideration in this movie. Instead of being a vision of the future there is an allegory for the present. here is an incomplete Dramatis Personae
- Omnicorp – an almost ubiquitous company that can use their movie and subversive marketing to decide the fate of citizens.
- There is the News Industrial Complex working in collaboration with whoever wields the most money. Samuel L Jackson does a great job, in his role in the movie. (He looks a little like James Brown though).
- There is the conflict within between our humanity and our basal drives. I see this most in the character of Robocop. he’s existence is a conundrum. Is he a man or machine? Are we at this moment fully living our potentials as human beings or are we slaves to the lesser drives of material acquisition and seeking comfort and safety.
Of course there are some incredible blurred lines between right and wrong, free an entrapped. But for just this ‘dialogue’ itself between this movie and its predecessor between the America of the late 80’s and the America of the day made the movie worthwhile. It was fun to watch, there was action, some message, and that is more than I can say for most films in this genre. Check it out and tell me what you think
ASpoonfulofSuga 