Serve the Public Trust.
Protect the Innocent.
Uphold the Law.
These are the prime directives of Robocop, one of the films
that was a favorite of mine during my childhood.
Now Robocop has a special element to me as it is one of the
reasons that I became a filmmaker because If you haven’t noticed that despite
the fact that the first film takes place in Detroit It was in fact filmed in
Dallas.
Paul Verhoven selected Dallas because of the modern
architecture that is featured in the city including Reunion Tower and Fountain
Park are seen in the background.
Part Man, Part Machine, All Cop was the tag line for the
film upon it’s release in 1987 telling the story of Officer Alex Murphy of the
Detroit Metro Police Department which is under the control of the corporation
Omni Consumer Products. OCP plans on eliminating crime in Old Detroit so that
they can begin construction on Delta City, the utopian city of the future.
Feeling that a new Law enforcement is needed they begin to
replace the police with machines including the ED-209 which still has a few
bugs to work out.
A young hotshot executive proposes a program of his own in
development and the project is greenlit.
After Murphy is killed in the line of duty by Clarence
Boddicker and his gang Murphy is then transformed into Robocop.
Throughout the rest of the film Robocop must avenge his
murder and takedown the corruption in OCP.
The main selling point for the character of Murphy is the
regaining of his humanity that was lost in the programing. Murphy had a wife
and son that are lost at the beginning of the film and Murphy remarks that he
can feel them but he can’t remember them. This is not explored in the film
further.
Many films with this premises feature the machine being
drunk with power and having to be taken down by the ones that created it.
Robocop is the opposite where Murphy is brought back from
the dead more powerful than before but his own sense of morals and duty pits
him against his creaters who desire more power than their creation.
These facts allow Murphy to earn the admiration and respect
of his fellow police officers and even the Chairman of OCP addresses him like
he would address a Police officer.
Nancy Allen plays Robocop’s loyal partner Ann Lewis who
maintains a reaccuring role through most of the franchise and is the
representation of Murphy’s Humanity.
Robocop was a box office hit and despite the fact that the
film maintained an R rating the character remained popular with young audiences
and a Television cartoon was soon released featuring a few retcons but the show
was slightly successful.
Soon a sequel was made in 1990 featuring not just a
returning cast of Weller and Nancy Allen but The executives of OCP were painted
in a far more villainous manner with the corporation beginning to take over the
city after loaning Detroit a considerable sum of money and then calling in the
debt. OCP also creates a new version of Robocop called Robocop 2.
The new machine is made with the brain of a drug kingpin
Robocop 2 has to face off against it’s Predecessor in a clash of robotic titans
that in the end nearly bankrupts OCP.
Written by Frank Miller Robocop 2 had the same feel but was
slightly more polished than the previous film and definitely had more satire In
the flick than the original.
What is really freaky about these flicks is how it has
predicted the events that are in our society today. Such as the corporations taking over and enterprising the cities and the legal system
Now I can’t say that I agree with some of the marketing of
the film such as Robocop’s tagteaming with Sting in WCW.
Robo returned again to theatres in 1993 with the 3rd entry
to the franchise in which Robocop directry faces off against OCP and their
forced relocation and murders of innocent civilians.
Peter Weller refused to reprise the role of Murphy and There is an Urban Legend that Nancy
Allen agreed to return on the condition that her character be killed off early
in the film This claim has been allegedly refuted by Allen herself and despite controversy with the fans this death provided motivation
for Murphy to delete Directive 4 which does not allow him to oppose an OCP
officer.
Soon after the release of the PG-13 sequel a television
series was created which took place after the first film but before the second
and third film with a change in characters names making the series feel like it
is not Canon with the film series.
Also like the 3rd film the violence in the film
is drastically cut down with Murphy seeking less lethal methods to bring down
criminals.
The television series was followed by another animated
series Robocop: Alpha Commando.
Around this time there was another crossover in the form of
the popular video game and comic book Robocop vs The Terminator.
The plot follows Robocop trying to prevent the creation of
Skynet and Terminators being sent back in time to face off against Robocop and
the Human resistance. At the end of the game we find that Robocop has been
dismantled and re assembles himself to face the Machines in the future
alongside John Connor.
Robocop made his final appearance in the early 2000s in a
made for television miniseries Robocop: Prime Directives.
Taking place in the distant future Robocop has been deemed obsolete
and Alex Murphy’s son has become an OCP Executive but does not have the knowledge
of the fate of his father.
Murphy’s former partner Cable is eventually killed in the
line of duty and also is given the Robocop treatment becoming RoboCable looking
similar to Robocop but controlled by a corrupt OCP executive and Murphy with
the help of his son must face off against his old friend to stop OCP once and
for all.
Prime Directives was received poorly by viewers and the
franchise was pronounced all but dead for a decade.
In 2011 as a Joke it was asked if there would be a Robocop
Statue in the proposed New Detroit since many events in the film managed to
come true in the future. A privet fund was put together and the Statue has been
constructed with plans for it’s unveiling in 2014.
In the late 2000s it was revealed that Robocop was going to
be remade.
At first it was announced that Darren Aronofsky was attached
to direct and I recall being at a advance screening of The Wrestler with
Aronofsky in attendance for a QnA after the film where many of the audience
members would not stop asking Robocop questions that Aronofsky tried to say
that he knew nothing or was not at liberty to discuss with the audience at that
time. Finally James Faust had to say “Guys Lay off the Wikipedia”.
Filmed this time in Canada instead of in Texas all that was
seen from the set is a shot of Robocop in his new black uniform that I knew had
to upset some loyalists.
Now if you haven’t noticed I am a loyal fan and I felt that maybe
it was time for a Robocop remake since the original has been dated as you can
get and I had some hopes for the character in the directions that I would have
gone as a filmmaker myself.
Now I did also have some conditions. First off the Theme
song had to be in this film. Think of it as Halloween or Jaws without the
score. That is how I feel about Robocop.
Like it’s 1987 counterpart Robocop featured television and news
reports interrupting the film This film takes a slightly different approach
with Samuel L. Jackson as Patrick "Pat" Novak, host of The Novak
Element a pundit program similar to our programs on cable channels frequently interrupting
the program voicing his opinion to humorous effect.
Now many were complaining about the change is costume but I
like the fact that the film does show Robocop in his original design before
moving to the black not to mention the fact that special effects have improved
so massively that now Robocop can run and jump great distances. Granted I admit
that there were a couple of times that I thought that I was watching the
reimagining of Battlestar.
Now what I do like is the fact that when Murphy is killed
instead of a gang of cop killers he is killed by corrupt cops and in the
process of solving his own murder he finds that the conspiracy goes much
farther than many of us would imagine.
I also like the expansion of the characters of Murphy’s wife
and son who are actually in this film with a bigger role where in the other
films the most that they had was a single scene.
All in All I have nothing bad to say about this Remake.
Usually I am pissed about some films that are remade but There were many bad
directions that this flick could have taken I have to give credit and say good
job.
5 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
2 Lungs
1 Brain
1 Cyborg
4 ED-209s
Good Popcorn flick
3 Stars
Check it out.
