PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBOCOP.COM
Imagine waking up and finding out that all that remains of you is your face, brain, lungs, heart and right hand. Can you imagine?
Meet Robocop.
Although it may be rather difficult not to compare it to the original, this film has its own merits; it brings forth an intellectual story that brings up questions of ethics and justice in our society.
The movie explores the same issue as the original 1987 film. A Detroit cop — Alex Murphy, currently played by Joel Kinnaman — falls victim of attempted murder, and his body parts are used by a robot corporation, Omnicorp, to construct a cyborg.
In this remake, the CEO Raymond Sellars, played by Michael Keaton, is being forced to try to sway American public opinion by passing a law that will allow for robots to roam the streets to combat crime and in turn generate huge profit for his company. But when Murphy’s love for his family rises and the yearning to achieve justice for the people he serves in Detroit begins to overpower the robotic system, he gives Sellars a run for his money.
In this remake, acting is better than in the original and Murphy’s character is well developed. The movie set up emotional complexities for the character and provoked the audience to reflect and relate the issues to today.
For example, the movie sheds light on how easy it can be to influence public opinion, yet how difficult it can be to get to the heart of a matter.
Unfortunately, some action scenes in the movie are so heartless that it detracts from the complexities the movie presents. A contributing factor to this may be its rating. “Robocop” is rated PG-13, but it doesn’t seem that the audience it intends to capture will understand the magnitude of the problems the character goes through, much less the array of problems it alludes to within our own society.
The original was rated R, and it should have stayed an R-rated movie. Perhaps it would have lived up to its expected violence and action. It would have also given the screenwriters an opportunity to further portray the ethical and justice-related issues in the fighting scenes.