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| RoboCop 2014 |
Fear not, hardcore RoboCop fans, for the 2014 remake of the classic crime-fighting cyborg from Brazilian director Jose Padilha (Elite Squad). The remake has remodeled the franchise into a flashier, more polished version— with reverence to the mythos of Robocop.
The year is 2028 and US-based multinational conglomerate OmniCorp has been manufacturing robot technology for overseas military use for many years now, but it still cannot penetrate "robophobic" America. Enter Detroit good cop Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman). When an attempted murder reduces him to horrific smithereens, OmniCorp's CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) swoops in to take advantage and campaign robot law enforcement in America. With the help of OmniCorp's resident scientist, Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), they turn Murphy into a half-man, half-machine police officer: RoboCop. While the entire nation follows RoboCop as he significantly lowers Detroit's crime rate, we examine the political and ethical repercussions of a highly efficient robot.
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| Australian Abbie Cornish plays RoboCop's wife. |
RoboCop is not your noisy and mindless blockbuster movie that only aims to cash in on the beloved iconic cop. Nor the hero is your regular invincible superhuman, but a tragic product of a greedy corporation, making him more human and vulnerable, almost a victim.
The remake is inspired, more detailed-oriented, intelligently fleshing out the moral debate of creating a hybrid human-machine or a pure robot police. The storytelling is smooth and effective, the special effects and the music-driven action sequences are clean and effortless. The futuristic elements are pleasant with no hints of affectations. Today's movie technology indeed has become an advantage to reboot RoboCop's fascinating mythology.
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| Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton. |
The plethora of A-list actors in the film, such as Keaton, Oldman, and Samuel Jackson do not grace the screens to compensate for the storytelling (as other films pathetically do), but they fit their roles with the same precision as RoboCop's tactical weaponry. Samuel Jackson is hilarious as the passionately biased host of a current-affairs news program, which cleverly feeds us essential information; Oldman as the morally torn Dr. Frankenstein-like creator of RoboCop; and Keaton portrays his CEO character with the business-man kind of wickedness. Jackie Earle Haley, as OmniCorp's militarist, adds just the right amount of menacing threat to Murphy. Joel Kinnaman as RoboCop lacks the strikingly handsome looks, but when outfitted with his robot machine, he is compelling...with a sexy mouth.
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| Samuel Jackson as the biased Pat Novak. |
RoboCop indeed deserves this 21st century upgrade, also further establishing Padilha as an effective adult-action director. The movie has a soul, and will surely rekindle the fans' love for the franchise, and just might spawn new followers.
5 out of 5 stars
Opens February 5, 2014 in Philippine Cinemas, in IMAX and regular theaters
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