I can’t say I went into director José Padilha‘s RoboCop remake expecting very much. Even the title speaks to a bygone era. But I was largely satisfied up until the ridiculous third act making it seem as if all thought was put into how to walk the path as opposed to where they were actually going.
For the first two thirds, screenwriter Joshua Zetumer did a great job reinventing the story of a Detroit-police officer-turned-cyborg, more than 25 years after the original. Updated for today’s technology, he also dedicates more time to the moral complexity and whys behind building a cyborg robot as robotics company OmniCorp and its CEO (Michael Keaton) are looking for a way to sell their law-enforcing robots to the unconvinced American public.
Already in use around the world, cleaning up war ravaged countries, OmniCorp must find a way to bring a moral compass to their robotic beings. Thus, RoboCop is born after detective Alex Murphy (an up-to-the-task Joel Kinnaman) is nearly burned alive in an assassination attempt.
Tacked onto the learning curve in becoming a robot, Murphy faces complications such as his ability to reconnect with his wife (Abbie Cornish) and child, the conflict of human emotions vs. robot instinct and then the easiest themes to port over from Paul Verhoeven‘s 1987 original — the thematic decay of Detroit and the negative influence of headstrong media types, wonderfully portrayed here by Samuel L. Jackson.
Corporate influence on politics, the influence of sensational media headlines on public opinion and the lack of concern for what’s right in the face of the almighty dollar are all on hand. Zetumer’s script and Padilha’s direction treat it all very matter-of-factly while allowing the situation to either make the audience laugh, feel a sense of exhilaration or an overall sense of compassion. However, the film does lose its footing in the third act, once our characters are established and it decides to betray everything it built.
Gary Oldman plays OmniCorp’s lead scientist, responsible for the robotics that eventually save Murphy and turn him into a cyborg police officer. He’s dealing with moral conflict throughout and it becomes scene-after-scene of him betraying his sense of “right” until the third act where Padilha’s direction must have been, “Okay, now at hysterical!” In fact, pretty much every character acts one way over the first two-thirds of the film and it’s as if a flip was switched and suddenly everyone went into panic mode.
As the head of OmniCorp, Keaton doesn’t really give off the “bad guy” vibe until about midway through and even then it’s nothing like what he becomes by the film’s end, during a ridiculous rooftop showdown where you get the sense the filmmakers decided it was time to wrap things up while making sure the audience understood they have every intention of making a sequel.
If you’ve ever seen an interview with an actor or director they love the word “organic”, well the first two acts of RoboCop are organic while the third is a machination of studio fumbling, ignoring what was already built as the film gives way to fluff after painting itself in a corner with too much wasted time and a couple of needless characters.
RoboCop’s connection to humanity is either his wife and son or his partner (Michael K. Williams), you can’t have both, this isn’t a television series and there isn’t enough time. As evidenced here, one will be neglected or ignored altogether causing narrative disruption. To that same point, I’m tired of seeing Michael K. Williams wasted in his film roles, give the man a break and watch him shine.
Also, stop wasting time with people that don’t matter. All the fussing around with RoboCop’s training and every scene involving Jackie Earle Haley as a worthless tough guy could have been cut and used to create much stronger antagonists while allowing for the same level of character building.
All this to say yes, I enjoyed the film, but there remains an amount of frustration. I understand you can’t treat RoboCop as just another cop drama and keep the target audience, but after spending about 90 minutes with a movie I want to be excited by the final 30, not just look on in dull-eyed bewilderment. Your movie is called RoboCop, let’s continue to explore that. I’m not sure if that even means you need an antagonist, though I am sure a bunch of contrivances thrown in the way to settle on some sort of made up resolution isn’t the answer.
