ROBOCOP (2014)
Everybody has that one movie that they watched a ridiculous amount of times when they were growing up. When the first RoboCop hit theaters in 1987, I was a teenager (Yes, the Divine One is that old!) and the movie represented only the best anti-crime solutions around the time: criminals were either arrested, or shot dead. Perhaps a violent choice for such an impressionable age, but fortunately — to many of my peers’ dismay — the doctors say I turned out okay! So when MGM/Columbia decided to reboot/remake , I had my guard up the whole time.
Damn.
Them.
For the most part, the original story is the same. When police officer Alex Murphy (The Killing’s Joel Kinnaman) is the victim of a car explosion that leaves him horribly wounded and in a coma, he shoots straight to the head of the list for OmniCorp. This company proceeds to use Murphy as a needed test subject for their intended half-man/half-robot police. This force intends to incorporate human beings instead of merely machinery, since the result would likely become more accepted by the public, and thus allowed by government to be placed into mainstream production. All about the money. That definitely hasn’t changed.
Unfortunately and even more unsurprisingly, the changes are what screw up what originally worked. In the original, Murphy is erased from society when he gets shot in the line of duty. His wife, his partner — damn it, the whole police force — believes he’s dead.
Now, in 2014, his wife ends up signing consent forms for the surgery, the media is aware of the experiment, and they even keep his wife updated on his progress. Nope. It was better when no one knew who RoboCop was! OCP (the co. from the original) did everything in secret; so when Murphy was released, the criminals didn’t even know he existed.
Why would you want to make the criminals aware of what you’re working on?!
(Cont. on next page…)