ROBOCOP
Starring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman
Directed by Jos茅 Padilha
While its far from a disaster, Jos茅 Padilhas reboot of the satirical cult classic RoboCop strives for more heart but lacks the pulpy thrills that made its predecessor so memorable.
Set in 2028 Detroit, police officer and father Alex Murphy (The Killings Joel Kinnaman) is critically injured outside his home. Seizing an opportunity to bring its vision of a mechanized and militarized future to the streets of America in the name of security, multinational conglomerate OmniCorp (led by the underrated Michael Keaton) turns the disfigured cop into a part-man, part-machine law enforcer.
Peter Weller famously played the iconic role in the 1987 original and Kinnaman does a commendable job here, but his pre-disaster character is so bland, playing a cyber-cop doesnt seem like much of an arc; hes already a bit robotic. This updated version focuses a lot more on family and ethics as Murphy struggles increasingly to be a husband and dad again while Dr. Dennett Norton (the always reliable Gary Oldman) wrestles with the morality of his role in Murphys dwindling humanity.
These aspects help ground the film but they are also part of the problem, causing a big hindrance to the pacing around the third act. Opting for mass appeal and a bigger audience, the filmmakers and producers decided to sanitize the violence making for some rather bland action. Despite a strong, if somewhat plodding story, RoboCop is crammed with plenty of CGI effects which, in a movie that sorely needs it, dont help sell the realism.
