jose padilha’s Robocop
The Karate Kid. Total Recall. Ghostbusters. Poltergeist. Evil Dead. Point Break. Jason and Freddy’s movies. Footloose. Annie. Red Dawn. Time and time and time again, the 80s and 90s’ most beloved and popular films are brought into the modern era by the misunderstood yet maligned art of the remake. Whether adhering too closely to the source material or straying too far away, remakes are high risk, yet scarcely yield high rewards. I’m going to confide with everyone on a little secret- I don’t actually think remakes are exclusively a bad thing. Some of the best films of all time are remakes, and I genuinely believe that with enough love and care, the chance of a do-over can be immensely satisfying and rewarding. However, I do not blame people for being burned and wanting nothing to do with the concept after watching some of their favorite films fail to come into the modern era with the respect and nuance they deserve.
Jose Padilha’s Robocop is a remake with a purpose, at least on the surface level. It instantly justifies its own existence by offering a twist on the beloved classic’s most iconic moments. In the original, Alex Murphy’s emotions and memories are wiped after he is almost killed, causing him to become an unfeeling machine- it’s a story about a man whose soul and personality were ripped away from him, and how he slowly gains them back. However, in the remake, Murphy is conscious for everything, aware of the accident and the outside meddling from the word go. He sees the horrific monster he was made into and reacts to it in real time, only losing his emotions halfway through from an onscreen conscious decision made from the Frankensteins that put him back together.
This leads into the film’s most breathtaking moment- the scene of Robocop waking up from the accident for the first time and the subsequent “there’s nothing left”. The doctors peel back layers and layers off the suit, slowly and painfully, and just when you think that no more of Murphy’s body can be taken from him, the reveal continues. It's grotesque and horrifying, with the audience breathlessly experiencing the phantom pain themselves via the sinking feeling in their gut.
However, wrapping back around to the remake’s purpose, the film feels like a one step forward, two steps back scenario. For every clever idea it helms, it fails to compound on and expand on previously introduced ones. In addition to being a commentary on corporate greed and corruption, 1987’s Robocop is a satire on police brutality- the garish and excessive gore and violence and the patriotic, overblown social acceptance of the police force. Yet, despite director Jose Padilha’s repeated efforts to maintain an R-rating, studio interference forced this remake to be PG-13. A commentary on police brutality without the brutality, this sanitized product fails to repeat or continue to present the ideas that made Robocop Robocop, thanks to studio meddling conducted to sell more tickets. Very ironic, don’t you think?
Switching gears, the visuals in Padilha’s Robocop are outstanding, especially for the time. Kinnaman’s movements in the suit are well-choreographed and expressive, with any constraints lifted by CGI touch ups. An excellent modernization of Rob Bottin’s iconic work, the Robocop suit used at the beginning and very end of the film is great. Though they replace it with an over designed and crappy all-black suit for the majority of the film, the satirical joke about the marketing guy presenting the universally beloved classic design to big shot corporate CEO Raymond Sellars, who dismisses it to say “make it modern and terrible” is really, really funny.
As far as performances go, most are generic and underwhelming, with some key exceptions. I always love Samuel L. Jackson despite how much he phones it in (he’s just such a lovable guy), Gary Oldman, one of my favorite living actors, is the star of the show, and Joel Kinnaman does a great job when he’s with Oldman or alone, but alongside his family, his performance becomes detached and oddly emotionless. Unfortunately, serviceable performances from the members of a cookie-cutter family template isn’t enough to drive me to care about a film’s emotional stakes anymore.
Robocop’s structure is also extremely odd. It felt poorly edited, really missing an iconic, blaring soundtrack to rival Basil Poledouris’ original masterwork to keep the film chugging along. The setup to the finale seemed rushed, and the best fight sequence (the one with the thermal vision) is in the middle of the film. With the sheer amount of great sequences and moments in this film, it’s a massive letdown that there isn’t any substantial glue holding them together.
There is absolutely a great movie in here somewhere, buried under the avalanche of studio interference. A terrific and just-purposeful-enough meta commentary with great visuals bogged down by pacing issues, generic performances and a baffling rating. A remake of one of the smartest and greatest sci-fi futuristic films of all time that lives up to its legacy in some aspects, but not others. A majority of people that have seen this, including (most of) myself, wonder what this movie could have been, but with how much it got right, part of me wonders if we should focus more on the movie we got instead.
