[Locke]

Watched the RoboCop remake yesterday:

RoboCop is a film that strives for greatness, and at times it reaches its own ambitious heights in moments that truly outclass the original. Given what this film is about, it's beautifully ironic that the marketing for this film itself was so incredibly poor. I know there'll be lovers of the original who'll go to see this just to crap on it but I ironically think they'll gain the most enjoyment out of this, when they realise it isn't a downright disaster like some other modern Sci-Fi remakes.

It fits awkwardly between the realms of a loving companion piece, as the film features pretty much every key moment and idea and spins them in new directions, with a thoughtful appreciation and attempt at modernisation and the obnoxious sort of remakes which want to bombast, outdo and undermine the original like an insecure piece of shit. Luckily though more often than not the sheer strength of the ideas makes the concepts land, even as the poor execution seems destined for it to miss.

The original was a satire, and a good one at that, but it never really felt like it wanted to be anything more than that. There is nothing wrong with that, it was an extremely entertaining piece of entertainment, but this RoboCop however really has greater ambitions, it wants to be about something and for the most part, it is just as intelligent as it thinks it is.

It's basically the same old story but now RoboCop has gotten an upgrade. Translating the story across to modern times, but reshaping every moment to see how it would look, feel, work and react now this story is existing in our modern post-9/11 world of paranoia. It also has lots to say about focus groups and marketing 'he transforms, kids love that!' and it's all very sharp, accessible and on point, featuring an America that is happy to throw away its very soul for the person who says the nicer sounding words.

Better still is between this much more straight faced political critique of the future just beyond the horizon, is also an increased focus into Murphy himself. This is something that would never be caught dead in the original, but is here the central jumping off point for some of the movies best tweaks to the original formula. So although the new RoboCop suit is hideous, thanks to the black draining out all the detail of the suit in what I can only assume is a thinly disguised cost saving measure, he is actually a much more interesting character and a much more fleshed out human being.

The original RoboCop was, ironically, almost unimportant to his own story despite the fact that the film was named after him. Him being a robot cop was really more of a cool novelty, than something the plot hung on, he could have just as easily been Pirate Cop with little narrative adjusting needed. Here however the film is both much more about what being RoboCop MEANS both to him as a person - and in harrowing fashion I must say - and also the wider world around it.

RoboCop in his very existence is a critique of our world in a way that just didn't work so completely in 1987 and thus he actually feels integral to the plot, as they both manage to up the ante - one of the few times the film ups the ante successfully - without losing any sight of the its humanity, providing a RoboCop both as a character and a film with all the heart and soul the original lacked.

Biggest surprise though goes to Abbie Cornish. She looks lovely, and seeing her in her bra on the big screen is always a treat, but I also assumed that'd be all she'd be here for and was ready to add this to the list of new additions to RoboCop we didn't need. What her character, Clara, turns out to be though is perhaps the most progressive element of the whole film.

In the original Murphy's family were practically written out of the film, but Clara here is a fiercely strong woman, independent and active who is trapped in a moral grey web of the shared knowledge between her and the audience, that she signed the consent forms and got this ball rolling in the first place, even if the ultimate trajectory for the ball is a good one, it takes a long time before it gets to that good place. She is almost, ultimately, as crucial to the proceedings as RoboCop is and that made a refreshing change for this kind of character.

Although this film lacks the originals extreme violence, don't feel too downhearted. Sure one bullet in the original spilt enough blood to go around in this film, but there are key moments of gloriously extreme violence here, that hark back to originals best moments. There is one moment, fairly early on, where an ED 209 spots a child holding a kitchen knife, when the kid doesn't put the knife down, ED guns him down in a moment so brutal and from the marketing, so surprising, I'd love to see the reaction from unaware Mums and Children in a full screening. Similarly are the scenes of RoboCop beneath the suit, which is imagery so disturbing, I'm pretty sure this film will be giving kids (and adults!) nightmares for weeks.

Sadly though, despite these brief moments, most of the action is just too poorly constructed to really praise. It wants to feel gritty and urban, when in reality it embodies the worst tropes of modern action construction. The camera refuses to stay still leaving the action feeling cluttered, incoherent and pretty much impossible to follow. Further problems still, given what this film is about, it wants to provide a RoboCop in "realistic" warfare scenarios which immediately falls flat because basically all he fights are robots, like he's in a cartoon. Honestly, even despite how dated the original now looks, this features action sequences so ridiculous (and so over processed in all of its hideous CGI gratuitousness) they feel completely out of place and clash with the films otherwise utterly serious tone.

I guess that is probably the most ironic thing, this new RoboCop, both despite how the original played out and how the marketing showed this one off, is actually much more satisfying cerebrally than the action romp you probably expected to get. I'm not sure whether to complain or not.