Detroit Blues

Robocop (2014)

How can I really open this review? Another reboot of an action franchise long dead for a film company teetering on bankruptcy. Did they succeed with this new version or did they make things worse by betting on a losing horse?

Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is a detective with the Detroit Police Department in the year 2028. Murphy and his partner stir up the wrong hornets nest by investigating a gun smuggler in a city full of dirty cops. Meanwhile a cybernetics company, OmniCorp, is looking for a way to bring their law enforcing robots off the battlefields and on the streets of the United States. So when Murphy is nearly murdered in a car bomb right outside his house, OmniCorp has now found it’s perfect test subject.

This isn’t a bad reboot, but on the other hand it isn’t the best either. Robocop is nothing like the original except in main character name and title. Some would think that was a good thing and in this case they would be right. As much as I loved the first one, I always felt that the human element was missing. This version brings that into the fold. This films downfall… it brings too much.  The audience wants to follow Alex on this journey but it takes too long to unfold. Alex wants so badly to solve his ‘murder’ that he forgets why he was given a second chance to begin with and then when the writers feel they need to wrap up that plotline, it goes so fast and furious that the film is over before you realize what just happened.

Joel Kinnaman gives a decent performance as Alex, as does the rest of the cast. Another one of those films where the cast does just enough to keep us interested, but not enough to make the film great.

José Padilha serves as director of the reboot. Nothing actually known about the director except this is his first American film and he comes from Brazil. As mentioned before, I commend Padilha for trying to make this a more character driven action piece and I think he would have if he extended the film past its 2 hour runtime, however once it gets to a certain point the film just becomes rushed.

Unfortunately, I don’t really think that this was the outcome MGM had in mind when they agreed to release a reboot of this franchise. Like so many reboots before it, the film tries to combine and do too much all at once. The beginning of the film is great, but when we as the audience get the heart of the film… it’s over.

Verdict: Watch On Cable.