Robocop 2014 (Post-release)

[nitrox]

So I saw this last night at the local IMAX and to be honest it's a real mixed bag for me, mostly in a bad way. But is that really a surprise?
I'm going to touch on a few points which stand out to me in either a good or a bad way, obviously this may contain spoilers!

1. Backstory.

The character development of Alex Murphy and his relationship to his family was very poor indeed, so much so that when he did eventually turn into Robocop I just didn't care about his family issues and the problems they now faced.

2. The Hand.

Why did they keep his hand? Who knows? No attempt was made at all of why they kept his human hand and it served no point in the movie at all.

3. The Music.

The original score is back one way or another, not to the same extent as the original but I had high hopes when it blasted out at the main title sequence.

4. Samuel L Jackson.

His whole role should of been cut from the movie, it slowed the movie down and the movie would of been better without it. It was like being force fed 10 minute segments of Bill O'Reilly. Horrific.

5. The Suit.

The silver suit does make a return and I have to admit it looks great, it looks like Robocop, sadly it's screen time is very limited and only shows up again at the very end of the movie.

The black suit hides all of the details that the silver suit shows off very well, this black suit is what we are stuck with for most of the movie.

I will say they do a good job of showing exactly how much is left of Alex Murphy, this goes some way to making you believe it's not just a man in a suit.

There is a small nod to the original suit design, but it's a blink and you miss it kinda thing.

5. The bad guys.

No where near as good as the original, Michael Keaton did a good job but it lacked the nastiness of Dick Jones from the original. The bad guy who was responsible for Alex's death is completely forgettable and not intimidating at all.

Verdict.

Overall it was OK to watch but not a patch on the original, I applaud the fact that they tried to show a different origin story but without the violence and bad language it really does hurt the movie.

ED-209 was also completely underused and not a patch on the original.

4.5/10

Dan.

 

[Shadow345]

Thumbs down. I would consider Robocop 2 a far superior movie. I'm even currently ranking Robocop 3 higher than this.

None of the action scenes were directed with any flair or excitement.

Joel Kinnaman has zero screen presence, I thought I was watching a remake of The Invisible Man, that's how much he disappeared off the screen.

On the plus side, the three big actors, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman, all give a good performance and help carry the film where the lead actor fails.

There was an effective body horror moment regarding what is left of Murphy's body and what becomes machine. It also alleviates some of the complaints and initial concerns that revolved around Robocop just being a guy in an Iron Man style suit.

Some of the political satire from the original is implemented in the movie, but isn't as executed anywhere near as well as the first film.

4/10

 

[ghostryder]

RoboCop Auctions VIP Fan Auctions

 

[JERRY]

So I saw this last night at the local IMAX and to be honest it's a real mixed bag for me, mostly in a bad way. But is that really a surprise?
I'm going to touch on a few points which stand out to me in either a good or a bad way, obviously this may contain spoilers!

1. Backstory.

The character development of Alex Murphy and his relationship to his family was very poor indeed, so much so that when he did eventually turn into Robocop I just didn't care about his family issues and the problems they now faced.

2. The Hand.

Why did they keep his hand? Who knows? No attempt was made at all of why they kept his human hand and it served no point in the movie at all.

3. The Music.

The original score is back one way or another, not to the same extent as the original but I had high hopes when it blasted out at the main title sequence.

4. Samuel L Jackson.

His whole role should of been cut from the movie, it slowed the movie down and the movie would of been better without it. It was like being force fed 10 minute segments of Bill O'Reilly. Horrific.

5. The Suit.

The silver suit does make a return and I have to admit it looks great, it looks like Robocop, sadly it's screen time is very limited and only shows up again at the very end of the movie.

The black suit hides all of the details that the silver suit shows off very well, this black suit is what we are stuck with for most of the movie.

I will say they do a good job of showing exactly how much is left of Alex Murphy, this goes some way to making you believe it's not just a man in a suit.

There is a small nod to the original suit design, but it's a blink and you miss it kinda thing.

5. The bad guys.

No where near as good as the original, Michael Keaton did a good job but it lacked the nastiness of Dick Jones from the original. The bad guy who was responsible for Alex's death is completely forgettable and not intimidating at all.

Verdict.

Overall it was OK to watch but not a patch on the original, I applaud the fact that they tried to show a different origin story but without the violence and bad language it really does hurt the movie.

ED-209 was also completely underused and not a patch on the original.

4.5/10

Dan.

Saw it last night on this is spot on, it would have been an average action movie in its own right but with its lineage its convoluted and a definite miss.

 

[laserpistol76]

3. The Music.

The original score is back one way or another, not to the same extent as the original but I had high hopes when it blasted out at the main title sequence.

Dan.

I haven't seen this film, but I heard the score on YouTube. Enjoyable to my tastes, and a decent score, but I feel like I've heard it before.

 

[blickfangQ2]

Here are some HD References if someone is interested
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=206151

 

[kcpstudio]

All I want to know is if you guys love the weapons. I had nothing to do with script..... however I did build a ton of stuff for the film.... what did you think of some of the gadgets and especially the weapons.

 

[blickfangQ2]

All I want to know is if you guys love the weapons. I had nothing to do with script..... however I did build a ton of stuff for the film.... what did you think of some of the gadgets and especially the weapons.

I really like the Pistol although it looks like it has a giant futuristic silencer

The automatic weapon is pretty nice too but I prefer the pistol like in the old movies

Do you have some pictures of the suff you did, maybe even orthographic references for us to make some good props?

 

[airair]

this movie sums up everything that is wrong with movies today and why I rarely go the theatre anymore.

This was a rare exception as I was forced along to watch this!

1.) Generic shaky cam and amateur crappy digital cinematography.

2.) Crap music score, other than a ten second quote of basil polideouris's theme at the start, the rest of the music was horrific generic garbage. I've heard better music in elevators.

3.) The useless CGI.

4.) As soon as the movie finished, I didn't get any reward from watching this, instead I suffered from having to watch Jose Padillhas rubbish excuse for a "remake" which lacked all the balls and satire of the original, and instead dilued it with generic family friendly disney magic.

 

[nitrox]

1.) Generic shaky cam and amateur crappy digital cinematography.

I forgot to put that in my review, I completely agree with you. Certain scenes I can understand a director going with shaky cam (although I don't like it) but the one scene which stood out to me was a scene with Gary Oldman talking to Murphy's wife on the sofa, the movement of the camera was not needed at all! Just horrible camerawork.

 

[pengbuzz]

4.) As soon as the movie finished, I didn't get any reward from watching this, instead I suffered from having to watch Jose Padillhas rubbish excuse for a "remake" which lacked all the balls and satire of the original, and instead dilued it with generic family friendly disney magic.

Yeah, I think even Joel knew this:

 

[Clutch]

This had me laughing out loud.
Samuel L. Jackson Eviscerates Anchor Who Confused Him With Laurence Fishburne Live On Air

 

[Gary Weaver II]

Is it wrong that I would let my 12 year old watch the criterion cut of Robocop which is essentially unrated instead of letting her watch this PG-13 rated piece of trash?

Went to the Imax sneak last night and HATED the movie. It's not Batman and Robin bad, but in it's own way it's probably worse.

I could go on and on about the stuff that really bugged me, but I wouldn't want to get too into spoiler territory.

All I came away with was "I'm glad I didn't actually have to pay to see this."

-Gary

 

[VaultUK]

I enjoyed it

 

[rodneyfaile]

Is it true that this robocop uses a taser at one point in the movie? Does it make sense in that instance?

Maybe he should say, "Tased or not tased, you're coming with me."

PG-13 strikes again.

 

[Gary Weaver II]

He uses the taser ALOT in the movie IIRC. Pretty much any point they can't hide the direct violence with a shaky cam or a quick edit he will use the taser. It's also why the main shootout in the third act with the bad guys is filmed in nightvision. Anything to cover up just how many people are being wasted through the course of this movie.

To be honest, I thought this movie was a hell of a lot more violent than the original. For some reason I see the classic films violence as so overdone it's almost comedic.

The new movie tries so hard to be grounded in "reality" that the violence factor is just too much for a PG-13 movie in my opinion.

-Gary

 

[ghostryder]

Haven't seen it, but here's io9's review:

The Robocop remake will shock you because it's so damn awesome

 

[Wes R]

Welp io9 apparently got paid off for their review, then again reviewers can't be trusted since their livelihoods are tied to kissing the studio's butts. Yeah the new "auto-9" handgun is a tazer weapon which shows how big a sissy world this robocop lives in. It has hand print ID (thus the real hand left as a lazy out) and all this other security stuff that would make it useless in the real world.

 

[nitrox]

It has hand print ID (thus the real hand left as a lazy out) and all this other security stuff that would make it useless in the real world.

Haha I never even picked up on that's why they left his hand on, You would think having NFC in his robot hand would be a better solution than an obvious fleshy weak spot!

 

[JiminSTLouis]

All I want to know is if you guys love the weapons. I had nothing to do with script..... however I did build a ton of stuff for the film.... what did you think of some of the gadgets and especially the weapons.

Kenny, my brother in Michigan just called with a review and said the weapons were amazing. He loved the movie, the suit, the music and Samuel Jackson. Can't wait to see it Saturday.