I'll be the first to tell you I've been sour on the Robocop remake from the start. There's just no way that a remake...especially a PG-13 remake, could capture even a fraction of what made the original a classic. Then we got the first trailer for the 2014 version and it seemed all of our fears were confirmed. A hollow remake taking only the most surface level cues from the source and leaving behind all of what made it memorable.
Today we have a new trailer, a trailer that comes with an introduction from director Jose Padhila. Padhilia intros the trailer by assuring us he was a fan of the original, then goes on to comment almost directly on the satiric aspects and the message the original delivered about a police state and violence. So we know he's aware that they are an integral part of the story. As the trailer starts we get a voiceover from Samuel L. Jackson that really explains alot of the WTF bits from the first trailer, like Murphy knowing who he is from the get go. In the original they needed the human element to get the robot to work correctly. In this version the robots are in perfect working ordered and deployed to keep the peace around the globe. America, however, is quite "Robo-phobic" so in order for OCP to put their product on the streets of the US they need to create something with humanity that the public will trust. Enter Alex Murphy, you see, it now makes sense for him to know he's human as they want him to have all of the advantages of the robot but all of the PR that a human would bring.
It's not a definitive thumbs up yet, but this trailer and intro by Jose Padhilia has taken me a long way toward the positive side. The action looks pretty slick, though a few scenes make it look like he's moving hyperfast in an odd way...we'll wait to confirm that when more footage hits.
