While not as progressive as Verhoeven's effort, this one crafted by Elite
Squad director Jose Padilha is certainly a product of today's drone warfare
culture and the dominance of the military industrial complex. Like its
predecessor, the message is obvious, current, and delivered with enough humor
that the general lack of character doesn't totally shut down the system.In the not-so-distant future, nearly the entire world has turned to the use of militarized drones for law enforcement and military tactics. Weaponized droids stalk the streets of Tehran while the citizens live under what is later described as "the illusion of free will". There is an obvious anti-drone rebellion out there causing a ruckus, but here in the United States drones have been strictly forbidden, a fact which continues to gall OmniCorp CEO, Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), who hopes to bring it here. But despite the efforts of bloviating Bill O'Reilly-esque propaganda artist Pat Novak (of the hilariously-named The Novak Element), Congress refuses to pass a bill allowing the use of drones on American soil. This is satire in the pure Verhoeven mold because you can turn on the TV right now and see guys just like Novak spouting the same sort of fact-free rubbish; pumping their patriotic chests while deeming their enemies terrorists or cowards.
Turns out what the people want is a robot with a human touch, a droid that
knows right from wrong. And so OmniCorp finds the perfect test subject in Alex
Murphy (Joel Kinnaman), a lean and brave Detroit detective with the courage to
fight corruption within his own ranks. When Murphy's investigations get him
blown up by a car bomb, leaving his body devastated, his wife (Abbie Cornish)
agrees to sign him over to OmniCorp in hopes of saving his life. "What
kind of life will he have?” she asks, not knowing that it will be a life of
steel exo-skins and prime directives. His transformation begins in earnest, led
by the ethically-ambiguous Dr. Norton (Gary Oldman) and cheered by Sellars who
just wants a marketable product. As Alex comes to grips with being a walking
cyborg, including a powerful moment where he sees what his body really looks
like, he's left to wonder if the man he used to be exists underneath the armor
and programming.
Padilha, who directed the intense Elite Squad cop flicks, works around the
PG-13 and delivers some top notch video game action, including a brilliantly
kinetic sequence lit only by the flash of blast rifle fire. The Robocop side of
things isn't the issue; it's the Alex Murphy side where Joshua Zetumer loses
focus. There simply isn't enough to distinguish Murphy beyond his good looks,
and everything involving his brothers in blue (including Michael K. Williams as
his former partner) is undeveloped. The same goes for his family life which
mostly seems like a component nobody wanted to deal, in favor of getting back
to the shenanigans over at OmniCorp. And truth be told, the biggest ideas and
the best characters are all from the corporate powerhouse. Jay Baruchel gets
geeky as a sniveling marketing guru, while Jennifer Ehle and Jackie Earle
Haley make for a particularly devious roundtable of henchman for Keaton to
play off of. Kinnaman doesn't really hold up against such a strong
supporting cast, but he finds occasional moments of genuine heartbreak in
Murphy's interactions with his son, who looks up to Dad as a hero. Verhoeven's prior films have proved especially popular territory for remakes of late, with the stink of Total Recall still wafting in the air. So it's good to see that someone put some actual thought into making Robocop cool and contemporary, rather than it being just another generic reboot in an empty robotic suit.
