ROBOCOP

Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K Williams, Jennifer Ehle, Jay Baruchel, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Aimee Garcia, Patrick Garrow and John Paul Ruttan.
Writers: Joshua Zeturner; based on an original screenplay by Michael Miner and Edward Neumaier.
Director: Jose Padilha.

Rating: 2.5/5

Polished with that pewter-like modern blockbuster sheen and lacking in all but the most modest attempts at smart sci-fi satire, Jose Padilha’s 2014 RoboCop reboot emerges as a technically competent but intellectually and emotionally inferior reworking of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 model.

Verhoeven unleashed his rebuilt super-cop Alex Murphy into a bloodthirsty marketplace rife with cinematic carnage and boneheaded action stars. The Dutchman pulled the ultimate swift one on his Hollywood bosses; he gave them the visceral revenge fantasy they wanted, but also tore chunks off the very corporate greed and immoral media pillars that created the bloodlust, nationalistic mindset of Reagan era America he was laying bare.

Brazillian director Padilha, sourced after his street-level Elite Squad films proved he can get audiences up close to urban action, has no such agenda. He lines up O’Reilly/Hannity-type tabloid TV in the form of Samuel L Jackson’s Pat Novak and skewers big business immorality (though that’s the proverbial ‘fish in the barrel’ in a post GFC world), but the resurrection of potential franchise starters like the RoboCop property are carefully orchestrated and….well, no one was going to let smarts get in the way of cashed-up teen moviegoers.

Joel Kinnaman steps into the role of the slain cop; he’s too young, sculptured and brash to compare with the great Peter Weller’s portrayal. Weller was young and sculptured too, but he wasn’t a mouthy upstart; you’d have a beer with Weller after work, but not Kinnaman. Barely surviving a car bomb, there’s not much left of Murphy; his distraught wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) must sign off on her husband before the R&D team from Omnicorp, lead by CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) and head scientist Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) can start rewiring him.

This deviation from the 1987 film proves the most telling in terms of the remake’s emotional impact. Weller’s Murphy died; Kinnaman’s didn’t. Weller spent Verhoeven’s movie reconnecting with his soul through glimpses of past memory; he was a machine seeking the human spirit that he forgot he had. Kinnaman spends Padilha’s film uncovering clues, avenging wrongs and taking down societies worst. Weller did that too, but it was secondary to his Murphy’s existential struggle; ‘the job’ is all Kinnaman’s character has, whether before or after his mechanisation.

In all other regards, RoboCop ’14 follows the template of the modern action film to the letter - good actors adding weight to daft roles; vid-game aesthetics; brawn and beauty over brains. It won’t disappoint the key commercial demographic, who would be largely unfamiliar with what makes the source material so resonant; old fans will dig the occasional reference, including an honourable reworking of Basil Pouledouris’ great score and knowing nods to the original’s one-line gems (“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”)

Jose Padilha wields his camera with skill and exhibits some engaging visual flourishes; the unified vision he shares with his Elite Squad DOP Lula Carvalho is clearly evident. One can’t help but sense the creative unit had one eye on the action and one eye on the suits, careful to give them what they want at the price they wanted. Padilha’s Hollywood debut is craftsmanlike and respectable, which is perhaps not what an updated retelling of Verhoeven’s grimy, gritty, gory classic deserved.