ROBOCOP (2014)

RoboCop. Dir. José Padilha. MGM and Columbia Pictures, 2014. Joshua Zetumer, script. Remake of RoboCop (written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1987). Featuring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, and Samuel L. Jackson.

A remake of the 1987 film about a Detroit police officer (Alex Murphy) who is killed in the line of duty and then brought back to life as a cyborg police officer. In this version, Murphy doesn't die; he does, however, lose two limbs and has burns on 80% of his body. Thematic elements include: right-wing media (in the form of a TV "news" show called The Novak Report hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, an obvious analogue of Fox News), corporate greed, the military/industrial complex, and military drones. Keaton is the CEO of OmniCorp, which makes military drone robots for use in foreign countries but is prohibited by law from using drones domestically. When Murphy, as RoboCop, exercises too much individual judgment (making him "inefficient" compared to the fully automated robotic drones), his emotions are tamped down so that he can be marketed as an effective killing machine. The film is set in 2028—a future far enough ahead both chronologically and aesthetically that the film's implications aren't terribly important for the present (unlike the 1987 film, which was set in the very near future, one that was still recognizable to late '80s audiences). But there are familiar elements of Frankenstein and questions about the superiority of man or machine. Note motif of "The Hand of Rotwang" (from METROPOLIS), but reversed: Murphy retains his human right hand. — RDE, 15/II/14

MRW, 14/II/14 RDE, Title, 24Aug19