RoboCop

RoboCop

Rating 5 out of 10

I was a fan of the original RoboCop.  Hard to believe it was 25 years ago.  Was looking forward to seeing this movie even though I set the bar low in expectations.  Turns out it was needed.  This movie is mildly entertaining and on a cold icy/snowy day that was about all that was needed.

My first question with this version is the choice of lead actor.  Joel Kinnaman is mostly known as the skinny chain smoking cop on the tv show The Killing.  He is a good character actor but not nearly the chops needed for this action movie.

The movie begins in the year 2028.  We now have the ability to have robot cops and soldiers all over the world.  Everywhere but the US where they have been banned.  Politicians are worried that a robot has no morals or humanity.  For the huge corporation OmniCorp getting the robots into the States would mean Billion$.  To skirt around the law they come up with the idea of a robot with a human inside.  In comes Alex Murphy (Kinnaman).  One of the few honest cops in Detroit that is this close to taking down a bug crime lord.  When he gets too close and a car bomb nearly kills him he becomes the new RoboCop.

The movie didn't have as much action as I expected/wanted.  Sadly the special effects were not much if any better than the original so long ago.  Much of the movie is the talking of the politics of what all is going on.  There are some good actors involved.  Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman and the lovely Abbie Cornish.  I just wish they had put a little more effort into the story.

This will make a decent rental but would probably grab the old version first.