Robocop (1987) vs Robocop (2014)

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a huge fan of the Robocop series. I do have some fixation on the first one as it was one those movies that as a child I knew I wasn't supposed to watch, and yet we always found a way to sneak in some R rated movies at my uncle's house over Christmas, with his surround sound, and ginormous 60 inch TV. Oh, those days of VHS.

So, I decided to revisit this movie of my childhood and compare it to the remake that recently came out. Admittedly, I had no desire to really see the remake, but thought it would be fun to see what the differences are between these two versions just for the heck of it.

First off, the cast of the new one is definitely better. Michael Keaton?!?! He's not dead! Gary Oldman is always a welcome addition to any movie. The other actors are pretty crappy, but I can't say any of the performances are incredibly memorable from the first Robocop, except for the actor who plans Boddicker, Murphy's killer.

I also like the way they brought the story for the remake into present day issues, dealing with drone strikes, and occupying foreign territory, with the help of these contractor type companies like Omnicorp. However, some of the political implications are so trite, or underdeveloped that they go missing later on, or they have obvious parodies of the right wing establishment, particularly with the The Novak Factor...whoops...I mean the Novak Element. Samuel L. Jackson actually makes for a decent O'Reilly if I do say so myself. Other elements of the remake also aren't written so well, with a very cliche family storyline that veers off of the original wildly. Dialogue is pretty bad throughout the movie with tough guy talk between cops and bad guys, and incredibly generic boardroom discussion taking place between the evil corrupt businessmen.  Plot devices are pretty transparent, and character motivations become a little murky throughout the movie. Although these weren't really strengths of the original to begin with. They're just worse than the original.

I do have to give the remake some props on the action scenes at least. They're not great, but they do have some quality, like a massive gun fight in pitch black, and a fight between Robocop and several giant robots, not unlike the one used in the original. There's something about the style that's not quite up to par with the original though. I remember watching Total Recall and Robocop at an early age, and being shocked at how violent, but stylistic the movie was. I'd never seen gun fights like that before, and they somehow managed to be realistic, artistic, a bit surrealistic, and yet not that disturbing at the same time.

Speaking of style, this is where the two separate the most. There's a tone to the original that is completely lost on this remake. Perhaps the director was purposely avoiding the winking satire of the original, but the remake is so self-serious, as to remove much of the fun of the original. Which begs the question, why remake it then? I know what you're thinking...for money, of course. That's what makes the remake so funny to me. Remakes are always made for money, and yet the message of the original and this one is the antithesis of the corporate Hollywood structure that produced this remake.

Whatever. Hollywood will do its thing I guess.