ROBOCOP remake finds its director and star

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Dream, Mar 4, 2012.

  1. FPAlpha

    FPAlpha Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    Damn.. hadn't seen this one. And the icing on the cake? The Terminator theme as the trailer music :guffaw::guffaw:

    Makes you also think how much trailers have changed in the last 25 years. A trailer like that today might kill the movie before it's even released or at least will get it into the top 10 of the worst trailers ever.

    Movies have also changed.. a slow, robotic moving hero just doesn't cut it nowadays anymore. Of course the appeal of Robocop was that he's this slow, unstoppable Juggernaut and if you can see him it's too late- Hard to sell that today without a rock solid script, direction and cinematography.

    Thanks for the flashback.
     
  2. USS Mariner

    USS Mariner Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Wow. This is actually more depressing than I thought, because this would be a much better film if it wasn't actually called "Robocop."

    The hints that "Murphy" might be little more than a fleshy appendage for a "cloud" based police force is a great way to tackle the contemporary fears surrounding the "social network" age.

    Think about all that subject entails: the complete dissolution of the notion of private information, data collection, analysis and distribution on a global scale, and the inevitable truth that everyone within that system is both affected and effects it.

    It's a notion that mirrors the themes in Verhoeven's film so perfectly...that this film does it's own story a disservice when it goes out of it's way to "tip it's hat" to things like ED-209, the original design, and having "Alex J. Murphy, clean cut family man" when those elements were deliberate exaggerations to service the underlying tone and theme that actually makes Robocop a masterpiece of film storytelling.


    Also, casting Sam Jackson is ridiculous. I love the guy, and it's not as if he can't do a serious performance, but there are dozens of black actors whose presence wouldn't immediately train-wreck the tone of every scene they appear in.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2013
  3. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    That would make no sense. If it was just his face left, then why would he have memories? Last I checked, memories aren't stored in the face.

    Also: he has to eat. Remember the baby food. He must have some other organs. Robots don't have to eat.

    He's a cyborg.

    But, I agree, the original has a much more effective make up job.
     
  4. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Cyborg, robot, whatever. His neck and back of the skull are artificial in the original and the make up makes it look like it removed parts of his neck, instead of adding onto it.
     
  5. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    There's a rather large difference between a cyborg and a robot.

    The Six Million Dollar Man, the Original Robocop, the Reboot Robocop, Darth Vader: cyborgs.

    C3P0, R2D2, Robbie the Robot: robots.

    One has organic parts, one doesn't. And, a major point of both Robocops are the integration of man and machine and the question of humanity.
     
  6. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    And what does any of this change about the point that original robocop looks like an artificially enhanced human while the new robocop looks like a man in a suit?
     
  7. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    From what I remember, Murphy lost one arm and had the other one removed, so he was basically a guy with no arms encased in armor. Then in the second movie, he was blown apart, leaving only part of his torso, revealing that he was a machine at least from the waist down.
     
  8. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Also, he just gets blown up?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmHrjWhCKU


    Hardly the horribly tense original. "I got this problem see, cops don't like me... so I don't like cops..."

    Who's he gonna get revenge on for what happened to him? Yeah maybe the guy who set up the bomb, but it's hardly the same as targeting the gang members who horrifically gunned him down in cold blood.
     
  9. Flying Spaghetti Monster

    Flying Spaghetti Monster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ In the original film he clearly had no legs either, which was why they could turn the robotic thigh into a holster
     
  10. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, it's pretty obvious that the exploding car is just a convenient way to avoid having the kind of gruesome, R-rated killing of Murphy we saw in the original.

    And the more I think about it, the more ridiculous and impractical the human hand seems to be. It most likely wouldn't have the same kind of strength as the robotic one, which means anytime Robo has to punch through a wall or lift up a car or something, he'll be restricted to using just one hand. And it could also be easily broken in a fall or in battle, or crushed under the immense weight of the armor if he landed on it wrong.
     
  11. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm willing to give it a chance. Detroit looks way to nice from what we saw there.
    It feels much more a re-imagining than a re-make. They clearly are borrowing some key elements but going to do their own thing, like having the Murphy family more involved.
     
  12. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Is this film presumably PG-13?
     
  13. USS Mariner

    USS Mariner Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Calling it now.

    It was OCP. They see him as the "ideal" candidate. Probably Sam Jackson's character pulls some crime strings to get his car targeted.

    Not even kidding.

    As bad as the sequels ARE, Robocop 2 and 3 both explain that Murphy's skull is metal (IMO it's more likely that they simply replaced his entire jaw and plated-up his skull. His eyes might actually BE fakes, given that "his" perspective is a CRT monitor) and that his face is stretched over it to prevent the insta-suicides that we see in Robocop 2.

    Like you said, having an organic hand on an artificially enhanced arm is just asking for trouble.
     
  14. Aeon

    Aeon Commander Red Shirt

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    That looked awful and very much PG-13. Sure, I'm willing to be positively surprised, but that trailer... just... no. I would be disappointed if I would have had any solid expectations.
     
  15. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It looks just ok but not a patch on the original. My biggest problem is that Robocop acts like some normal guy in a robot suit, all pissed off and "what did you do to me?!" stuff.
     
  16. USS Mariner

    USS Mariner Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's kind of a stupid idea. The original has the plausible excuse of head trauma to help explain why Murphy can be easily programmed yet still have the training and experience of a cop.

    This Murphy's essentially a Burnt Face Man cosplayer who got over-zealous.
     
  17. JRS

    JRS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Not very exciting trailer, a watered down version of the original..and that film is a (cult)classic.
    Pretty useless re-make but I am willing to give it a change.
    Some good actors there at least.

    In my opinion the black color does not suite for Robocop at all.
    Looks morel like Street Hawk meets Knight Rider:vulcan:
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2013
  18. USS Mariner

    USS Mariner Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Again, (what they've leaked of) the film's story would work far better if it wasn't tied to the dumb idea of a Robocop reboot.

    The "public manipulation" concept would work well with the fact that he literally looks like a tacticool, budget Iron Man, using the pop culture fascination with comic superheroes to shape their mass-produced cybercop.
     
  19. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

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    It looks like it'll be watchable enough and not as slavish-to-the-original as the Total Recall remake (and that cast is probably worth a rental at least. But I'm not sure it adds an awful lot to the original, beyond the fact that Murphy is now aware of his status.

    Looks worth keeping an open mind for it. I'll wait and see what reviews and word of mouth are.
     
  20. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    Well. Everything. Since you said the first was a robot, and NOT an artificially enhanced human.