Robocop - 2 smiles

The original Robocop, directed by Paul Verhoeven in 1987, was about social forces turning us into automatons and at its heart was a powerful satire. And it provided numerous villains whose comeuppance was so very satisfying. Director Jose Padilha’s “Robocop,” looks impressive and the cast is talented, which includes Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The script is an honest effort to address our current anxieties of total surveillance and police state overreach. But there’s no sense of fun and the pace is ponderous. Plus there’s the predictability problem. Been there, seen that.

The film opens in a near-future news program with Samuel L. Jackson as the opinionated host. He propagandizes on the merits of a fully mechanized police force patrolling American’s cities, an idea met with much public skepticism. The film’s many opening chapters detail the efforts of military contractor Omnicorp to overcome its political opponents in Washington and sway public opinion. Omnicorp CEO Raymond Sellers (Michael Keaton) decides the way to get his robots in the US is by putting a man in a machine. One bomb blast later and he has his man, Detroit detective Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman). After several surgeries, Alex peers out of the newer, sleeker robo-suit and he goes after the villains, a colorless and unengaging lot that end up as so much bullet fodder. After awhile, “Robocop” looks like a shoot-em-up video game and you have to wonder why the remake. 2/13/14