By Will Sevy
Staff Writer
Even a half man, half robot couldn’t save the film “Robocop”from being tedious and overly action-packed, leading to no more than mediocre film.
“Robocop”, directed by José Padilha, is a decent movie, but despite the futuristic technology, it fails to live up to the hype of being a remake of a classic film. Its predictable plot and far too much action are an attempt to make the film exciting, but eventually lead to its downfall.
In the year 2028, robot corporation Omnicorp is manufacturing drones on a mass scale internationally, all of which have been used only outside of the United States. However, the corporation wants to expand and employ the robots within the U.S. despite the opposition of the population so when officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is critically injured, Omnicorp takes advantage.
With the help of Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), Murphy survives and is transformed into a man who is mostly robotic to help clean the streets of Detroit and please the American people.
Even though it is an action film, “Robocop” is full of too much action and violence, involving characters no one entirely cares about, which causes it to be dull and predictable in the end. Almost every scene has shooting and action, in pathetic attempts to be thrilling and electrifying, but falls flat in the end.
However, the technology used in these action scenes is futuristic and interesting, Murphy’s robotic suit for example, which includes prosthetic limbs and high-tech weapons that are new and fascinatingly complex. This new, original technology is exciting and flashy, causing the audience to pay attention to the film, even if it only is for a short while.
In addition, the acting in this film is effective, but not exciting enough to satisfy the audience. Kinnaman does a good job of displaying his emotions when he’s human and acting like a statue without emotion when he’s a robot, but he is not strong enough to make the audience care about his character.
As the head of Omnicorp, Michael Keaton portrays Raymond Sellars, who is successful and greedy. Keaton is great at showing the greediness of Sellars, but also appearing innocent and kind. Although he lacked emotion in some scenes, Keaton plays an interesting and surprising character, which creates a contrast to Kinnaman’s character.
The mediocre acting is only brought down by the dreary, predictable dialogue. The conversations are boring and no one really cares about what the characters are saying. The sluggishness of the dialogue contrasted the fast action scenes and creates a film that is choppy, awkward, and uninteresting.
The remake of “Robocop”offers engaging technology and weapons, but the action and violence, which try to save the unnatural dialogue, only make the film more boring leading to exactly what an action film should not be.
“Robocop” is rated PG-13 and now playing nationwide
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