Robocop Review

 

        We’re now in the 80s, action movies are no longer bound to the cynicism of what was going on in the country. With a new sense of pride, action movies are more bombastic with muscles and intense gunfights. Every once in a while, a movie comes across to poke fun at the current society trends under the guise of an action movie. Robocop is that movie, beloved for the action and the title character, it’s everything you want to see just what happens when there’s an ideal cop. 

1. Murphy

        Ed Harris stars as Alex Murphy, who is the new cop for the Detroit Metropolitan Police Department. He’s our eyes and ears for the hellish place Old Detroit is. As soon as he walks in, the cops are manhandling the criminals. He is assigned a partner Officer Lewis by Sargent Reed and they get a report of criminal activity. This is where we see crime lord Clarence Boddicker who runs a drug racket. The operation goes south when Murphy is shoot to literal death as Clarence’s cronies blast everything to the officer. 

        Just earlier, we see the malevolent corporation Omni, who one of them sells the chairman on the new officer of the future ED-209. The machine goes haywire and accidentally kills a chairman. As the result of the mishap, chairman Bob Morton tells the boss that he runs a design team that builds “Robocops”. Just as word gets out that Murphy died, his corpse is escorted to Omni. We see POV shots of the engineers fixing and upgrading Murphy’s sight. 

        Later, we finally see Robocop in the flesh or mechanical parts. The suit is icon and it’s very stylized without any flair. It’s a nice touch that Murphy’s voice is automated with standard commands. Did I mention he’s bullet proof? The way he handles criminals is pure ingenious. For instance, when he sees a rapist holding a woman hostage, Robocop uses his targeting sight to shoot the dude in the groin by shooting through the woman, even though she didn’t feel anything. 

        The main idea is that underneath the armor and computer, Murphy is still alive. He has moments where he sees his final memories before his death. The shining moment in the film is when Alex becomes autonomous instead of just following direct orders. Officer Lewis gradually reminds him of who he is. My favorite moment is when Murphy removes his face shield. To show that he is still Murphy, without his actual body. 

2. Omni Consumer Products

        Obviously, it be too easy to have Clarence be the main bad guy for Robocop. The real bad guys is Omni. They control the police department and plan to gentrify Old Detroit and rename it. It would be one thing where no one in the 80s would have a company be controlling. Just that idea is quaint since we see that everywhere. Either Paul Verhoeven was on to something or decided to put it in as a joke. 

        One of the board members is named Dick Jones. He is the one who feels threatened by one of his associates due to making Robocop be better than Jones’ ED-209 robot. I feel that the use of the ED machine is supposed to be what they wanted Robocop to be. Being a machine that shows no empathy and to deliver justice by any means. Clearly, Robocop is human and develops a mind of his own to outsmart ED-209 by using stairs. 

        I think the most egregious thing that the corporation has done to Murphy was use his body for profit. By adding attachments even removing an existing arm that would hamper what Robocop would look like. It’s the opposite of what a typical 80s action movie would go through. Almost all of the protagonists in the action movies at that time were buff. Murphy’s body was blown to bits and ultimately given armor. I think it works as a subversion to show that muscle doesn’t mean much when the entire body is running a computer software. 

3. Legacy

        Without a doubt this film is a classic. It spawned sequels, tv shows, a cartoon show and made the character of Robocop a pop culture icon. At a glance, just the name has the level of cheesiness that could’ve easily been schlock. What helps it is having a character with enough depth where he is just someone you want to root for. He’s a simple man that is given an opportunity to live. Other than that, the sequels aren’t good. With the level of violence, I’m surprised that there was an animated show for kids. 

4. Overall 

        I can’t stress this enough, Robocop is a damn good movie. Full of good shootouts and tons of blood squibs where it’s borderline ridiculous and awesome to see. 

        Robocop gets a four out of five.