I have to be honest, for a remake and a « blockbuster », I have to say this is rather well done.
If you have seen the first ROBOCOP (1987), some details as the main theme, will help you to reconnect since this is main job of a remake. Nonetheless, if there is one interesting point of doing a remake, is how a generation re-appropriate the concept through its time and problematics. Even though there is no surprise in the screenplay, the context is well adapted. For example, one of the first shots is in Irak, showing how a robotic military force could help to handle « all this mess ».
Indeed, that is the most interesting part, not to say the only, that makes this movie smarter than a simplistic « Avengers » plot. Imagine politics, media, genetic tests and marketing shown all together with their conflicts of interests and absurd paradoxes.
I put a special mark for taking the brillant idea that made me liked the 1987 one with the integration of the TV news/ media. Here, thanks to the brillant performance of Samuel L. Jackson, as a TV show host, it kind of frighteningly presents you the craziness of mediatised propaganda and this freakish reality. With a Brazilian director, this movie allows a lot of self-derision towards our modern society.
Regarding the global performances, I haven’t been stunned but there is no faux pas (this is not really the occasion to show off for the actors).
Then, as you may expect, visuals effect are good, but nothing amazing. As I said, this is far away from AVENGERS. But, the original touch comparing to the 1987 one, is here again an integration of a shooting style as you were in a video game. That was the most effective and captivating action scene of the film. Guess what, it was a simulation training, with the gear explanation, the cinematic presenting how many enemies are spread across the map, the final boss at the end to level-up! That was fun remains the fact that actions scenes are too rare in this action movie!
Moreover, even though the topics are significantly serious, the characters decisions are often hardly believable. I think the principal weakness of the story is the relationship angle between the hero, his doctor, and his family, when the oldest version from 1987 chose wisely not to do it. I mean, the trio sometimes goes completely nonsense when for example the doctor (Gary Oldman) is playing devil’s advocate so obviously that I felt being in Frankenstein asylum! I guess it is done like this to underline the deontological dilemma, but Gary Oldman seems a complete freak with multiple personalities without making his own decision. He is trying to link all the characters together at the expense of his own credibility.
For the joke, imagine Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) turned into a “Steve Job style” entrepreneur funding military devices, Agent Gordon (Gary Oldman) reconverted into a doubtful doctor to spread justice, and tearful Rachel (Abbie Cornish) around a too serious Robot who drops the cape to drive his motocycle not in Gotham but Detroit!
Top of the line, trying to reach the balance between action, moral and innovative tricks, you have a watchable movie without being memorable. A good effort for a remake considering the risk of being completely superficial with a super hero movie or showing a flat copy of the original.
