The new Robocop is another remake of the Paul Verhoeven classic from 1987. The cast then were Nancy Allen and Peter Weller where a gunned down cop is reborn as part human part machine all policeman.
Like all other remakes, despite the better technologies available, the new film is a pale imitation of the original gruesome and dark commentary on America Inc. Now, the new Robocop directed by Jose Padilha and despite a better looking armor, the new film falls far from the tree of the Robocop series of old.
There are two major issues that the purists of Robocop would find rather unnerving and may mess up the film's enjoyment. First is the suit. The new one is matte black with a more sinister insectoid profile compared to the bulky bright shiny suit worn by Peter Weller. Now, the suit worn by Joel Kinnaman has more gadgets and thus much more deadlier than the original Robocop.
The second issue is how the new Alex Murphy becomes Robocop. In the original, Alex Murphy was pronounced dead and thus was transplanted into the suit. The new Robocop, Alex Murphy was still alive and chose to be Robocop. This alone makes the new film offputting to say the least.
According to the film trivia website IMDb, the original budget for Robocop was a lean USD13 million. At its height, Robocop (the original) was shown in 896 screens with a weekly gross amounting to USD1,908,532, which became a windfall of USD53,424,681 in its North American run.
Join the Conversation