RIP RoboCop Franchise

[-Dragmire-]

Spoiler: snip hidden for length

Here's the latest clip from the upcoming RoboCop reboot:

Remember in the original when RoboCop super soldiered his way in and out of cover to really shitty music with a random yodel (?) at the end of it? No? Because it never happened? RoboCop was like a walking tank and could take an absurd amount of punishmnt. He just walked into the bullets because they couldn't hurt him. Slow, methodical and... well, robotic.

RoboCop was never agile. His voice was entirely monotone because he is a fucking robot and couldn't express emotions. This looks like every single generic PG-13 action movie ever made, but with the protagonist wearing a Crysis style power suit on. More to the point, why make it PG-13? Why? Fucking teens. Stop doing this, Hollywood. I'm guessing we won't have a plot revolving around Nuke anymore, because heavy drug abuse and gang violence would make a movie R.

So yeah, I feel like this:

Spoiler

Yep, this thread was pure fanboy rage. What did you think of the clip and how much did you like the RoboCop franchise previously?

Hey there, mind if I ask a question from a point of ignorance?

I can barely remember Robocop since it's been quite a while since I'd seen it, I thought it was supposed to be a dumb action movie. Was there a stronger narrative that I'm missing or was it just a great movie that was enhanced by the violent nature that came with the rating?

 

[Lost Traveler]

to be technical though....
it's odd to think an arms company would develop a cyborg with zero tactical know how. If they could build a cyborg capable of walking into gunfire unscathed, it means they can build body armour to equip human police/soldiers with. This would eliminate the need for a hugely expensive cyborg surgery programme!

Yeah but they would just give them an exoskeleton, IF that's what they were after. OCP was after a slave which is what the EDs were for but they turned out to be too stupid so they were trying (or at least the department under the guy who gets kill for being successful) to solve it by using a human brain as the AI. If you gave the armor and required exoskeleton to a regular cop that would be like better equipping a potential rebellious slave.


Any Robocop without Professor Weller is just a waste of time

RIP

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Maybe I'm crazy, but the fact that he has a flesh-and-blood hand completely flies in the face of the original Robocop concept. I mean the new Robocop could, for instance, feel the warmth of his wife's face, hold his kid's hand, etc. Kind of antithetical to the detachment and dehumanization that defined the original, right?

 

[tzimize]

It will be shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

I was absolutely horrified when I saw the butchering of whatshisname before he was Robocop in the first one. Would this happen in a pg13? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Its just so stupid. Know your audience dammit. If you're gonna make a generic robot flick, do that...dont get chained down by being compared to the original....MAKE SOMETHING NEW!

Fucking hollywood. If I wasnt so goddamn in love with everything marvel at the moment............I might ***** and moan more about it. As it is....I'll just skip the theatrical release.

 

[Knife]

Wow, I was actually unaware of just how many fans of the original there are!

I saw this quite a while back, thought I'd share...

That is an awesome clip.

I grew up on Robocop. It was the talk of the entire 1st grade... which in retrospect is kind of weird (5-7 year old kids having seen an R rated movie, then again we also saw Alien, Aliens and Terminator). This reboot looks nothing like Robocop and it gets worse with every new trailer that comes out. I'd much rather be wrong and have this reboot be good and succeed, but I doubt it will happen.

In any case, this reminds me of the NES game and its amazing soundtrack.

Spoiler

 

[Drake Barrow]

My biggest problem with re-imaginings of movies is that they exist. They tend to do disservice to the fans of the original (because it can't be the original) and they often do disservice to the new audience because whatever made the original so recognizable isn't present. I've seen a couple that I enjoyed (the last Three Musketeers film comes to mind), but typically they become generic examples of whatever is in vogue at the time for film styles.

With that setup out of the way...

The clip above is perfectly serviceable when taken on its own merits. It feels more like we should be watching Captain America or the Punisher going to town on a warehouse full of robots and one human handler, but there's nothing inherently wrong with this. Taking the snippet in context of the entire trailers to date, the scene doesn't quite fit with the whole "totally programmed, totally controlled, until plot forces drive him to shrug it off" kind of deal that's emphasized in the rest of the promo material. The quip at the start is a bit too spontaneous for that.

As a whole, I'm not horribly enthused for this film. It speaks in the War on Terror/Surveillance State language that is all we really know post-2000, and it doesn't work the man-in-the-machine angle as nicely as the original Robocop did, or for that matter, Robocop 2 (3 kinda sucked, even though android ninjas are rather entertaining). It does have a decent cast, though, and that's giving some hope for an entertaining film rather than a total stinker.

TLR. Clip is OK, but really can't be compared to the original films, as it's a different creature. I liked the original version better, but will at least try to see this one.

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

Well, what a co-ink-a-dink! I was watched Robocop 1 & 2 back to back last night, never got to three because I decided to go to sleep! I don't have high hopes for this remake, but I think I'll go watch it when it comes to the discount theater.

 

[Callate]

I guess it depends on how Robocop is being used by his handlers in the movie. The original Robocop was kind of a proof-of-concept and a PR move as much as anything; he was highly visible, and could be deployed to high-crime neighborhoods where wholly-organic cops would be highly vulnerable because he could start shooting after a suspect did and still be certain of coming out on top.

If the new Robocop is intended as a more tactical, SWAT-like asset, making him more agile and cover-inclined makes a certain amount of sense. If they're still planning on using him like the OCP did in the original, yeah, that's kind of ridiculous.

 

[Gauntlets28]

Seriously? Hocus Pocus by Focus?? What kinda action movie music is that???

 

[Caostotale]

Seriously? Hocus Pocus by Focus?? What kinda action movie music is that???

Yeah, seriously. This smells like a dash of baby-boomer early-onset senility mixed with typical Hollywood ineptitude. As much as I respect Focus inasmuch as any novelty prog rock group deserves respect (to be sure, this song might be one of the worst attention gimmicks on any 70s prog-rock record that isn't by Emerson, Lake, & Palmer and certainly one of the worst tracks by this band), nothing could make this goofy vinyl-age flapjack into something resembling a theme of badass awesomeness. I'll just assume that some assholes in a board-room thought (a.) those AC/DC songs sound cool when Iron Man's kicking all sorts of ass in those Marvel movies and, subsequently (b.) ummm, what's a good rockin' tune that we can use that won't cost us a lot of money.

As well, everything else about this scene sucks ass through a straw. I love action sequences that are visually cluttered and impossible to care about. I especially enjoy how completely content-less Robocop's antagonist is. He trolls the robot with a fake countdown that isn't funny or shocking...then a bunch of nonsense and noise...then he throws out a lame taunt that's delivered with as much emotion as somebody passingly asking their wife what's for dinner after coming home from work and is completely inappropriate, as Robocop has shown no signs of having trouble with the exercise.

It's great to see $120 million burning for the sake of something that looks crappier than a modern TV series.