Robocop
The new reboot for the 1987 film of a disabled police cop who is revived and given robotic limbs to become a new type of cyborg cop is very flashy, but comes short regarding some of the key ideas. Joel Kinnaman, as Robocop, gives a rather robotic performance, going against some of the main ideas of the original. Having been blown apart by a car bomb, he is given pretty much full robotic organs and extremities by huge coporation Omnicorp with the sole aim of a PR stunt to pass a law that allows their robots to become the main part of law enforcement. But Kinnaman does not give a sturdy enough performance of the fear and tribulation of the man, and instead, when the main plot development of his emotions being removed to allow his programming to function, the difference in character is not obvious enough. Gary Oldman provides an excellent character as the Dr Norton, the person responsible for Alex Murphy's transformation, and touched by his actions and the lack of feeling by his employers, his attempts to help Murphy regain his emotions and return to the role of husband and father.
The action of the film is lacking, the automaton abilities of Robocop makes him an unconsidering killing machine, which gives an uninteresting perspective of not even seeing what Murphy is shooting at, and his ability to survive most bullets again lowers the interest and the concern for the hero's wellbeing. Plot twists are obvious, and the final reveal is not incredibly surprising. The star turn of the film is Samuel L. Jacksons Novak, a television presenter who is strongly supporting of the use of drones, an example of the possibilities that the film does give to present day issues, and his fanatical view as well as his use of bleeped out language is both humorous as well as worrying.
Overall though, the film is a dumbed down version of its possibilities, not going far enough in the regard to the use of robots to protect people, or the importance of freewill and emotion. The idea of emotion destroying the robotic programming, and that he must have his removed to function, is an amazing idea that the original film used well and where this film falls short. The action is reminiscent of Call of Duty, run by an aimbot, and is uninteresting to watch. Ironically and unfortunately, Robocop lacks emotion