So I saw the RoboCop remake the other day. It was a solid action movie, and very enjoyable in its own right. And while it might not live up to the original, one could argue it’s very deserving of the RoboCop name. But just how does it compare to the original.
So I decided to write a quickie analysis comparing both movies’ plots. I tried to avoid putting plot details in the blog post, but like all things in the review world, if you’re prone to spoiler anxiety, you should avoid reading the post anyway. Plot analyses after the cut.
To start, the original RoboCop’s themes were about corruption, dystopia, and identity. They were very personal themes that have withstood nearly 3 decades. On the flipside, the remake’s themes are very political, about foreign policy and public acceptance of technology. These are hot topics in today’s times, but who knows if they will be relevant 27 years from now. And while the remake still touches on corruption, it wasn’t as deep or as central to the plot as the original’s.
Speaking of plot, the remake’s plot had a rising action that rose steadily throughout the course of the movie before hitting the final confrontation at the end. The original’s plot had its ups and downs, showing RoboCop at his worst moments and allowing for more character development before raising him back up for the climax.
Speaking of final confrontations, when RoboCop confronts the main bad guy in the original, the way he defeats the big bad is actually quite clever. But the way he defeats the big bad in the remake boils down to “his human side overcame his machine side”. I prefer clever.
The new RoboCop isn’t all bad, though. Instead of trying to copy the original, they forged their own path and told their own story. The new RoboCop takes the age old idea of man vs machine, but makes it an internal conflict, and the whole movie is about the triumph of the human spirit and humanity’s overcoming technology, in a way that wasn’t really shown in the original. Whether or not this is a good thing is left as an exercise to the reader.
As a bonus, apparently I watch so much Lost Girl, I recognized Hale by his voice before I saw his face, and when I saw his face, I instantly thought, “Hey, isn’t that Hale?” At the same time, I failed to recognize Veronica. At all. I guess it’s been a long time since George Lopez was on the air.