All right, after recently watching the trailer for the new
RoboCop remake/reboot, I can finally reveal my prediction for this movie:
Granted, it's based on a single awful trailer... And I know from interviews that the makers didn't want to copy the original movie, instead opting to explore questions that were not touched upon in the original...
However, it's like they don't really know why the first one worked: it's about a man trying to regain/remember his lost humanity, along with a lot of sly social commentary.
The remake? It's just a guy stuck in a super-suit -- à la Darth Vader. How he adjusts after getting 'superpowers' makes this look like just another superhero origin story. Also, with his ever-present family around, there's no room for pathos; sure, we see that things are now different, but not necessarily what he
lost.
In the original movie, Murphy's family stays (correctly) off-screen, forcing the audience to experience the sadness of Murphy's loss by experiencing
only what he does: with glimpses of memories and images of a family and life that's gone for good.
In the remake, they're not lost at all, and Murphy's still Murphy -- he apparently knows who he is, he's just stuck in a suit of armor. It reduces Murphy to a divorced father or a deadbeat dad who can't -- or won't -- stick around... "
You need to speak to your son", indeed. Much too touchy-feely for my taste.
And what looks to be like the film's biggest mistake? As Miguel Ferrer's Bob Morton so eloquently said in the original: "
Lose the arm."
Now that I think of it, probably not worth ranting about...
