The Big Picture: Why Robocop Still Rules

[Loonyyy]

This time around, I don't agree with Bob.

OCP did come off as cartoonishly evil to me. I never believed watching those boardroom scenes that this is what the upper echelons of big business, even 80's big business, is actually like. Now, that would have been okay, if the movie wasn't pushing the 'cautionary tale' button so hard, because in order for that to work, you've got to make me believe that some broadly accepted progression of logic could potentially take us from our present to that vision of the future.

As well as this, OCP are cartoonishly incompetent as well as evil, which also gets in the way of my capacity to believe that a bunch of people this dumb could effectively seize ultimate control of the United States and it's culture. The aforementioned stairs incident with ED-209 stuck out for me, as well as the scene where they test ED-209 using live ammunition in a confined space with the entire OCP board present. I'm sorry Robocop, but do you really just expect me to swallow that shit?! Private contractors being incompetent isn't unbelievable in itself, but there's a limit. It didn't help that there were precisely 4 people in the movie who exhibited anything above a 2-dimensional personality either.

I'm not saying that Robocop is terrible. I'd rate it as a pretty decent 80's action movie even besides some laughably dated special effects, but I don't think it's half as 'smart' as Bob describes. It's trying to be smart, which I suppose in the context of 80's action movies is still a step in the right direction, but looking back at it today it's message comes off as a shallow, half-formed thought to me. Not to say that the remake will be any better (it could certainly still turn out a lot worse), but I think at least, unlike some other remakes, it has a lot of potential to improve on the original, especially with the idea of machines making us more detached from our own conflicts being very relevant at this moment in time.

I just got through it, and I'd agree. I was looking for the "Smart" movie Bob described. It doesn't exist.

The events of the film are set in motion by Murphy's female partner holding up a perp with an unzipped fly. A dick joke and a look down later and she's down for the count. Yeah. "Smart". Oh yeah Bob, she's a great female character. A real fucking gem.

Then there's the ludicrous live fire exercise in the boardroom, Dick admitting the 209s don't work and then trying to use them as guards for OCP (How high is he? I mean, 80's execs liked cocaine, was that the joke?). He admits he's trying to sell them to the military to guarantee a long term contract, even though they don't work. But then he uses them to guard headquarters from the now out of OCP's control Robocop.

The supercop apparently doesn't bother with booking or charging, or even sometimes arresting his perps, so it's no wonder they're right back on the streets. "He's a cop killer." Oh, I guess they can work out the rest, or were you hoping they'd lynch him Murphy?

And is that really their idea of violent crime? Very obvious stick ups with weapons which probably cost more than the take? So sophisticated. If we really must dump movies into decades, Die Hard is a hell of a lot smarter, a hell of a lot less pretentious, and a hell of a lot more engaging.

And dear god "I'd buy that for a dollar". Really? Is that the social commentary?

I mean, it's a passable film, but it's not smart. It's contemporaries were often smarter, and Verhoeven has done much better. Starship Troopers leaves Robocop in the dust.

 

[Caostotale]

It starts off with a grim and potent premise, but ultimately came across as some pseudo-liberal circle jerk about how white people aren't the future and we have to exorcise our xenophobia to survive on this planet.

And this sounds like the typical hipster conservative 'racism is over' stance, paying no heed to the idea that half of the U.S.'s and U.K.'s current populations already harbor irrational fears about foreigners they've never met or seen in person. Even a good number of my Democrat-inclined friends here think that places like Iran and Palestine are completely overrun by terrorists and I've talked to British people who hold terribly-racist views of Romanians, Bulgarians, etc..., as well as Muslims.

You're also being incredibly superficial with your racist conspiracy theory, or willfully ignorant of the entire plot-line. I recall the movie portraying both white and black people in fairly neutral senses. True, the British government's military was predominantly white, but what the hell did you expect? It's England. Places like the refugee camp had plenty of white people living inside of it alongside foreign peoples and, upon the protagonists' entry to the camp, the soldiers at the checkpoint ended up singling out the white woman in their party. As well, let's not forget that the white protagonist is essentially the one who saves the day. Did his sacrifice nullify everything about his actions? As well, the head villain was a black dude. I'd say that balances out the 'psuedo-liberal circle jerk' decision to (*GASP*) have the first baby born in the dystopian hell be a non-white. Racism seemed 'over' in this movie from the get-go - any phobias that existed were economically-driven hegemonic dynamics of inner-circle/outer-circle, in other words, simply citizen/non-citizen. If you want to deny that such behavior is possible given our current historical circumstances, you're probably indulging in technocratic pro-Western/pro-capitalist idealism.

 

[pokepuke]

[above]

That's quite a lot to glean from the little bit you quoted. Such grand narrative cast from little bits here and there, some not all that relevant. Almost as if it is... I don't know.... a bit... pretentious?