RoboCop (1987)

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive an Amazon gift certificate. Having noticed recently that Amazon now provides “previously-owned” DVDs for cheap, I snatched up a couple I had been wanting for awhile – among them RoboCop: The Criterion Collection Edition.

But, now that I owned the film I’d been wanting for so long, would it be as good as I remembered from back in the 80’s, or has time done something that no criminal was able to – beat RoboCop?

Peter Weller stars as Murphy/RoboCop, and his deep voice takes some getting used to. It’s almost as if he has a catch in his throat, and he can’t quite clear it out. For some reason it isn’t as noticeable when he makes the transition on-screen to RoboCop, but it does throw the viewers for a bit of a loop in the beginning of the film.

Aside from the voice, Weller does a decent job in his dual role of fresh-faced cop and cyborg. As the cop, he’s exuberant and kind of reckless, yet still manages to keep a soft spot for his fledgling family. As RoboCop, he does a good imitation of a robot – thankfully, that’s what’s called for in the role.

Nancy Allen also does a decent job as Murphy’s ex-partner, delivering a bravado in her role of female cop, while still maintaining a surprising “damsel in distress” sequence – she’s a cop, yet she is easily thrown off her stride early on in the film. Thankfully, her character manages to redeem herself later on, stepping into the role of cop and protector with much more ease.

Ronny Cox, known for playing a police captain in Beverly Hills Cop, takes on a darker role in RoboCop with ease. He is easily able to switch between good guy and bad when portraying the different roles, and his darker side is just as fun to witness as his good side.

While the character performances stand up well enough – despite some rather corny dialogue – the film itself does not. With the technological advances since this film’s release, while RoboCop himself stands up decently, the effects around him do not, nor does the plot itself. Typical of a action shoot-em-up of the 80’s, RoboCop seems to be lost in the crowd of Schwarzenegger/Stallone action wannabes.

RoboCop has something that does set this film apart from the typical 80’s action flick: it’s reversal of the old “man-vs-machine” theme. Never does anyone protest the supposed “abomination” of the combination of man and machine that was so popular in films back then (look to cyborgs playing the bad guy in films like Terminator for instance). Instead, the film skims over that, with most characters seeming in awe of the new “toy” in their midst, and only the bad guy spewing the “abomination” line.

With that role reversal, RoboCop plays more as a superhero movie than straight-forward action flick. Despite some cheesy dialogue and bad special effects (any scene with the silly ED-209 comes off looking like it was shot in Claymation), RoboCop is more of a precursor to the superhero boom of today, rather than just another forgettable action flick of the 80’s.

Viewed that way, RoboCop works on many levels, despite the dialogue and occasionally spotty special effects. With it’s theme of new hero trying to piece together his forgotten past, and seeking vengeance in a personal vendetta which also happens to coincide with the worst threat to peace around him, RoboCop could have been taken straight from the pages of a comic book.

RoboCop – while ravaged a bit by time (special effects improvements) and some uninspired dialogue – still manages to stand out as a sci-fi action film worth watching. Sure, it’s not as good – or as violent, even in the Unrated version – as viewers may remember, but as a predecessor of modern superhero films, it’s definitely worth taking another look at.