TechNews | Tuesday, February 25, 2014

 

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Movie Review:

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Austin Gonzalez
OPINION EDITOR

How many blood squibs does it take
to make an awesome action movie? At least a
dump truck’s worth apparently. The Robocop
reboot debuted recently and this critic was
ultimately unsatisﬁed, but not more so than
he was expecting. The Robocop reboot is
receiving a lot of negative reviews that may not
necessarily be warranted. It was better than a
shameless money grab, not any better than the
visceral experience of the original. It’s essentially
Robocop with more killing, less gore, and a
sprinkled message about the military industrial
complex.

This reboot seemed to have less
that tied it to the original, hoping to stave off
comparison and reach praise like the Judge
Dredd reboot which re-mastered its story.
Stylistically, the two movies are worlds apart
and I don’t think the Robocop story is one that
lends itself to this new adaptation. It was a 1980’s
action movie, gratuitous to an extreme, literally
a bloody good time. There’s a scene where a
rapist gets shot in his goodness for goodness’
sake. Robocop just isn’t a movie that can be

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rebooted into a slapped on political message
carrying, PG-13 rated, CGI-fest.

Thematically, I wasn’t entertained
either. There are all these emotional hits that I
just did not care for. The main plot vein is the
cliché where future science does something
future scientist didn’t foresee; the bad guy and
future scientist clash over choosing to destroy
and be bad or release the technology to be free.
I wished the main sequence made sense in
the larger view of the movie. The Opening and
ending sequences are of Samuel Iackson yelling
on a talk show about how great it is America can
provide safety in the middle east with advanced
weaponry (drones no less). I get it. America
shouldn’t be pointing guns at people. What does
this have to do with Robocop? ‘

The original thrived on being
gratuitous and satirical. If you want to watch a
crazy action ﬂick, there it is. If you want to see
a satire about American consumerism it’s only
ever so thinly veiled. New Robocop felt like it
was going through the motions. I was bored with
it the whole way through. Is it really too much
to ask for a movie with a robot super cop to be
cool? I’d buy that for a dollar.

MCFHME HAS
A NEW ENEMY.

bocop' reboot crashes