RoboCop

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RoboCop
Starring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abby Cornish
Directed by Jose Padilha

In the year 2028, multinational conglomerate OmniCorp has manufactured a series of robotic soldiers that have been deployed all over the world - except the United States, where a Congressional ban has halted production, citing the dangers of robots acting as cops, lacking emotion and feeling.

Meanwhile, policeman Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is critically injured in a car blast, rendering his body useless.  OmniCorp's CEO, Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) enlists Dr. Norton (Gary Oldman) to fit Murphy with a robotic suit, so he could put to rest the problems Washington has with his robots - making a perfect human/robot hybrid capable of emotions but also tactical planning and ceaseless fighting abilities.

At first Murphy's wife Clara (Abby Cornish) is happy to have her husband back, but when he underperforms due to his human side, Sellars has Norton remove aspects of Murphy's humanity, rendering him more robot than man, eliminating emotions, memories and relationships.  Murphy fights his robotic feelings in hopes of finding out who tried to kill him in the first place, which leads to him having his life in danger once again, only from people closer to him than he expected.

Director Jose Padilha tried to re-ignite the "RoboCop" franchise by remaking the original, and while the fighting sequences were intense and amazing, they were very few and far between in the bloated two hour runtime.

In between there's very small story, one that you would probably find in an 80s film where you can predict everything that's going to happen.  The confusing part of the film is how it seems to not know the direction it's supposed to head.  At one point they like Murphy having the human side, then they don't like it, then they like it again.  Scenes seem forced, and somewhat repetitive.  At points I found myself wondering if they had actually rewound the film.

However, as I said previously, the action makes up for it.  There's three major fighting scenes, and those are the driving force in this otherwise weak remake.

Joel Kinnaman gives a great performance as Murphy, showcasing his humanity and anger through his eyes especially, the first feature film for this up and coming actor.  Oldman and Keaton give decent, albeit one-dimensional, performances.  Abby Cornish is horrible, as her "chemistry" with Kinnaman has a lot to be desired.  Samuel L. Jackson - as a Bill O'Reilly type talk show host - gives a great humorous performance.  

My Rating: B+

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