Silver: To this day Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 RoboCop is the archetype for satire and cinematic subversion. Written by Americans but directed by a Dutchman who depicted this country as he saw it through his foreign eyes, the film’s magnified and distorted view of our nation’s future was the ideal prism through which to view, and issue a warning for, the '80s culture of excess. It’s a film that unquestionably stands the test of time, but given Hollywood’s passion for vapidly remaking and/or recycling stories, I always knew that I’d see another RoboCop. And when I did, I assumed the film would be a shell of the original.Call me optimistic, but based on this trailer I think we’re going get the complete opposite of that — and possibly something more aligned with the DNA of Verhoeven’s original.
First off, the helming duties have fallen to another great foreign visualist, Jose Padilha, who, with films like Elite Squad, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, and even the documentary Bus 174, proved that he knows how to interweave substantive material with tension and action. Then there is the enormously talented cast, with performers — Oldman, Keaton, Jackson, Baruchel, and Haley — who all have the ability to seamlessly dance between earnestness and irony (just as Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Ray Wise, and Miguel Ferrer did in the original). And given the sociopolitical climate we're living in, I'd say that the filmmakers couldn't have picked a better time to resurrect this walking metaphor.
If I had to find something to nitpick on I’d say that the digital version of Murphy landing at 1:50 looks a little too iRobot for my taste. And I’m a little weary of the scenes where it appears Murphy fights a bunch of RoboCop-like sentinels. We get a glimpse of ED-209 in this trailer; why can’t they just stick with the mano a mano? The swarm-of-robots narrative device is so overused.But strip away the über-action moments from this trailer, and it seems this RoboCop is going to have some depth to go with its carnage — man’s relationship with technology, corporate greed, messaging vs. consumption, and (wait for it) free will. And I’d buy that for a dollar.
Yoshida: In the interest of keeping this week's trailer report under 8 billion words, this looks cool.