Robocop

Did you ask for a Robocop reboot? I know I sure didn’t. But you never know with these projects until you watch them. Joel Kinnaman plays a Detroit cop on the verge of death after being injured on the job. But his wife (Abbie Cornish) is given a choice to bring him back as part man, part robot. Spoiler alert, she does. If she chose to let him die it would be a pretty short movie. Once the transition is made, it quickly becomes clear that he’s not the same person. His mind can be bent through the machine part of his being.

In a time where so many sci-fi adventures are told with an eye to comedy or the possibility to appeal to children, Robocop takes itself very seriously. Sure, it’s not the bloodbath the original was. This version received a PG-13 rating, but there’s a lot of stress throughout the narrative. Kinnaman, best known for his work on “The Killing,” is an interesting choice to play the lead. He’s believable as a good cop, but he has a seedy nature to his look that makes you question the character a bit. The script helps by spending a fair amount of time establishing his good guy nature through his interactions with family and friends.

With a lesser known actor playing Robocop, the star power is built up elsewhere. Samuel L. Jackson plays a television news pundit, who establishes the story early on and ultimately beats the audience over the head with the moral issues presented in the film. Then there’s Gary Oldman, who plays the morally conflicted scientist who builds Robocop. The film’s attempted intensity takes a lot of the fun out of a story about a robot police officer and the result is a stunted pace with semi-likeable characters. Sure the character is way sleeker than the original, but the movie isn’t as slick as they think.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.