My Review of "Robocop (2014)"

Robocop (2014) is a movie I kind of shied away from when it first came out. At the time there were a wide array of remakes and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to take another one. I barely remember the first Robocop movie in the 80s but I remember it was a bit of a satire of commercialism in society much like many of Paul Verhoeven films were about back in the day. The focus on this movie is a little different.

This movie starts out with an exploration of security. It's the distant future and a company by the name of OmniCorp has created robots to police countries from crime. These robots seem to be so effective that they're finally thinking of bringing them to America. The problem is that there is a law in place that prevents robots from policing the nation.

The head of OmniCorp, Raymond Sellers, hatches a plan to obtain a human brain to pilot a new Robocop experiment but they don't know who the subject should be. It's a big ask and morally questionable so there are some complications.

In comes the main character Alex Murphy along with his partner Jack. They've just discovered that there's some sort of conspiracy within the police force that they're working in. A crime lord is obtaining lethal weapons from a source within their police precinct and they think they've cracked it.

Unfortunately for the duo the crime lord has also caught up to them. Through a wild gun fight Jack is put in the hospital in critical condition and Alex is determined to sniff out the moles in the police department. The problem is that they're onto Alex as well. They put Alex in critical condition.

Alex is a prime candidate for the new Robocop experiment and they convince his wife to allow them to use Alex so that he can be kept alive. It all kind of works well if you watch it. At least it makes sense. You know it's going to be a crazy story to have him become Robocop.

The story then goes into the feelings of what it's like for Alex to be Robocop knowing that he's all machine and not really human. They also talk about his relationship with his friends and family and how the corporation pretty much tears him away from his loving family.

The main focus of the movie is whether robots should be policing the public. Technically they have a lot of sound ideas. The robots are highly efficient and are programmed to do exactly what they're supposed to do. They don't have PTSD or emotional situations that will cause them to make mistakes or display biased or prejudiced decisions. It would also save a lot of officer lives as they would be doing the tough work.

Unfortunately for OmniCorp there's a bill that prevents them from entering the police force. Robocop is supposed to change the minds of politicians to repeal the bill. Most of the politicians are concerned that the robots have no emotions so they won't give leniency to children or those that are in need. In a way I can see this however there are huge issues that they totally oversaw.

I'm not sure why but they didn't explore the idea that the robots could be hacked or put into the hands of the wrong people. Technically the robots were put in the hands of the wrong people because OmniCorp is painted as an evil corporation. They didn't however even consider that someone could hack into their mainframe or at least one of the police robots. This could be a plot for some other sequel if they even do have a sequel.

The movie was pretty entertaining. The ideas were pretty interesting and I thought that for the most part they executed the movie pretty well. A lot of the action sequences were pretty well shot that you could see exactly what's going on however there are certain camera shake scenes that were a little too shaky.

I thought that the special effects were pretty well done it seemed like it was done pretty seamlessly and that's pretty good considering the movie came out back in 2014. A lot of advancement has happened since and the special effects still hold up.

Entertainment-wise it was an entertaining popcorn film. It is definitely something you would watch as a summer blockbuster. There's nothing incredibly memorable about the movie but there's nothing that bad to fault the movie either. I did like the fact that they put in a lot of hidden references to the original Robocop with dialogue and visuals. If you're a fan you'll recognize a lot of them.

Overall, it was an entertaining ride that is filled with action and moral questions. I thought it's a little better than a mindless action film but not totally cerebral as well. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. You'll have a good time watching this if you're just looking for a run of the mill action film.