If "Robocop" was first released today, it would probably not create much fanfare. However, when it was launched in 1987, "Robocop" became a true legend: Everybody had at least heard the term "robocop" coined in the synonymous film, a term that gradually became a part of everyday slang. As for the film itself, it proved to be a huge success, it set a new trend in action films, and it was followed by (unfortunately worse) sequels; even a TV series was created featuring Alex Murphy, the famous law enforcing human-machine Robocop.
So what was so special about "Robocop", back then? Well, the short answer should be "the innovative story". The film is about a not-so-distant bleak future (today this future unfortunately looks even closer to us...), in which greed and violence prevail, while the private sector takes care of everything, with its focus being in maximizing its profit instead of serving the public (sounds familiar?). In Detroit, OCP company is in charge of running the police (among other activities), but the crime is still rife, with villain Clarence Boddicker (Smith) spreading terror all around. To this end, the number two of OCP Dick Jones (Cox) presents a powerful robot-policeman named ED209, which promises to solve all the city's problems. However, the presentation of ED209 ends in bloodshed and fails miserably, giving the opportunity to a young OCP executive to present his own project, instead: Robocop. Robocop consists of a human policeman Alex Murphy (Weller) who had been killed in action, and has been re-constructed from scratch by the addition of several mechanical parts to his body and the erasure of his memory. The Robocop project proves to be a huge success, as Robocop manages to pacify the city and become a hero to its citizens. However, there are two problems: The first is that Robocop still has memories of his human past which haunt him; these memories become more intense when his former partner, officer Anne Lewis (Allen), realizes who he is, and she explains the missing gaps to him. The second and far more serious problem is that Jones is not happy at all with the turn of events, and so he is ruthlessly determined to destroy both the Robocop project and its creator.
Today the above story might not raise so many eyebrows, but back then, it was a really innovative and exciting script. Verhoeven did a superb direction, with many cool (for 1987 standards) visual effects also stealing the show. However, the film still had a few shortcomings: The acting was just average, while the plot still had room for some more twists and a little less predictability. Nevertheless, the result was good, and despite the film's evident age today, its still gets easily a 7/10.
So what was so special about "Robocop", back then? Well, the short answer should be "the innovative story". The film is about a not-so-distant bleak future (today this future unfortunately looks even closer to us...), in which greed and violence prevail, while the private sector takes care of everything, with its focus being in maximizing its profit instead of serving the public (sounds familiar?). In Detroit, OCP company is in charge of running the police (among other activities), but the crime is still rife, with villain Clarence Boddicker (Smith) spreading terror all around. To this end, the number two of OCP Dick Jones (Cox) presents a powerful robot-policeman named ED209, which promises to solve all the city's problems. However, the presentation of ED209 ends in bloodshed and fails miserably, giving the opportunity to a young OCP executive to present his own project, instead: Robocop. Robocop consists of a human policeman Alex Murphy (Weller) who had been killed in action, and has been re-constructed from scratch by the addition of several mechanical parts to his body and the erasure of his memory. The Robocop project proves to be a huge success, as Robocop manages to pacify the city and become a hero to its citizens. However, there are two problems: The first is that Robocop still has memories of his human past which haunt him; these memories become more intense when his former partner, officer Anne Lewis (Allen), realizes who he is, and she explains the missing gaps to him. The second and far more serious problem is that Jones is not happy at all with the turn of events, and so he is ruthlessly determined to destroy both the Robocop project and its creator.
Today the above story might not raise so many eyebrows, but back then, it was a really innovative and exciting script. Verhoeven did a superb direction, with many cool (for 1987 standards) visual effects also stealing the show. However, the film still had a few shortcomings: The acting was just average, while the plot still had room for some more twists and a little less predictability. Nevertheless, the result was good, and despite the film's evident age today, its still gets easily a 7/10.