REVIEW: Robocop

With a title like Robocop, you'd probably expect this 1987 action flick to be nothing but schlock. You'd be partially right; a film about a police officer in dystopian Detroit who is murdered and subsequently resurrected as a law-bringing cyborg is definitely going to exude its fair amount of cheese. However, like the titular officer himself, the film (while looking a bit silly and clunky on the outside) has a very human spirit within.

The plot, as one would expect, involves a cop. A Robocop, as it were. Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is an all-around good guy family man, transferred to a beleaguered precinct in the heart of a vaguely futuristic Detroit. Crime runs rampant and the police force has been privatized by the mega-corporation known as Omni Consumer Products. After Murphy is brutally murdered by a gang of criminals led by the sadistic Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith), he is brought back to life by OCP scientists in the form of Robocop, the future of law enforcement. The film then follows Robocop as he gradually begins to remember his life as Alex Murphy, setting out on a quest to bring the men who killed him to justice. It's a classic B-movie revenge story told in a suprisingly sophisticated fashion. For example, I particularly enjoyed the sequence in which Murphy actually becomes Robocop. We end up seeing things from his point of view, giving us a feeling for just how terrifying and uncomfortable it would be to be turned from a man into a product. Throughout the entire film, Robo is referred to by OCP executives as their property, a device manufactured in their labs to be sold for a profit. We watch Murphy die, be stripped of his humanity by the paramilitary business machine, then slowly regain it on his own terms. As I said before, while Robocop is a pretty silly concept, it's definitely got a brain.

Peter Weller is really fantastic in the starring role. We only see him as Murphy for a short time, but he pulls off the role of a likeable nice-guy cop well. The film establishes him as a family man without resorting to clunky expository dialog, humanizing our protagonist before we see Red Forman blast him into oblivion. Once he becomes Robocop, Weller's performance does a complete 180 (not in quality, but in tone); Robo is stoic and monotone, a far-cry from the man he once was. The fact that we get to see what Murphy once was compared to what he's become makes his transformation all the more tragic. As the film progresses, more and more of Murphy's original personality begins to shine through, making for a really enjoyable, sympathetic protagonist. By his side is Officer Anne Lewis, played by Nancy Allen. The best thing about this character is that she feels like Robocop's partner, not his sidekick. Female characters in Lewis' position tend to either end up as flawless badasses who don't need no man or hapless damsels who serve no purpose throughout the entire film; I would hazard to say that Lewis is one of the best female action protagonists of this era. It's true that she doesn't get as much time or development as Murphy (unfortunately, that comes with the territory of being the secondary protagonist), but she's wholly relatable and never once feels useless or overpowered. There's no shoehorned love story, she isn't kidnapped by the main villain, everything in this movie feels essential to the plot. At just over an hour and a half, this is a movie with very little fat to trim.

Filling the role of villains, we have Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker and Ronny Cox as OCP executive, Dick Jones. First off, both of these characters have superb names. Honestly, I could say "Clarence Boddicker" all day and never get tired of hearing it. So bonus points for a strong display of euphany. The performances are what really matter here, though, so it's a good thing that these two are an absolute joy to watch (particularly Kurtwood Smith). Clarence Boddicker is such a good 80's villain; he's a violent psychopath who isn't written as anything more than he is. He's not some "agent of chaos" or anything like that. His line of work often brings him into conflict with the law, so, as he so elegantly puts it, "I don't like cops". Like Collin Farrell's Bullseye in Daredevil, this is a villain who treats his wrongdoing like a job; he's good at it and he enjoys doing it. Ronny Cox's appropriately named Dick Jones is pretty great too, playing the smug, scheming slimeball to Smith's unbalanced killer. He's the definitive power-hungry businessman, eager to climb the corporate ladder regardless of how many bodies he has to step over to get there. He brings his own form of mechanized law-enforcement to the table in the form of ED-209, a big, clunky chickenwalker that intimidates would-be criminals by playing recordings of lions before mutilating them with twin-mounted miniguns. The special effects here are pretty simplistic (which is to be expected, considering the film's relatively meager budget), but they have a certain charm to them. ED-209 in particular is really fun to watch; it's obviously done with the use of stop-motion, but it ends up looking really distinct from everything else on screen. Whenever it moves, it's both fascinating and endearing, considering that actual people had to make everything on screen with their bare hands. This film was made in just the right era; CGI hadn't been widespread yet, so there's strong use of squibs, prosthetics, dummies, miniatures, and other practical effects. While the visuals have obviously aged, I'd say that they've aged well; instead of sticking out and looking downright unpleasant, everything has a real charm to it, which definitely helps things in the long run.

Robocop is a film that could have easily been yet another schlocky 80's action flick. All of the elements are there; a dystopian future city, a revenge story, drugs, gratuitous violence, some mild body horror, and a big message about consumerist society. There's even a scene in a seedy strobe-filled night club. The thing about Robocop, however, is that it actually works well. It doesn't feel like a load of schlock meant to sell toys, all while denouncing consumerism behind a backdrop of blood and gore. Not to say that the film didn't sell toys; hell, I've got a Night-Fighter Robocop on my nightstand right now. It's bloody and violent and there's a good amount of swearing and explosions and the protagonist makes for some really awesome action figures. But it's also got a great character story running through all of that, conveying messages about everything from privatization and militarism to fascism and gentrification. If you're looking for a fun 80's flick with a little more meat than your average boomfest, I highly recommend you give Robocop a watch.