Monday, March 10, 2014

Movie Review: RoboCop (2014)

Put a man inside a robot? That sounded pretty interesting, so I went to see RoboCop at the local Lotte Cinema. I knew that this Robocop movie was a remake of the old movies because on the CGV channel they would play the original series so that people could watch it before they watched the one in the theaters. I wonder if this movie will live up to its original. To me, it's probably not because the idea of a robot+man isn't new any more. Anyway In this review, I will compare the original Robo cop movie to the remake Robo cop movie. So here are the differences that I found:

1. Suit-- The high tech body armour suit that robocop wears has had some major work done. It has a black coat of paint to make it look more tactical, as quoted by Raymond Sellers, the head of Omnicorp, and the visor, which was just a black screen in the original, is now replaced by a robot looking red laser beam thing. These 2 things make the new suit look like a cross between Iron man and Batman. The new suit also seems to offer more flexibilty and freedom of movement because in the movie, Alex almost walks like a normal human. Whereas the old robocop looked luggish and slow and made machine noises whenever he moved. The new robocop suit keeps 2 things from the old version. The guy's mouth is sticking out to show that there's a man inside, and the spring loaded holster in the suit's leg is still present.


2. Motion Picture Rating-- The original Robocop was rated R. However, the new Robocop has a rating of PG-13. So, the original movie had more swearing and violence. I particularly remember how in the original movie, gunshots would spray blood everywhere. The ratings were lowered probably so that the  movie could attract a wider audience, which equals more money. Although I don't like gore, I have to admit that the action would have seemed more realistic if the new Robocop movie had more gore in it.

3. More humane Robocop-- The new Robocop still keeps his feeling and humaness. Although the doctors gave Alex a shot to stop him from feeling emotion, Alex somehow overrides the program and the shots by his own will. He even prioritzes his mission on his own and defys the orders of Omnicorp, which is essentially why Omnicorp decided to eliminate Alex.

So, these are just 3 differences I noticed. Now, I'd like to write a little about the content of the movie.
As the original did before, this movie also raises up several moral and political issues. Is it okay to replace human officers with machine robot ones? Is it okay to trust a robot with a matter of life and death when they have no feelings? Should we let private companies take care of our national security?
Although this is just a fictional movie, I wonder if one day my generation or maybe our next generation will see conferences about the very issues that this movie raises.
Anyways, at the press conference in the movie the head of Omincorp himself admits that even if the robot officer accidently kills an innocent child, it will feel nothing. This is what leads Omnicorp to put a human in a machine. People just found a human like robot to be more appealing. However, the scientists at Omnicorp face a difficult problem. The Robocop doesn't perform as quickly as a robot. So, Raymond (head of Omnicorp) convinces the head scientist to rid Alex of his feelings to make him a better officer. Later on however, Omnicorp decides to eliminate Alex.
This whole incident, I think, symbolizes the way big and power companies bully workers and other small companies and look only to fill their own bank accounts. The movie also reminds me that although there may be far skillful and smart computers, people want something a warm person rather than a cold and calculating person, even if the later could be smarter or more capable.