Oy vey.
Take both pictures in. Take a deep breath. Ready?
Despite a recent and expending trend of audience apathy and utter rejection of remakes of popular horror and sci-fi films, highlighted greatly this summer by the failure of Total Recall, the hollow remnants of MGM are still moving forward with plans to do a restart on the RoboCop franchise. Like all things nerdy, someone with cunning instincts and a passion for stoking volatile internet forums snapped a few pics of the redesigned robot suit.
The debate over it has often been leading down to the same roads. The first set of arguments relate to whether or not this will be CGI enhanced later in post-production or if it is one of many(?) suits the character will be wearing. Of course CGI will come in later, because the mindset of Hollywood studios nowadays is to shy away from practical effects , i.e. technology that looks more real and more impressive that someone actually constructed it with their own hands and not a mouse. The legendary leg-holster is sure to be one of the few "enhancements". As for the second part, unless for toyetic purposes, I don't think he will be enriched with cooler guns and bigger armor for later action sequences. I think this is all we will be getting.
The next fight over the leak is simply a contest: Who can come up with the best i.p. this look rips off? The first thing that came to my head when I saw the images was the Accelerator suits from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Other popular favorites have been The Dark Knight and Mass Effect. All of these comparisons show that the design of the suit is woefully generic and unmemorable, especially compared to the bulky, stylized original by Rob Bottin.
Like a lot of people, I frankly do not care or wanted a remake of the 1987 sci-fi classic. However, the makers want to hang on to the rights and revive this franchise. And, in a way, they should; As noted in the last part of the first sentence in this paragraph, the RoboCop franchise begins and ends with the Paul Verhoeven take. RoboCop 2 was a complete debacle, with a highly awful script and controversies that still linger today. RoboCop 3 lost its leads (breakout star Peter Weller left after 2, Nancy Allen only appeared in this installment to be killed off), and was reduced to a PG-13 rating, only to fail even worst. Then, you have the mediocre to crap television works, both live-action and animated, that tried to overcome low, low budgets to breath new life into the part-man, part-machine, all cop.
The current news on the remake project are mixed at best. Like many remakes, the makers wanted the project to be a colossal A-picture only to settle for scraps. RoboCop is to be played by Joel Kinnaman, a Swedish-American actor no one has honestly heard of, despite starring in two ultra-lame products: last year's The Darkest Hour and AMC Television's The Killing. The rest of the cast to feature heavyweights, such as Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton, but the premise of the plot looks to be another brooding sci-fi feature where the futuristic hero is all depressed and has love problems. The 1987 film had ambiguous characters, hyper-gore, "I'd buy THAT for a DOLLAR!", Jesus metaphors, great art direction, an excellent score and theme, and fantastic special effects. So far, all we seem to be getting with this installment is a PG-13 rating and whiny hero rants.
The only good thing for now is that the film is under the hands of José Padilha, the Brazilian director of the documentary Bus 174 and the violent The Elite Squad series. The guy knows action, pacing, and hints of fascism. Still, he is working with a group of individuals who only want make something for legal purposes and to get a money pop by reissuing old films on blu-ray. I probably will be seeing it, regardless of my opinions here, but the fact that it is expected to come out in August next year doesn't bode well.
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